September 10, 2015

Sep 10, 2015 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Sendai unit #1 became the first Japanese nuclear plant to resume commercial operations in two years. The Nuclear Regulation Authority completed its final full power inspections earlier today and approved commercial operations, which began at 4pm JST. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called on Kyushu Electric to put safety first in operating the reactivated unit. Kyushu Electric President Michiaki Uriu pledged to ensure safe operation. Meanwhile, about 40 die-hard antinuclear protestors stood at the Sendai station’s main gate and decried the event. One person said she was very indignant because the restart happened before Fukushima Prefecture’s accident recovery was complete. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002415173 — http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150910_25.html
  • Tepco plans to release 4,000 tons of purified groundwater to the sea next week. The water was taken from wells last year, run through the multi-stage isotopic removal system, and held in storage while awaiting release approval by the local officials and fisheries. The first 850 tons is to be released on Monday. The purified waters contain no detectible Cesium, Strontium, or Beta-emitting isotopes. The pre-release tests show no Tritium levels above 600 Becquerels per liter, well-below Tepco’s self-imposed limit of 1,500 Bq/l. Tepco also announced it will finish closure of the impermeable wall, located just off-shore from the six units. 95% of the wall had been completed when concerns were raised about contaminated groundwater building up inland which might overflow the barrier, resulting in a contaminated release to the sea. The removal of groundwater from the more than 40 subdrain wells around the four units has allayed the concern. Now that the subdrain system is operating, the remaining 5% of the steel barrier can be completed. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2015090900897 — http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150909_05.html
  • Tepco has posted Press handouts detailing the work to be done on finishing the impermeable wall. Nine “sheet piles” will be driven deep into the earth. Once this is done, the piles will be interconnected by injecting non-shrinking mortar into sealing devices between them, to insure against any possible release to the inner harbor (quay). The mouth of the quay is also barricade by a silt fence which strains contaminants from the waters of the quay during in-flow and out-flow due to each day’s tides. The completion of closure is expected by the end of October. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_150909_01-e.pdf  — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_150910_01-e.pdf (for photos of first emplacement)
  • Typhoon Etau skirted well-south of F. Daiichi, but caused another overflow of rainwater run-off into the sea. Heavy rains exceeded the capacity of the of the transfer pump that discharges to the inner quay. The amount of leaked water and the concentration of possible contaminants is under investigation. On Friday, 9/11, the Asahi Shimbun reported the contamination levels peaked at 750 Becquerels per liter, but estimates of the volume were not yet available. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150909p2a00m0na014000c.html
  • A Fukushima evacuee human-interest article contains previously unreported material. First, some of those ordered to evacuate the Nagadoro District of Iitate did not leave in 2011. One inhabitant, Shiga Takamitsu, stayed home for more than a year after the evacuation order was issued. He did not work outdoors, so his estimated exposure was less that it might otherwise have been. Unlike many of Fukushima’s mandated evacuees, he read books about radiation and concluded that the levels around his house were not a serious health threat to him. However, he was forced to leave when the district was barricaded by Tokyo in July of 2012, and reluctantly relocated in Fukushima City. In addition, we are told that many Nagadoro residents moved into government-provided temporary housing, some into prefabricated huts, but others”… found themselves living in relatively luxurious condominiums.” The reason is the generous compensation payments they have received… nearly one million dollars for a family of five. Nippon.com reports this is “…more money than anyone in Nagadoro has ever seen before”. http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a04304/ (Aside – We have been reporting on this for more than two years, and a page dedicated to the on-going payouts can be found here… http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.com/fukushima-evacuee-compensation-payments.html …with monthly updating on the current total, increasing at roughly $100 million per week. – End Aside) [Comment – The referenced Nippon.com article is mostly focused on trying to prove that “The hamlet of Nagadoro will not be resettled—at least not in this generation and not by the people who lived there before the nuclear disaster,” and “What about the rest of Iitate village? What about all the other communities in the disaster zone? My personal opinion is that most of them will go the same way as Nagadoro: that plans of resettlement will fade away, leaving the communities abandoned.” The reasons stated for this conjecture are fear of health problems to children due to prolonged low level radiation exposure, the fact that four years have passed and many have moved on, no chance of an agricultural revival because no-one wants to buy foods raised and grown from formerly contaminated farms, and the recent foreign speculation that rainwater runoff from surrounding forests will re-inundate the city with contamination and make it uninhabitable (thanks to the fear-mongering propaganda ministers of Greenpeace). The reporter closes with “Nagadoro will prove to be the canary in the mine: its abandonment foreshadowing the abandonment of many other settlements in the area around the nuclear power plant. If I am right, the expenditure of hundreds of billions of yen in elaborate decontamination projects could end up looking like a terrible waste of money.” The reporter may be right about the waste of money, but for the wrong reason…most of the costly decontamination locations never needed it in the first place!]
  • A lax information submittal may doom Mihama #3. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has told Kansai Electric Co. that delays in the company providing timely data could keep the agency from granting the unit a 20 year operating extension. The Mihama reactor must clear screenings of general plant safety and the soundness of installed equipment by the end of next November, or else it could be scrapped. The NRA approved the unit’s quake-resistance criteria in August, but the agency says Kansai has made no progress in required submittals since then. Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa said, “Under the current situation, it will be extremely difficult to give approval” for the resumption of Mihama No. 3. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/09/national/regulator-warns-kansai-electric-may-not-win-approval-mihama-reactor-restart/#.VfAooJDosdU