Items from August 27 , 2013 .....
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2013/08/ro-waste-water-leak-at-fukushima-i-nuke.html
( Tepco continues to use Fukushima workers as test dummies... )
I see. TEPCO may not have a water gauge in every 1,000-tonne tank assembled from metal sheets, rivets and rubber packing, but TEPCO has workers as a radiation gauge.
I first learned of this information via the tweets (here's one from @macomelo) from people who either regularly attend TEPCO's press conference or watch the live cast of the press conference.
They said:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-27/tepco-lies-again-admits-radioactive-leak-may-have-started-month-earlier
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/27/2013 23:49 -0400
From energy News...... the daily read and weep section of headlines....
and......
![[Fuel removal of reactor4 pool] Tepco released the debris map of SFP4 -Complete mess](http://fukushima-diary.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%EF%BC%882013-08-27-12.32.33%EF%BC%89-450x317.png "[Fuel removal of reactor4 pool] Tepco released the debris map of SFP4 -Complete mess")
![2 [Fuel removal of reactor4 pool] Tepco released the debris map of SFP4 -Complete mess](http://fukushima-diary.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%EF%BC%882013-08-27-12.32.50%EF%BC%89-450x313.png "2 [Fuel removal of reactor4 pool] Tepco released the debris map of SFP4 -Complete mess")
Snippets from the Tepco presser of August 26 , 2013......
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/tepco-president-water-gauge-is-not-installed-to-all-the-tanks-water-level-to-be-checked-by-thermography/
![[Photo] So-called U-shaped gutter where the leaked water flowed looks like a natural stream](http://fukushima-diary.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/130826_11.jpg "[Photo] So-called U-shaped gutter where the leaked water flowed looks like a natural stream")
Iori Mochizuki
You can ignore the truth but the truth won’t ignore you.
From Energy News......
From Ex - SKF.....
I remember Russia invited fishermen in Fukushima to relocate to Russian Siberia right after the start of the nuclear accident in March 2011 and to fish there, instead of trying (in vain) to make a living off the water being contaminated with radioactive materials from the plant. I don't think anyone took up the offer.
According to Bloomberg News article, Russia reiterated the offer to help, just as they had been ready in 2011 if asked by the Japanese government. The request for help never went to Russia under the DPJ administrations under Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda.
For that matter, they never requested any help from any country, and they (practically) declined help when offered. TEPCO privately asked the US military for help in the first weeks of the accident, and was reportedly severely scolded by the Kan administration. The only incident I know of in which a foreign help (the US military) was accepted was to extinguish fire that broke out in Reactor 4 in March 2011.
(I said "practically" above, as what they did was to do the Sir Humphrey - "Thank you, we will be planning to form a committee to study whether it is feasible to consider accepting your offer, and we will get back to you as soon as reasonably possible, under the circumstance, if you know what we mean.".)
Russian officials say things have started to change under the new LDP administration.
From Bloomberg News (8/25/2013; emphasis is mine):
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2013/08/ro-waste-water-leak-at-fukushima-i-nuke.html
( Tepco continues to use Fukushima workers as test dummies... )
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2013
RO Waste Water Leak at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO Says the Leak May Have Started A Month Ago after Examining Beta-Radiation Exposure of a Worker
I see. TEPCO may not have a water gauge in every 1,000-tonne tank assembled from metal sheets, rivets and rubber packing, but TEPCO has workers as a radiation gauge.
I first learned of this information via the tweets (here's one from @macomelo) from people who either regularly attend TEPCO's press conference or watch the live cast of the press conference.
They said:
- TEPCO knew that the beta radiation exposure of workers had started to rise in July.
- So, TEPCO now thinks the contaminated RO waste water may have been leaking since July.
I found Asahi Shinbun article (8/27/2013) which has more details:
- The information was disclosed by TEPCO at a meeting of NRA's Working Group to deal with contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant held in the evening of August 27, 2013.
- TEPCO examined the level of beta radiation exposure of a worker who was working at a radio relay station located at about 20 meters from the RO waste tank that leaked, and found that the beta radiation exposure had started to increase in mid July.
- The worker worked at the radio relay station for about 2.5 hours per day.
- TEPCO will examine the data for the previous months.
- TEPCO speculates that it was initially a minute leak but the amount gradually increased. There have been occasional rainfalls since mid July with 30 milliliter per day precipitation, and the leaked waste water was spread and absorbed in the soil with the rainfalls.
- NRA instructed TEPCO to conduct survey to determine the cause of the leak, and to dig observation wells in the areas around the leak to determine the spread of radioactive materials.
Many say "TEPCO lied again". I'm more inclined to say TEPCO couldn't connect the dots, as I do not believe any more that TEPCO is smart enough to come up with a lie.
(Or TEPCO dared not connect the dots because it didn't want to know.)
At Nuclear Regulatory Authority's site, there is a TEPCO document that contains charts that plot beta radiation exposure of workers who do the tank patrol, and of the worker who worked at the radio relay station (English labels are by me):
(Or TEPCO dared not connect the dots because it didn't want to know.)
At Nuclear Regulatory Authority's site, there is a TEPCO document that contains charts that plot beta radiation exposure of workers who do the tank patrol, and of the worker who worked at the radio relay station (English labels are by me):
Location of the radio relay station (in red square) and the tank that leaked (No.5 in red circle, notation is mine):
The area where the relay station is located has been found with high beta radiation, up to 95.55 millisieverts/hour at 70-micrometer equivalent dose(to express the effect on skin and the crystalline lens (of the eye)).
TEPCO is being heavily criticized for "skimping" on the tank patrol by not assigning enough workers for the patrol and not doing the patrol long enough. After looking at the spikes August 19 in beta radiation exposure for workers who were doing the "hasty" patrol, I'm not inclined to blame TEPCO that much.
Maybe Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and his subordinates can make themselves useful and show TEPCO a proper way by example to carefully examine the tanks daily that contain highly radioactive waste water.
TEPCO is being heavily criticized for "skimping" on the tank patrol by not assigning enough workers for the patrol and not doing the patrol long enough. After looking at the spikes August 19 in beta radiation exposure for workers who were doing the "hasty" patrol, I'm not inclined to blame TEPCO that much.
Maybe Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and his subordinates can make themselves useful and show TEPCO a proper way by example to carefully examine the tanks daily that contain highly radioactive waste water.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-27/tepco-lies-again-admits-radioactive-leak-may-have-started-month-earlier
Tepco Lies Again, Admits Radioactive Leak "May" Have Started A Month Earlier
Remember that recently announced leak at Fukushima (which we first noted nearly a month ago), which Tepco promised was nothing really, only to subsequently admit 300 tons of radioactive water was seeping out of the destroyed nuclear power plant daily into the ocean (and everywhere else), a leak which subsequently was raised from a stage 1 to stage 3 in radioactive severity, and that it had for all intents and purposes lost control of the containment process, oh and, by the way, it would no longer lie about how severe the situation truly was? Well, turns out it lied. As Business Week reports, "the leak at a contaminated water storage tank discovered last week at the Fukushima plant may have continued since last month before it was detected and the tank drained, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
"May" being the operative word here. Just like "glitch" is the operative word when, daily, something breaks in the markets usually around the time AAPL takes out a major support level.
The lie exposure continue:
"Crews found elevated levels of radiation in July near where the leak was ultimately detected on Aug. 19, Mayumi Yoshida, a spokeswoman for the utility known as Tepco, said today by phone.Tepco originally characterized the leak as a small one before determining by the change in the tank’s water level that 300 metric tons of contaminated water had escaped. A protective barrier around the tank didn’t stop the leak because a valve in the concrete structure had been left open, Tepco said.Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority last week labeled the leak a “serious incident” in its worst assessment of the problems at Fukushima since the earthquake and tsunami of 2011 caused reactors to melt down.
The good thing is that, just like in Syria with the whole false flag Syrian chemical weapon theater, "democratic" government bureaucratsalways tell their citizens the truth, not only because they are entitled to it, but because said bureaucrats always hold the truth so much dearer than their largely irrelevant bureaucratic careers.
Even if, on occasion, they fib a little, and millions of innocent people die or are irradiated. Hey, nobody said centrally-planning an insolvent world was easy, or that mistakes wouldn't be made.
From energy News...... the daily read and weep section of headlines....
and......
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2013
METI Blames TEPCO and Workers for Contaminated Water Leak at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant, Says They Are Not Working Hard Enough
According to Minister Toshmitsu Motegi, former McKinsey consultant who doesn't look the part, leaks of contaminated water happening recently at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant are not caused by faulty engineering or lack of money, but by TEPCO and the workers at the plant not working hard enough.
I guess lazy workers caused the land to sink, then.
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is sustained (barely, but nonetheless) by workers from TEPCO and affiliate companies, some of whom are paid as little as $100 a day to work in a highly contaminated environment.
In addition to radiation exposure, they get the blame.
From Yomiuri Shinbun (8/26/2013):
I guess lazy workers caused the land to sink, then.
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is sustained (barely, but nonetheless) by workers from TEPCO and affiliate companies, some of whom are paid as little as $100 a day to work in a highly contaminated environment.
In addition to radiation exposure, they get the blame.
From Yomiuri Shinbun (8/26/2013):
東電に汚染水専門チーム設置を指示へ…経産相
Minister of Economy to order TEPCO to set up a team dedicated to contaminated water issues
東京電力福島第一原子力発電所で汚染水を巡るトラブルが相次いでいる問題で、経済産業省は２６日、東電に対して、汚染水対策の専門チームの設置など対策強化を求める。
As problems of contaminated water happen one after another at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is set to demand TEPCO on August 26 to set up a team dedicated to devising countermeasures against contaminated water.
茂木経産相が同日午後、福島第一原発を訪れて指示する。
Minister Motegi will visit Fukushima I Nuke Plant in the afternoon on August 26 and give instructions to TEPCO.
福島第一原発の貯蔵タンクから汚染水３００トンが漏れた問題について、経産省は、日常の点検不備など、東電の人為的ミスの側面が強いとみている。「技術・資金の問題というよりも、現場の対応力の問題」などと指摘しており、東電に対する監視体制も強化する方針だ。
About the leak of 300 tonnes of contaminated water from a storage tank at the plant, Ministry of Economy thinks it was caused more by human errors on the part of TEPCO, such as insufficient daily inspections. The Ministry points out, "It's a matter of ability [of the workers] to respond at the plant, rather than technology or money." The Ministry plans to strengthen the oversight on TEPCO.
東電の社内では、これまで汚染水関係の専門家の発言力が低かったとされている。このため、専門チームには、汚染水対策の知見が深いゼネコンなどに、助言を求めることも検討する。
It is said that experts in contaminated water have little say within TEPCO. The Ministry is considering having general contractors with deep knowledge of how to deal with contaminated water in the team.
What kind of joke is this? General contractors with deep knowledge of how to deal with contaminated water?
It was one of those knowledgeable general contractors or two who drove down the sheet piles in the artificial soil and in the port, destabilizing the underground trenches and probably causing the release of contaminated water in the surrounding soil. It was one of those knowledgeable general contractors who built the concrete platform for the RO waste tanks that weigh 1,000 tonnes a piece when full. The platform cracked and sank.
Yet another general contractor did the injection of waterglass along the embankment made of artificial soil, which caused the groundwater to rise and flow over the underground waterglass wall.
And "oversight" from the very ministry whose lack of knowledge and initiative as the nuclear regulatory authority (NISA was under this ministry) after the accident contributed greatly to the haphazard, patchwork countermeasures at the plant? (Approving TEPCO's plan to store the RO waste water in the in-the-ground pondscomes to mind.)
Motegi also says the national government (i.e. his Ministry, in particular Agency of Natural Resources and Energy whose official talked about his "assumption" of "300 tonnes of contaminated groundwater" leak) will be in charge.
As if it's a good thing.
It was one of those knowledgeable general contractors or two who drove down the sheet piles in the artificial soil and in the port, destabilizing the underground trenches and probably causing the release of contaminated water in the surrounding soil. It was one of those knowledgeable general contractors who built the concrete platform for the RO waste tanks that weigh 1,000 tonnes a piece when full. The platform cracked and sank.
Yet another general contractor did the injection of waterglass along the embankment made of artificial soil, which caused the groundwater to rise and flow over the underground waterglass wall.
And "oversight" from the very ministry whose lack of knowledge and initiative as the nuclear regulatory authority (NISA was under this ministry) after the accident contributed greatly to the haphazard, patchwork countermeasures at the plant? (Approving TEPCO's plan to store the RO waste water in the in-the-ground pondscomes to mind.)
Motegi also says the national government (i.e. his Ministry, in particular Agency of Natural Resources and Energy whose official talked about his "assumption" of "300 tonnes of contaminated groundwater" leak) will be in charge.
As if it's a good thing.
[300m3 leakage] Leakage might have been occurring since this July / No countermeasures taken
Posted by Mochizuki on August 27th, 2013 · No Comments
According to Tepco, β exposure dose of the radio reply station worker has been increasing since this July. This means the 300m3 of leakage started over one month ago.
This is stated on the report that Tepco submitted to Nuclear Regulation Authority on 8/27/2013.
From this report, the worker stays at the radio reply station near the leaking tank area for approx. 2 hours.
No significant increase was reported by the patrolling workers, but they could have found the increasing trend from the radio reply station workers sooner.
Seawater contamination does not decrease even with the impervious wall
Posted by Mochizuki on August 27th, 2013 · No Comments
From late July to early August, Tepco built the impervious wall on the coastal line of the seaside of reactor2.
They even paid the cost for pumping up the increasing groundwater due to the wall, butthe seawater contamination does not decrease according to Tepco themselves.
Tepco measures only three nuclides, Tritium, Cs-137 and all β near the surface of the sea and the the lower part of the sea in front of the impervious wall.
It has been nearly 3 weeks since they completed the wall but no decreasing trend can be found.
[Fuel removal of reactor4 pool] Tepco released the debris map of SFP4 -Complete mess
Posted by Mochizuki on August 27th, 2013 · No Comments
Tepco plans to start fuel removal of reactor4 spent fuel pool from mid November.
On 8/26/2013, Tepco released the debris map of SFP4 but it looks extremely difficult to remove the assemblies.
Even as long as announced, deck plate of 10m long (200kg), steps for cart of 2m×1m (200kg), stage plank of 1.5m (10kg) and countless numbers of the pieces of concrete debris are on the fuel assemblies.
Tepco states all the debris removal will be operated by human workers.
↓ The colored pieces are all debris to be removed.
↓ Photos of the debris
Tepco “Debris removal in S-W area of the reactor3 first floor is completed” → “The main contents include long boots”
Posted by Mochizuki on August 27th, 2013 · 1 Comment
According to Tepco, they completed the debris removal in the South West area of the first floor of reactor3 building.
The unmanned robot had been in the operation from 7/25 to 8/23/2013.
In total, the removed debris was up to 4 tones. However Tepco reports the main contents include “long boots“.
The surface dose of the main contents is 23.0 mSv/h.
Tepco made no announcement about how many long boots were collected and if anyone’s name is written on them.
16 mSv/h detected on the other side of the 300m3 leakage tank area / Tepco “Not a different leakage”
Posted by Mochizuki on August 27th, 2013 · No Comments
About 300m3 leakage of contaminated water, Tepco announced high level of radiation was detected in the opposite side from where the contaminated water flowed to on 8/26/2013.
Tepco was explaining the 300m3 of the leaked water went to the North part of the tank area.
However they detected 4 ~ 16 mSv/h from the soil on the South side of the tank area.
The newly found contamination is also next another tank area, but Tepco states this is not the leakage from another tank area.
[Give up]Nuclear Regulation Authority “It’s impossible to transfer all the water from flange type tanks to new tanks”
Posted by Mochizuki on August 27th, 2013 · No Comments
On 8/27/2013, Nuclear Regulation Authority held the working group meeting about the contaminated water problem.
In this meeting, they concluded it is impossible to transfer all the contaminated water from the flange type tanks to the safer tanks promptly due to the shortage of the storage facility.
Currently there are over 300 flange type tanks, but because they are not welded, they can leak easily.
The working group commented it is more realistic to keep the spare storage in case of additional leakage.
Snippets from the Tepco presser of August 26 , 2013......
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/tepco-president-water-gauge-is-not-installed-to-all-the-tanks-water-level-to-be-checked-by-thermography/
Tepco president “Water gauge is not installed to all the tanks, water level to be checked by thermography”
Posted by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013 · No Comments
About the contaminated water problem, Tepco’s president held a press conference on 8/26/2013.
In this conference, he stated they are going to check the water levels of the tanks by thermography in order to check the stocked water is not leaking.
There are approx. 300 tanks that are not welded. These are vulnerable to leak contaminated water but the water gauges are not installed to all of them.
(Press) “For how long will it take to settle down the contaminated water problem?” → Tepco president “We don’t know”
Posted by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013 · 1 Comment
About the contaminated water problem, Tepco’s president held a press conference on 8/26/2013.
Press inquired for how long he / Tepco estimates it is going to take to resolve the increasing contaminated water problem.
For this question, Tepco’s president Hirose commented he has no idea about that.
The vice president Aizawa stated they are going to start investigating the drain system nearest to the sea, which Tepco claims is the groundwater contamination source.
Groundwater level reached 25cm to the surface of the ground on the seaside of reactor2 / No rainfall
Posted by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013 · 1 Comment
In order to stop the sea contamination, Tepco built the impervious wall on the coastal line of the seaside of reactor2.
However because it caused the groundwater level to be increasing, Tepco installed the pumps in this area.
Having been pumping up the groundwater, the groundwater level at one of the borings has been jumping up since 8/20/2013 for some reason. There was no rainfall in this term according to Tepco.
The highest level was recorded on 8/24/2013. This time, the groundwater level came up to 25cm to the surface of the ground.
[Mystery] Cs-134/137 concentration is higher in the leaked water than the leaking tank
Posted by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013 · No Comments
About 300m3 of contaminated water leakage, Tepco published the Cs-134/137 concentration data of the tank on 8/26/2013.
From their report, 44,000,000 Bq/m3 of Cs-134 and 92,000,000 Bq/m3 of Cs-137 were measured from the water stocked in the leaking tank.
However, 46,000,000 Bq/m3 of Cs-134 and 100,000,000 Bq/m3 of Cs-137 were measured from the leaked water on 8/19/2013.
The water leaked from the tank, but Cs-134/137 density is lower in the tank than the leaked water.
Tepco doesn’t make any explanation about this.
Tepco “We don’t know if there were more tank leakages before” / They didn’t check it on rainy・snowy days
Posted by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013 · No Comments
In the press conference of 8/26/2013, Tepco’s spokesman stated they don’t know if the tanks had leakages before.
Tepco was supposed to patrol the tanks for the leakage, but when the ground is wet due to rain or snow, they can not detect the leakage.
A press inquired if there was undetected leakage of the tanks before, Tepco stated they don’t know if there were.
[Photo] So-called U-shaped gutter where the leaked water flowed looks like a natural stream
Posted by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013 · No Comments
About 300m3 leakage, the main part of the leaked water is assumed to have flown to the near “U-shaped gutter”.
On 8/26/2013, Tepco released the photo of the so-called U-shaped gutter but it looks nothing but a natural stream.
This is directly connected to the sea. It’s likely that the leaked water was absorbed to the soil as well.
[Column] Tepco may be hiding the possible direct leakage of coolant water – Press should demand disclosure
Posted by Mochizuki on August 26th, 2013 · 1 Comment
Fukushima Diary reports the least important things.
It’s because the reports are based on Tepco and the government’s release. I’ve been following them long enough to know their trick.
They have us focus on the least serious matters to blind us from what really matters.
I’m telling this because since July, they’ve been focusing on the groundwater (contamination and the increasing volume) issue just on the seaside of reactor2.
I pretty much know this is the minimum problem, am trying to smell where is the real matter.
We need to separate the journalists and the media companies.
Actually (some Japanese) journalists are ferociously biting Tepco, but their reports are manipulated by the editors.
In order to stop the journalists from reaching the bigger matter, also Tepco uses another trick.
It’s that they suggest the possible reasons, put them in order from the least likely/serious one to the most likely/serious one, and verify them one after one in this order. Until they finish this endless process, journalists can never get to the bigger problem.
Summing them all up, this is their trick.
1. Pick up the least serious problem on purpose.
2. Suggest the possible causes.
3. Start investigating from the least important one.
4. Gain time.
5. When they finally admit the bigger problem on-going, it’s too late. (Remember meltdown)
As to the groundwater problem on reactor2 seaside,
In the beginning, Tepco suggested the contaminated water leakage from the past leakage point as the reason, which is the least serious one.
Then they got to suggest the leakage from the underground trench, and are investigating it now.
There’s another cause that Tepco has not mentioned – It’s the direct leakage from the reactor turbine buildings.
This means the coolant water is directly leaking to the ground and the sea. This is way more serious than those two above.
Also, they only focus on reactor2 and 3, but hardly mention the groundwater contamination beside reactor 1 and 4.
Before 311, these 2 reactors received the most groundwater.
As a conclusion, we need to suspect the direct leakage of the coolant water from reactor1 and 4.
Especially about reactor1, the water that actually touched the fuel may be flowing to the sea.
When Tepco officially admits it, everything would be already too late.
I strongly demand the international media (including BBC) to pressure Tepco for the relevant data disclosure. This is what the press exist for.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013
Russia Offers Help to TEPCO to Clean Up #Fukushima I Nuke Plant
I remember Russia invited fishermen in Fukushima to relocate to Russian Siberia right after the start of the nuclear accident in March 2011 and to fish there, instead of trying (in vain) to make a living off the water being contaminated with radioactive materials from the plant. I don't think anyone took up the offer.
According to Bloomberg News article, Russia reiterated the offer to help, just as they had been ready in 2011 if asked by the Japanese government. The request for help never went to Russia under the DPJ administrations under Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda.
For that matter, they never requested any help from any country, and they (practically) declined help when offered. TEPCO privately asked the US military for help in the first weeks of the accident, and was reportedly severely scolded by the Kan administration. The only incident I know of in which a foreign help (the US military) was accepted was to extinguish fire that broke out in Reactor 4 in March 2011.
(I said "practically" above, as what they did was to do the Sir Humphrey - "Thank you, we will be planning to form a committee to study whether it is feasible to consider accepting your offer, and we will get back to you as soon as reasonably possible, under the circumstance, if you know what we mean.".)
Russian officials say things have started to change under the new LDP administration.
From Bloomberg News (8/25/2013; emphasis is mine):
Russia Offers to Help Clean Up Fukushima as Tepco Calls for HelpRussia repeated an offer first made two years ago to help Japan clean-up its accident-ravaged Fukushima nuclear station, welcoming Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s decision to seek outside help.
By Yuriy Humber & Jacob Adelman - Aug 25, 2013 3:33 PM PT
As Tokyo Electric pumps thousands of metric tons of water through the wrecked Fukushima station to cool its melted cores, the tainted run-off was found to be leaking into groundwater and the ocean. The approach to cooling and decommissioning the station will need to change and include technologies developed outside of Japan if the clean-up is to succeed, said Vladimir Asmolov, first deputy director general of Rosenergoatom, the state-owned Russian nuclear utility.
“In our globalized nuclear industry we don’t have national accidents, they are all international,” Asmolov said. Since Japan’s new government took over in December, talks on cooperating between the two countries on the Fukushima clean-up have turned “positive” and Russia is ready to offer its assistance, he said by phone from Moscow last week.
After 29 months of trying to contain radiation from Fukushima’s molten atomic cores, Tokyo Electric said last week it will reach out for international expertise in handling the crisis. The water leaks alone have so far sent more than 100 times the annual norms of radioactive elements into the ocean, raising concern it will enter the food chain through fish.
‘Last to Realize’
The latest leak of 300 metric tons of irradiated water prompted Japan’s nuclear regulator to label the incident “serious” and question Tokyo Electric’s ability to deal with the crisis, echoing comments made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month. Zengo Aizawa, a vice president at Tepco, as the Tokyo-based utility is known, made the call for help at a press briefing in Japan’s capital on Aug. 21.
“It was clear for a long time that Tepco was not adequately coping with the situation,” Asmolov said. “It looks like Tepco management were the last to realize this,” he said. “Japan has the technologies to do this, but they lacked a system to deal with this kind of situation.”The Fukushima accident of March 2011 is the world’s biggest nuclear disaster since the Soviet Union faced the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986.
So far, Tokyo’s solution to cooling melted nuclear rods at Fukushima that otherwise could overheat into criticality, or a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, has been to pour water over them. That’s left more than 330,000 tons of irradiated water in storage tanks at the site so far. The water is treated to remove some of the cesium particles in it, which in turn leaves behind contaminated filters.
...The idea of pumping water for cooling was never going to be anything but a “machine for generating radioactive water,” Asmolov said. Other more complex methods such as the use of special absorbents like thermoxide to clean contaminated water and the introduction of air cooling should be used, he said.
Russia’s nuclear company, Rosatom, of which Rosenergoatom is a unit, sent Japan a 5 kilogram (11 pound) sample of an absorbent that could be used at Fukushima almost three years ago, Asmolov said. It also formed working groups ready to help Japan on health effect assessment, decontamination, and fuel management, among others, Asmolov said. The assistance was never used, he said.
“Since the arrival of the new Japanese government, the attitude’s changed,” he said. “So far the talks have been on a diplomatic level, but they are much more positive. And we remain open to working together on this issue. To follow developments I monitor Fukushima news every morning.”
Tap Experts
Japan can tap experts in France and the U.S. as well as Russia to help it tackle the situation at Fukushima, he said.
The U.S.’s long history with atomic research, including the nuclear weapons site at the Hanford Engineer Works in Washington state, has provided expertise in cleaning up contaminated sites, said Kathryn Higley, who heads the nuclear engineering and radiation health physics department at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
“We have individuals that are working on groundwater contamination and using technology and developing new technologies to clean up strontium in groundwater, for example, at the Hanford site,” she said. “So there are individuals around the world that have been doing this and certainly they would be more than willing to help in this process.”
France’s Areva SA (AREVA) had designed a radiation filtration system that was used for several months at the Fukushima site as temporary cover before Tepco installed its own facilities. Japanese delegations have also visited U.S. nuclear waste sites together with CH2M Hill Cos., an engineering company based in Englewood, Colorado.
This month a group of 17 Japanese companies including Toshiba Corp. (6502) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011) formed an association, called International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, to support Tepco’s clean-up efforts.
(Full article at the link)
I don't think much at all about the industry association mentioned in the last paragraph above. It has been set up by the administrative guidance from Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Agency of Natural Resources and Energy (the one who "assumed" 300-tonne groundwater "leak"), with nuclear and radiation scientists and experts on the panel, which includes scientists like Professor Sekimoto of Tokyo University.
I remember Professor Sekimoto very well, who appeared on NHK non-stop right after it was apparent that there was something wrong at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. To the jittery nation, he spoke calmly and nonchalantly that the whole thing was no big deal, even after the explosion that blew off the top floor of Reactor 1.
The METI consortium looks like an effort to defend the turf, so to speak, and probably to prevent, in an unofficial way, TEPCO from directly seeking help.
Big money at stake in decommissioning the plant, although I doubt that the motive is all about money. It may be a smart move for Prime Minister Abe if he accepts the offer.
Rosatom by the way is the one who's building a floating nuclear power plant.
I remember Professor Sekimoto very well, who appeared on NHK non-stop right after it was apparent that there was something wrong at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. To the jittery nation, he spoke calmly and nonchalantly that the whole thing was no big deal, even after the explosion that blew off the top floor of Reactor 1.
The METI consortium looks like an effort to defend the turf, so to speak, and probably to prevent, in an unofficial way, TEPCO from directly seeking help.
Big money at stake in decommissioning the plant, although I doubt that the motive is all about money. It may be a smart move for Prime Minister Abe if he accepts the offer.
Rosatom by the way is the one who's building a floating nuclear power plant.
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