December 1, 2014

Dec 1, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Fukushima Medical School Professor Shinichi Suzuki says the reported Fukushima child thyroid cancers differ genetically from Chernobyl’s. 23 of the prefecture’s 103 confirmed thyroid cancer cases underwent additional genetic analysis. The study focused on gene variations in the cancer cells. Observed mutations were the same as those commonly found in Japanese adult thyroid cases. Also, the type of gene variations commonly found among the Chernobyl cases was not detected among any of the 23 analyzed Fukushima cases. Thus, it is highly unlikely that the child thyroid cases specific to post-accident Fukushima children are due to the nuclear accident releases. http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=435
  • Tepco has received another $738 million for evacuee compensation. Tokyo’s Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation (NDF) sent the money to cover compensation payments for December. The NDF has thus far supplied more than $43.8 billion. As of November 28, Tepco has paid out nearly $45 billion. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1244500_5892.html — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/comp/images/jisseki-e.pdf
  • Japan is confident that all contaminated wastewater will be treated by the end of March. At this point, about 520,000 tons of wastewater is stored at F. Daiichi. Nearly 200.000 tons have been run through the multi-stage isotopic removal systems, including Cesium absorption technology and the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). Roughly 320,000 tons remain to be treated. The only radioactive isotope that remains after full treatment is biologically-innocuous Tritium. (click on Background Information on Tritium in the left hand column) ALPS can now process 1,500 tons per day, but upgrades will soon bring that to 2,000 tons per day. Tepco says they are still on schedule to meet the end-of-March deadline. Tatsuya Shinkawa, director of the government’s Nuclear Accident Response Office says, “We’ll continue to be vigilant to make sure Tepco meets the deadline.” Nuclear Regulation Authority Chair Shunichi Tanaka adds that the waters must be radiologically cleansed because another big earthquake or typhoon could break the tanks holding liquid yet to be ALPS-treated, sending large amounts of contaminated water into the environment. Tokyo University professor Hiromitsu Ino says that even after all waters are processed, the residual Tritium will not be able to be removed and, “For the real solution, they have to stop the flow of new ground water.” http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/11/28/fukushima-watch-japan-confident-it-can-process-all-highly-contaminated-water-by-end-march/
  • Critics say Japan’s new secrecy law could have a negative impact on nuclear plant information during an accident. Tokyo says that nuclear energy information will not be classified as state secrets, implying the critics are wrong. The Mainichi Shimbun counters with a typical appeal to uncertainty and doubt, “Nuclear reactors, however, could be a terrorist target, and as such, there’s no guarantee that information about nuclear plants vital to the safety of the Japanese people won’t be classified.” Local officials near F. Daiichi seem to support the speculation. Soon after 3/11/11, then-PM Naoto Kan ordered all information on the nuke accident to be run through his office before release. The resulting level of transparency was horrendous. Minamisoma Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai remembers his shock that contamination estimates were withheld for more than two weeks, causing many evacuees to be unnecessarily exposed to radiation. He said, “I’d never seen anything like it,” and fears the secrecy law will make withholding of emergency information possible. Sakurai says he’s worried that information on nuclear accidents and emergencies could again be kept secret, adding, “We’d be in trouble if that ever happened.” Namie Mayor Tomotsu Baba is also concerned, “The main principle here is not the protection of secrets, but the release of information” to the people. He stated that SPEEDI and other information “was hidden from us. They [Tokyo] told us that they didn’t know how accurate the information was, and that they kept it under wraps to prevent a panic. Well, human lives are far more important than all that. This is a basic issue that comes even before any discussion about whether such information would be classified secret.” http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20141128p2a00m0na016000c.html