November 19, 2015

Nov 19, 2015 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Radioactive Cesium in fish caught near F. Daiichi continues to dwindle. Of the more than seventy specimens taken in October, only five showed any Cesium isotope 134, the “fingerprint” for F. Daiichi contamination in the Pacific Ocean. The highest Cs-134 concentration was with a Banded Dogfish, at 8.3 Becquerels per kilogram. Half of the sampled fish had detectible levels of Cs-137 in them, but all were well below Japan’s limit of 100 Bq/kg. The highest Cs-137 concentration was in the same Banded Dogfish (above) at 35 Bq/kg. Cs-137 is residual from nuclear weapon’s testing in the South Pacific six decades ago, and the Cs-134 produced by the blasts has long-since decayed away to nothing. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2015/images/fish02_151118-e.pdf
  • Seven of the nineteen fish caught inside the F. Daiichi break-wall had the Cs-134 isotope in them. Only five of them showed Cesium concentrations above 100 Bq/kg Japanese standard. The fish were caught in October. This is a huge reduction with respect to fish inside the break-wall since 2011. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2015/images/fish01_151118-e.pdf
  • Sendai unit #2 achieves commercial operation status. The unit successfully completed an integrated performance test by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, during which its operation was adjusted over a period of several weeks. NRA inspectors finished the final pre-commercial checks on Tuesday, including reactor temperature, steam generator operation, and key equipment performance. At 4pm, the NRA signed-off on certification that no abnormalities had been found and the plant could resume commercial status. Sendai unit #2 had been idled by Tokyo mandate for more than four years. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html — http://www.jaif.or.jp/en/sendai-2-returns-to-normal-operation/
  • A new radiation monitoring center opens in Minamisoma. Its goal is to provide an independent, round-the-clock source of radiation data concerning Fukushima Daiichi. The program is affiliated with the Fukushima Prefectural Center for Environmental Creation, located in coastal Minamisoma. Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori said, “The center will conduct more minute and precise radiation monitoring and release accurate data to the public to dispel the anxiety of Fukushima residents and negative publicity [about radioactive contamination].” In addition to general radiation readings, the center will monitor airborne activity levels and conduct systematic soil sampling around F. Daiichi. It will be run by prefectural officials and about 15 people from Japan’s Atomic Energy Agency. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201511180062 (Comment – IMHO, if they think this will somehow dispel radiation anxieties and negative publicity about Fukushima contamination, they are living in a dream world. Trying to overcome eight decades of radiophobia spawned by the Hiroshima Syndrome, with a facility run by the prefecture is, unfortunately, doomed. It may diminish the level of radiophobia to some degree, but it will remain a significant problem, nonetheless. I wish them the best of luck, but I am pessimistic.)
  • NIMBY further constipates Japan’s nuclear waste disposal plans. The Environmental Ministry has announced it will not begin on-site environmental surveys for a possible radioactive waste repository in Miyagi Prefecture this year. The Ministry has sent people to the three candidate sites for more than a month, but each time was stopped by blockades set up by NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) activists and sympathetic local officials. Minister Shinji Inoue says he will schedule meetings with local mayors to try and achieve some level of local understanding. Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai says the problem is not local understanding, but rather because of a lack of Ministry leadership. The center of local activism is the town of Kami, one of the three candidate locations. Two other candidate towns say they might rescind their tentative offers to host the repository unless the ministry runs the pre-siting surveys by the end of the year. This is the second year in a row that the ministry has delayed environmental testing due to NIMBY obstructionism. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151119_10.html — http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • The Canadian antinuclear zealot who made death threats goes to court. On Nov. 6th, he was charged with two counts of criminal harassment for posting videos where he threatened researchers Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and Professor Jay Cullen of Victoria University in British Columbia. A third person who studies the Pacific Ocean has also been threatened, but declined identification. Buessler and Cullen have not commented on the case, but British journalist and former antinuclear activist Mark Lynas says harassment of this type from antinuclear hotheads is “all too common…This extreme is where the environmental movement goes pathological. Some activists are so ideologically blinkered in their attitude to things like nuclear power that in essence their worldview is faith-based, and they cannot conceive of the possibility of any scientific evidence challenging their worldview.” In one video, the fanatic said, “Every university, every academic, every nuclear scientist will be hunted down and f***ing murdered. We want you dead…They are liars; they are mass murderers; they are the most disgusting part of our society.” He is adamant that there is a powerful international conspiracy between corporations and academics to cover up radioactive damage from the Fukushima plant in the oceans off Canada. He contends that he is merely “exposing people for committing crimes. How am I the bad person?” http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/11/17/world/crime-legal-world/anti-nuclear-firebrands-case-heads-canadian-court-death-threats-fukushima-environmental-scientists/#.VksivJDosdV