September 17, 2015

Sep 17, 2015 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Residual airborne radioactive releases from F. Daiichi may have ended. The large-scale releases into the atmosphere ended more than four years ago, but low levels have remained detectible until now. Japan Atomic Energy Agency has monitored radiation levels at various locations within a five kilometer evacuated radius of F. Daiichi since 2012. The agency says that radiation levels at one meter elevation are the same as contact with the ground, which indicates that all exposure comes from ground contamination. Mitsuo Imura of JAEA reports, “This data supports the fact that there has been no further spewing of highly radioactive substances from Fukushima Daiichi.” Another team member has also studied radioactive Cesium content in the surface soils and found that the concentration is lessening over time. It is believed that the Cesium has penetrated into the ground because it is water-soluble and carried down into the soil when it rains. http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=563
  • The landside construction of the F. Daiichi “ice wall” was finished on Tuesday, September 15th. Three sides of the four damaged units are covered; north, west, and south of the reactor and turbine buildings. A brine mixture is now being introduced into the piping system before the actual freezing will take place. Only the “seaside” portion of the system remains to be built. A graphic diagram of the ice wall and pictures of the initial introduction of brine into part of the system can be found here… http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_150915_01-e.pdf (Comment – this important milestone has not been reported by any of the Japanese Press outlets. For the last year, every minor glitch in the system’s construction made headlines. Speculations by critics, both inside and outside Japan, have been regularly posted. This exemplifies the extreme level of antinuclear bias throughout Japan’s popular Press.)
  • American consultant Dale Klein says Tepco needs to improve monitoring of rainwater runoff. In an Email to Bloomberg Business, he said Tepco “knew heavy rains were coming, they should have taken as much precautions as possible. Tepco needs to work hard to regain public trust and confidence.” The Bloomberg article seems prompted by Tepco being unable to say exactly how much water leaked out of a drainage ditch due to last week’s unprecedented downpours. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-17/tepco-must-improve-monitoring-of-fukushima-leaks-adviser-says
  • An antinuclear arsonist has been arrested in Tokyo. Musician Izaya Noda was seen trying to set an East Japan Railway substation on fire on Wednesday. There have been several similar incidents over the past month. Noda admitted that he is the perpetrator. His father says that his son has been a vocal critic of nuclear energy since the Fukushima accident and took part in many antinuclear protests. Noda said he “could not stand the company (East Japan Railway) consuming large amounts of electricity”. The arson occurrences began August 16th, the day that Sendai unit #1 began producing its first trickle of electricity. Noda’s unlawful form of protest seems related to the antinuclear conviction that Japan would not need nukes if less electricity were consumed. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/16/national/crime-legal/musashino-man-nabbed-admits-aug-23-arson-fire-jr-east-electrical-substation/#.VfldyJDosdU
  • Naoto Kan continues his antinuclear crusade. On Wednesday, he addressed a group of Tokyo’s foreign residents. The former PM (at the time of the Fukushima accident) said, “I’m absolutely sure that there will no longer be nuclear power by the end of this century. This is because it doesn’t make sense economically, and enough energy can be provided without it.” He stated that nuclear is an overly-expensive option if the costs of decommissioning and managing nuclear waste are factored in. He also said he has visited a nuke plant in Finland where he was told the wastes remain more radioactive than Uranium for 100,000 years. He felt that this is a legacy which is unacceptable. In addition, he said Japan survived without nukes this past summer, so there’s no reason to restart any of them. He said nukes can be replaced with renewables.  http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/16/national/former-pm-naoto-kan-says-nuclear-power-makes-little-economic-sense-must-end/#.VfqqQZDosdU (Comments – Kan failed to mention that the nuke moratorium has caused electric rates to skyrocket and given Japan its worst trade deficit in history. In addition, he failed to admit that Japan’s relative boom in solar power has been due to a Feed-In Tariff that guarantees solar producers a profit, otherwise it is doubtful that the solar plants would have been built. Finally, if spent fuel is recycled and the transuranic isotopes are separated from the fission products, only the transuranics will have a higher specific activity than natural uranium. If not recycled, used fuel bundles become less radioactive than natural uranium in less than 1,000 years.)
  • About 2.5 square kilometers of solar plants have been built in Fukushima Prefecture. Peak output of the combined solar “farms” is ideally 160 MWe. (Aside – Unmentioned in the article, maximum output only occurs during sunny days, between the hours of 10am and 2pm when the sun’s rays are most direct. – End aside) The electricity generated is bought by Tohoku Electric Company under Japan’s national Feed-In Tariff. Japan has severe restrictions on the conversion of farmland into industrial facilities. But, Tokyo eased the restriction for Fukushima in order to promote reconstruction from the quake, tsunami, and nuke accident. Fukushima Prefecture has demanded that all units at F. Daiichi and the four undamaged units at Fukushima Daini be decommissioned. Tepco owns both nuke stations, and has committed to decommissioning all six units at F. Daiichi. They have not committed to decommissioning F. Daini station. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2015091500512