Tepco removing the upper portion of Unit 4 ( relieving support pressure on bulging walls ? ) Broken record risk - spent fuel pool steel support not as secure as TEPCO has stated.....Despite the protests and questionable support at the local level , Ohi restart kicks off 7/1/12....As for Unit four and the bulging there , note it has gotten worse in a month's time......Other news of note from Japan !

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/06/live-tepco-is-removing-the-upper-part-of-reactor4/

[LIVE] Tepco is removing the upper part of reactor4

Posted by Mochizuki on June 25th, 2012 · 4 Comments

Reactor4 is going through the difficult part of construction. They are removing the upper part of the reactor building seemingly.

There has been no notice in advance.

I recommend people in Tokyo to wear mask. The wind is blowing toward Tokyo.[LINK]

You can’t see anything on Tepco live camera.

http://enenews.com/abc-fukushima-worker-shocked-steel-support-frames-under-reactor-4-damaged-reinforcement-of-fuel-pool-jury-rigged-danger-if-hit-by-typoon-or-tornado-vast-amounts-of-heavy-water-inside-vi

Japanese Diplomat urges UN intervention on SFP4
ABC Australia
Mark Willacy
June 25, 2012
Uploaded by voltscommissar

At 5:30 in

Mark Willacy, ABC Australia: Working next to the Reactor 4 building, he was shocked about what he was told about the pool 30 meters above him

Tomohiko Suzuki: I spoke to a worker that helped reinforce the reactor 4 building. He said the spent fuel pool has vast amounts of heavy water in it and that the steel support frames were damaged, but he told me that the reinforcement of the pool was jury rigged so if a typoon or a tornado hits it will be dangerous.

and.....

http://enenews.com/paper-nuclear-expert-warns-even-if-no-4-spent-fuel-pool-survives-another-major-quake-failure-of-jury-rigged-inadequate-piping-installed-after-disaster-could-put-cooling-system-out-of-commission


http://www.bhamweekly.com/birmingham/article-3000-new-worries-at-fukushima.html

New Worries at Fukushima

By Richard Schiffman 

The story of Japan’s natural/nuclear disaster has faded from the headlines, but it is still relevant in the state of Alabama that has three reactors near the New Madrid fault line.

In December, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared that “a cold shutdown” had been achieved and that the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was now over. “The reactors are stable, which should resolve one big cause of concern for us all,” Noda told the Japanese people in a televised address.

But Mr. Noda’s optimistic assessment may have been premature. Nuclear engineer and former power company executive Arnie Gunderson compared the Prime Minister’s statement to President George Bush declaring “mission accomplished” on the deck of the USS Lincoln in 2003. Gunderson calls the situation at Fukushima “a long battle, far from over.”

Even Tokyo Electric Power Co.

(Tepco), which owns the Fukushima facility, says that it will take another 40 years to fully decommission the reactors there, a project which poses unprecedented engineering challenges. But the company’s own tests disclose a more immediate danger. Rising radiation levels within one of the reactors, the highest recorded so far, and evidence of a leak in the critical cooling system demonstrate that the situation is still far from stable.

Tepco revealed at the end of March that protective water levels in the containment vessel of Reactor, No. 2, were far shallower than they had expected, which might mean that the uranium fuel rods there are no longer completely submerged, and are heating up. The Japan Times reported on March 29th that radiation inside the vessel has reached 73 sieverts per hour-- high enough to administer a lethal dose to a human in a matter of minutes, even to disable the robotic devices which are sent regularly into the reactor to monitor what is happening there.

Conditions elsewhere in the plant are more difficult to assess. Reactors 1 and 3, both of which melted down after the earthquake and tsunami last year, are currently sealed and impossible to enter, even by robots. So we don’t know what is going on inside those crippled structures.

But nuclear experts say their biggest concern involves Reactor 4 which sustained severe structural damage during the earthquake and subsequent hydrogen explosions which collapsed its roof. This is where hundreds of tons of spent fuel sits perched 100 feet above the ground in a cooling pool exposed to the open sky.

A report released in February by the Independent Investigation Commission on the nuclear accident called this pool “the weakest link” at Fukushima. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy warns that, “If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain it could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.”

How likely is this? While the structure of Reactor 4 is stable for the moment, the Dai-ichi plant lies miles from a big earthquake fault-- as large as the one that caused last year’s quake, but much closer to Fukushima. According to a study published in February in the European Geosciences Union´s journal Solid Earth, that fault is now overdue for a quake.

Whether or not the critical pool at Reactor 4 would survive another major quake intact, Edwin Lyman a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists warns that a failure of the jury-rigged inadequate piping installed after the disaster could put the cooling system out of commission.

These dangers have led two former Japanese diplomats on a crusade to avert what they see as a disaster waiting to happen. UN veteran Akio Matsumura and former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata attended the Nuclear Security Summit Conference in Seoul Korea at the end of March “to inform the participants from 54 nations of the potential global catastrophe of reactor unit 4.” They called on the international community to set up an independent assessment team of structural engineers and nuclear scientists to study conditions at Reactor 4 and recommend a course of action. 

What lessons can the nuclear industry in the US draw from the Fukushima accident and its still unresolved aftermath? Edwin Lyman calls it a wake up call that we have not yet heeded. He told me that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has failed to fully implement the recommendations of its own post-Fukushima task force.

*  *  * 

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/06/ohi-nuclear-plant-reactor3-will-be-restarted-on-712012/

Ohi nuclear plant reactor3 will be restarted on 7/1/2012

Posted by Mochizuki on June 25th, 2012 · No Comments

Following up this article..[LA times]Japan to restart nuclear reactors despite widespread fear

Kepco announced they are going to restart Ohi nuclear plant reactor3 on 7/1/2012.
They are planning to pull out control rod from the evening to the night of 7/1/2012.

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency also held a press conference on 6/25. They mentioned the continuous monitoring errors of the power transmission line alarmed in the central operation room of Ohi reactor3 and 4. NISA commented, the similar alarm is given about 200 times a year, and they will not announce those cases immediately from next time. Press asked for the prompt disclosure, NISA answered “we want to discuss it”.

Kepco commented restarting process is generally going well.

大飯３号機起動は１日　関電、制御棒引き抜きへ
2012.6.25 20:53
関西電力は２５日、再稼働に向けた準備作業が続く大飯原発３号機（福井県）について、７月１日中に原子炉を起動する見込みになったことを明らかにした。これまで、起動は１～３日になるとしていた。

関電によると、１日夕から深夜にかけ、燃料の核分裂反応をコントロールする制御棒の引き抜き操作を行う。関電は再稼働の準備作業について「おおむね順調に進んでいる」としている。

一方、経済産業省原子力安全・保安院の森山善範原子力災害対策監は２５日の記者会見で、大飯原発３、４号機の中央制御室で送電線の監視設備に異常があったことを示す警報が相次いだことについて「同様の警報は年間２００件ほど起きている」として、今後は即座に公表しない方針を示した。報道陣が迅速な情報提供を求め「相談したい」と応じた。

and Tokyo contamination becoming a visible issue......

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-06-25/tokyo-residents-dont-touch-black-or-blue-dirt

Tokyo Residents: Don't Touch the Black or Blue Dirt

Submitted by George Washington on 06/25/2012 13:05 -0400

• Japan

Fukushima has been decimated by radiation.

But Fukushima City has less than 300,000residents. And all of Fukushima prefecture has 2 million. On the other hand, greater Tokyo - the world's largest megacity - has35 million inhabitants.

Tokyo soil has been blanketed by Fukushima radiation, even though the Japanese capital is 170 miles from the Fukushima nuclear complex.

Now, substances with even higher levels of radiation are showing up around Tokyo.

Minamisoma city council member Koichi Oyama writes:

People in Tokyo, the black substance is here!

***

Please, people who live around, look at that!

***

It’s on the roof, on the asphalt, on concrete… Everywhere on all surfaces.

“Almost every part where is black”.

“Those black substances have fallen away and because of the rain water it accumulates underfoot”.

“I think 1 micro is almost 100000 becquerels?, 1 second ?,?,? Ray 100 needles?”.

“Never touch them with naked hands”.

What is he talking about?

City council member Koichi filmed black "dirt" on the ground in various areas of Tokyo, showing very high radiation levels.

For example, here's Tokyo University last month:

Tokyo University Hospital:

Blue dirt at Sano SA

Blue dirt at Shinozaki Garden in Edogawa District

Blue dirt in front of National Printing Bureau in Kita District

(More videos)

Radioactive black substances have previously been found all over Japan, including on roads, near schools and other locations. Indeed, some of the highest radiation readings ever found in Japan come from such black substances.

Many in Japan are claiming that certain types of algae or bacteria are attracted to the radiation, and that the organisms are turning the radioactive substances black or blue. Some bacteria do use radiation as "food", and some algae do selectively "eat" cesium ... a substance put out in large quantities by Fukushima.

Others claim that this is ash from Japan's program of burning radioactive materials. Still others say that it is something coming directly from Fukushima's crippled reactors.

Whatever it is, one thing is for certain: Tokyo residents should not touch the stuff.

and note the biggest bulge at Unit 4 Fukushima has grown in a month - not good.....

Reactor4 is bulged worse than announced before

Posted by Mochizuki on June 25th, 2012 · 5 Comments

Following up this article..West side of the reactor4 building bulged

Government’s and Tepco’s traditional way of manipulation is like this,

1. Release data.

2. Secretly revise it to be worse.

Again, Tepco revised the data of the reactor4 building on 6/25/2012. They haven’t announced the next schedule of revision.

The South-West corner of reactor4 building turned out to be bulged/leaned to outward.

The third floor is 46mm outward compared to the first floor. On their last report, it was 33mm.

↓ It is the blue circled part. Last time, they reported the bulging range of the yellow spot was 33mm, which was supposed to be worst.

and from May 25th.......

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/05/west-side-of-the-reactor4-building-bulged/

West side of the reactor4 building bulged

Posted by Mochizuki on May 25th, 2012 · 15 Comments

Following up this article..Possible uneven settlement of reactor 4

On 5/25/2012, Tepco announced that the wall on the west side of reactor 4 building bulged.

Also, the reactor 4 building is leaning to North West. They surveyed from 5/17 to 5/25/2012.

From their survey, the corner of south west come out 33mm at 13m hight from the ground.

However, Tepco states still it’s within the safety limit of Building standard law. (65mm)

The data about the leaning building is like these below.

(The safety limit of the slope regulated by Building standard law is 1/200.)

The data of the bulging wall on the west side is below.