Simply Info - also notices weird stuff coming from Tepco et al.....
More tank leakage - different tank , same type......
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/column-nothing-has-even-started-350-of-1000-tones-tanks-are-ready-to-leak-from-the-flange-part/
Posted in Daily News, Fukushima Plant situation, Media blackout 
Tags: 311, Aizawa, fukushima, japan, leakage,nuclear, press conference, radiation, tepco, vice president 
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From Energy news - Panic seems to be setting in - one can sense a desperate rush to tell the truth , in front of whatever debacle is bearing down on Japan , Asia and ultimately the rest of the World....
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/22/2013 10:46 -0400
and from earlier today.....
![[More tank leakage] 100 mSv/h detected beside another tank area of the same type](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%882013-08-22-12.44.21%EF%BC%89-450x286.png "[More tank leakage] 100 mSv/h detected beside another tank area of the same type")
As I wrote in my previous post, TEPCO said at least 300 tonnes of highly contaminated (mostly beta nuclides) waste water after the RO (reverse osmosis) treatment may have leaked, because the water level of the tank that leaked was found to have dropped by 3.4 meters.
Well, not so fast.
Thanks to mostly TEPCO's extremely sloppy management of these steel tanks that hold highly contaminated RO waste water, it turns out we really don't know how many tonnes of this waste water has leaked from the tank No.5 in the area H4. It could be more, it could be less, but no one really knows.
How so?
Here are some of the topics discussed in the yesterday (August 21, 2013)'s long meeting of Nuclear Regulatory Authority's Working Group to deal with contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and which didn't get reported in the media. (Information from NRA's youtube video, presentations at the meeting, blogpost by @tsokdba, togetter by @mtx8mg)
1. Is it really "300 tonnes" leak?
"300 tonnes" of RO waste water leak assumes the tank No.5 had been actually close to full (about 96% of the capacity) before the leak started. But this turned out to be just an "assumption" (sound familiar?) on the part of TEPCO.
Why?
Because there is only one water gauge installed for the group of tanks. As TEPCO's diagram shows, the tank No.5 belongs to the tank group I which consists of the tanks No.5, 7, 8, 9, 10. The water gauge for the group is installed on the tank No.7. Note the tiny yellow star on the side of the tank No.7:
TEPCO Weird Statements, Regulator & Experts Involved Making Dire Comments On Fukushima
We have suspected for the past few months that something more is up at Fukushima Daiichi than has been admitted for a number of reasons. Statements made today by TEPCO and those in the know with the disaster have grown fairly dire. Fukushima Diary roughly quotes a TEPCO executive (Mr. Aizawa) as saying that there are many other risks at the plant and that they may reveal them someday. We are trying to independently verify the … Read entire article »
More tank leakage - different tank , same type......
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/column-nothing-has-even-started-350-of-1000-tones-tanks-are-ready-to-leak-from-the-flange-part/
[Column] Nothing has even started – 350 of 1,000 tones tanks are ready to leak from the flange part
Posted by Mochizuki on August 22nd, 2013 · 4 Comments
Unfortunately, I am the only one who has been warning about the contaminated water of Fukushima plant in English.
The first time I featured the problem on column was last November.
I remember I was writing this in my head in the freezing cold shower of Sofia -Bulgaria.
At that time, there were not much people to take it seriously.
but I continued.
On the second 311, I wrote this as I was concerned about Fukushima being forgotten by the world.
The situation is going as exactly anticipated. (slightly worse)
Nuclear Regulation Authority classified the 300m3 leakage as “INES Level.3″.
International media, even BBC, are coming back to cover it.
For me, it’s not they covered it, it’s they have been ignoring all the other problems.
They still look like they are downplaying.
but they actually know it’s worse than how it looks so they are covering it.
This 300m3 of leakage is just the beginning.
As a proof, Tepco found 2 more leakages after a couple of days after the 300m3 leakage.
These are all same type of the tanks called flange type.
They are not welded but sealed by rubber, which is vulnerable.
They are supposed to last 5 years but they are used in the highly radioactive place quite near the sea.
It’s already starting to fall down.
Tepco states they needed to build tanks very urgently, didn’t have time to weld them. They still keep making this flange type tanks.
Each one has 1,000 tones of water.
and there are 300~350 of the flange type tanks in Fukushima nuclear plant. (and it’s increasing day by day)
The potentially leaked water doesn’t have β nuclides (Strontium-90 etc) filtered, and Cesium-134/137 levels are still high.
This time, Tepco couldn’t even survey the surface dose of the leaked water because it is “too hot”.
If we are not unlucky, the too hot water won’t leak from 300~350 of 1,000 tones tanks in the plant area.
Tepco took 1 month to announce the 300m3 leakage.
Nobody knows how many other leakages are hidden at this very moment.
Nothing has even started yet.
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/tepco-30000000000000-bq-of-cs-137-and-sr-90-leaked-to-the-pacific-30000000000-bq-still-leaking-per-day/
Tepco “30,000,000,000,000 Bq of Cs-137 and Sr-90 leaked to the Pacific” / 30,000,000,000 Bq still leaking per day
Posted by Mochizuki on August 22nd, 2013 · No Comments
On 8/21/2013, Tepco announced 30,000,000,000,000 Bq of Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 have leaked to the sea since May of 2011. This is over 100 times much as their management standard volume of leaking radioactive material.
Still 30,000,000,000 Bq of Cs-137 and Sr-90 are leaking to the Pacific everyday.
This estimate is based on the same assumption as when they announced 40,000,000,000,000 Bq of Tritium has leaked to the Pacific.
(cf, Tepco “40,000,000,000,000 Bq of Tritium leaked to the Pacific” / still 100,000,000,000 Bq leaking to the sea per day [URL])
Tepco assumes the largest contamination source is the trench and shaft.
Specifically, 10,000,000,000,000 Bq of Sr-90 and 20,000,000,000,000 Bq of Cs-137 are supposed to have leaked to the Pacific from 5.2011 to 8.2013.
10,000,000,000 Bq of Sr-90 and 20,000,000,000 Bq of Cs-137 are supposed to leak to the Pacific every single day.
However, this is on the assumption that Cs-137 and Sr-90 are floating in seawater instead of accumulated in the marine sediment.
The basis of this assumption is not announced.
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/08/tepco-boring-survey-able-space-is-very-limited-on-the-seaside-due-to-debris-and-temporary-facilities/
Tepco “Boring survey-able space is very limited on the seaside due to debris and temporary facilities”
Posted by Mochizuki on August 22nd, 2013 · No Comments
Following up this article..Tritium density jumped up 150% in 2 days on the seaside of reactor1 [URL]
The radiation level in the groundwater is also increasing in the seaside of reactor1 and 3.
On 8/21/2013, Tepco announced the debris and temporary facilities on the seaside of turbine buildings are preventing them from making more underground observation holes.
Now that the groundwater level and the contamination level are increasing, Tepco needs more accurate observation. However, Tepco is struggling even just to make the new borings.
Vice president of Tepco “There are many other risks but the leakage, may show the data someday”
Posted by Mochizuki on August 22nd, 2013
In the press conference of 8/21/2013, Tepco’s vice president Aizawa confessed there are many other risks but the leakage from the tank. He stated these risks haven’t been announced in public. Tepco is evaluating the various data at the moment. They might reveal it someday but they are focusing on the leakage right now. [...]
Posted in Daily News, Fukushima Plant situation, Media blackout Tags: 311, Aizawa, fukushima, japan, leakage,nuclear, press conference, radiation, tepco, vice president No Comments »
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Reality Of Pacific Contamination From Fukushima Hits US
The French nuclear agency has called Fukushima “the largest single nuclear contamination of the ocean in history.“ This includes the years of Pacific atomic bomb testing by the US and other countries. Those historic events created contamination in Pacific seafood far from where the bombs were detonated that required the destruction of tons of landed seafood. TEPCO of course insisted … Read entire article »
Other Countries Begin To Decry Japan’s Handling Of Fukushima
South Korea is cancelling flights to Fukushima after information about the extensive leaks at the plant were admitted. China’s government said they were surprised that leaks were still happening at the disaster site. Their foreign minister made this comment to the press: “(China)hopes that the Japanese side can earnestly take effective steps to put an end to the negative impact … Read entire article »
New Leaks Found, Ocean Contamination Confirmed At Fukushima
Two new tank leaks have been found at Fukushima Daiichi in another group of tanks. High radiation levels were found at the base of these two tanks indicating some form of leak. No nearby puddles were found to be releasing high levels of radiation. It is also suspected that the larger leak found earlier in the week may be leaking … Read entire article »
From Energy news - Panic seems to be setting in - one can sense a desperate rush to tell the truth , in front of whatever debacle is bearing down on Japan , Asia and ultimately the rest of the World....
BBC: Fukushima “much worse than we’ve been led to believe, much worse” says nuclear expert — Contaminated water is leaking out all over site
http://www.zerohedge.com/node/477904
"Tepco Has Lost Control" - What Is Really Happening At Fukushima In Four Charts
After a self-imposed gag order by the mainstream media on any coverage of the Fukushima disaster (ostensibly the last thing the irradiated Japanese citizens needed is reading beyond the lies of their benevolent government, and TEPCO, and finding out just how bad the reality is especially since the key driver behind Abenomics is a return in confidence at all costs), the biggest nuclear catastrophe in history is once again receiving the attention it deserves. This follows the recent admission by TEPCO of the biggest leak reported at Fukushima to date, which forced the Japanese government to raise the assessment of Fukushima from Level 1 to Level 3, even though this is merely the catalyst of what has been a long and drawn out process in which Tepco has tried everything it could to contain the fallout from the exploded NPP, and failed. And today, in a startling and realistic assessment of Fukushima two and a half years after the explosion, the WSJ finally tells the truth: "Tepco Has Lost Control."
Here is how the mainstream media, in this casethe Wall Street Journal, catches up with a topic covered extensively in the "alternative" media for the past several years:
"This is what we have been fearing," said Shunichi Tanaka, chair of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, answering questions about the leak at a news conference. "We cannot waste even a minute" to take action.Behind the leak is a more serious problem: During the past few months it has become clear that Tepco has lost control over the flow of water at the plant and that the problem is escalating, nuclear experts say.Every day, the utility has to find a place to store around 400 tons of contaminated water that it pumps out of the radioactive reactor buildings, and Wednesday it warned that it is fast running out of space. Storage tanks set up on the fly during plant emergencies have started springing leaks, and Tepco can't replace them with sturdier ones fast enough. Groundwater-contamination levels are spiking at the seaward side of the plant, and water is flowing into the ocean past a series of walls, plugs and barriers that have been flung up to impede its passage.
What does "losing control" mean in practical terms?
That lack of control is a big liability, said Kathryn Higley, a specialist in the spread of radiation and head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University, who spent a week in Fukushima earlier this year."You have to find ways to control water coming through the site," Ms. Higley said. "With any sort of accident, you want to control the timing of what's released and when it gets released."So far, the levels of radioactivity that have escaped to the outside remain relatively low, but some experts warn they may not stay that way—particularly as equipment ages and the heavy-duty work of dismantling the damaged buildings and removing the melted fuel rods proceeds. The radioactivity of the water in the most recent leak was so high that workers couldn't get close enough to search for the cause until the remaining fluid in the tank was removed.Tepco said it doesn't think that water has flowed into the sea but can't say for sure. Some of the flooded reactor basements are similarly too hot to approach, and it is still not clear where the melted fuel cores are, or in what state.
The last statement bears repeating: "it is still not clear where the melted fuel cores are." Well as long as TEPCO is 100% confident there are no uncontrolled chain reactions taking place... Then again hundreds of tons of coolant must be cooling something.
"In the future there might be even more heavily contaminated water coming through," said Atsunao Marui, head of the groundwater research group at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and a member of a blue-ribbon panel set up in May to figure out ways of managing the radioactive water. "It's important to think of the worst-case scenario."
Indeed the "worst-case scenario" is an appropriate topic because as covered here over the weekend, it involves the potential death of millions of largely oblivious Japanese citizens. As for the long overdue mea culpa by a nationalized TEPCO, which also speaks for the entire Japanese government, it sounds hollow at best and makes one wonder what else is left unsaid.
Mr. Marui and others say the biggest reason for the scramble now is that Tepco—and the government bodies that oversee it—weren't planning far enough ahead and waited too long to respond to problems they should have seen coming long ago."They're only responding after the fact—they're not thinking ahead," said Hajimu Yamana, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyoto University who earlier this month was named chair of a new institute charged with helping develop measures to tackle the longer-term work of dismantling the plant. "As an expert, I was watching it with frustration.""We have not remained idle, but we admit that we have been reactive," Zengo Aizawa, Tepco executive vice president for nuclear public relations, said at a news conference Wednesday, during which the company was grilled about the leak. "We are very, very sorry for causing concern."
The concerns are piling up. Earlier today Reuters reported that TEPCO "admitted to new spots of high radiation had been found near storage tanks holding highly contaminated water, raising fear of fresh leaks as the disaster goes from bad to worse."
In an inspection carried out following the revelation of the leakage, high radiation readings - 100 millisieverts per hour and 70 millisieverts per hour - were recorded at the bottom of two tanks in a different part of the plant, Tepco said.Although no puddles were found nearby and there were no noticeable changes in water levels in the tanks, the possibility of stored water having leaked out cannot be ruled out, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said.
The bottom line, and what has become painfully clear, is that Japan simply can't fix the problem. Even China has now figured it out.
China said it was "shocked" to hear contaminated water was still leaking from the plant, and urged Japan to provide information "in a timely, thorough and accurate way".
What is strangest of all is that the Japanese people are far less concerned about the government's cover up. Oh well: they have their distractions - like a plunging currency, and (transitorily) soaring stock market, in nominal terms of course.
Finally the following four charts from the WSJ provide a full breakdown of the current state of play at the devastated nuclear power plant.
Full interactive charts can be found here
and from earlier today.....
[More tank leakage] 100 mSv/h detected beside another tank area of the same type
Posted by Mochizuki on August 22nd, 2013 · No Comments
Following up this article..[300m3 leakage] Fukushima nuclear plant has 350 more tanks of the same type / Rubber sealing instead of welding [URL]
According to Tepco, they detected extremely high level of radiation beside the tank area called H3 on 8/22/2013. This is a different tank area from where Tepco found 300m3 of the leakage, however these are all the same type of the tanks called flange type, which has only rubber sealing instead of welding. These vulnerable tanks were built provisionally and there are 300~350 of this type of the tanks in Fukushima nuclear plant area.
The γ and β dose was 70 ~ 100 mSv/h beside the flange part near the bottom of the tanks. However, they found no water on the ground, which suggests the contaminated water has already been absorbed by the ground.
The water levels of the tanks are 95~97%, which doesn’t show the significant leakage according to Tepco.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2013/08/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-leak-of-300.html
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2013
#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Leak of "300 Tonnes" of RO Waste Water May Not Be "300 Tonnes"
As I wrote in my previous post, TEPCO said at least 300 tonnes of highly contaminated (mostly beta nuclides) waste water after the RO (reverse osmosis) treatment may have leaked, because the water level of the tank that leaked was found to have dropped by 3.4 meters.
Well, not so fast.
Thanks to mostly TEPCO's extremely sloppy management of these steel tanks that hold highly contaminated RO waste water, it turns out we really don't know how many tonnes of this waste water has leaked from the tank No.5 in the area H4. It could be more, it could be less, but no one really knows.
How so?
Here are some of the topics discussed in the yesterday (August 21, 2013)'s long meeting of Nuclear Regulatory Authority's Working Group to deal with contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and which didn't get reported in the media. (Information from NRA's youtube video, presentations at the meeting, blogpost by @tsokdba, togetter by @mtx8mg)
1. Is it really "300 tonnes" leak?
"300 tonnes" of RO waste water leak assumes the tank No.5 had been actually close to full (about 96% of the capacity) before the leak started. But this turned out to be just an "assumption" (sound familiar?) on the part of TEPCO.
Why?
Because there is only one water gauge installed for the group of tanks. As TEPCO's diagram shows, the tank No.5 belongs to the tank group I which consists of the tanks No.5, 7, 8, 9, 10. The water gauge for the group is installed on the tank No.7. Note the tiny yellow star on the side of the tank No.7:
When the waste water is transported from the Reverse Osmosis Apparatus, it is fed to the tanks No. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 evenly, because the tanks are connected to each other via the feed line. So when the tank No.7 becomes full, all the other tanks are assumed to be also full.
TEPCO had never measured the water level of the tank No.5 until this leak was found, and the company had to send workers on top the tank to stick in the tape measure.
Mr. Kinjo from the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (secretariat of NRA) asked if TEPCO had confirmed that the tank No.5 had been full. The answer was no.
2. Where has this "300 tonnes" (if it was actually 300 tonnes) of waste water been leaking from?
"300 tonnes" of RO waste water was supposed have leaked over a month, according to the media report. However, that's 10 tonnes, or 10,000 liters a day. Even for TEPCO, the amount is too large not to have spotted it much sooner. Workers who are sent out daily to patrol the site have been spotting leaks with few hundred liters. TEPCO says the workers didn't find anything until August 19.
TEPCO hasn't found any leak from the visible part of the tank itself, but the level of waste water in the tank continues to decrease, albeit at rates that are not consistent with the constant leak.
TEPCO measured the water level of the tank No.5 on August 20, and
TEPCO had never measured the water level of the tank No.5 until this leak was found, and the company had to send workers on top the tank to stick in the tape measure.
Mr. Kinjo from the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (secretariat of NRA) asked if TEPCO had confirmed that the tank No.5 had been full. The answer was no.
2. Where has this "300 tonnes" (if it was actually 300 tonnes) of waste water been leaking from?
"300 tonnes" of RO waste water was supposed have leaked over a month, according to the media report. However, that's 10 tonnes, or 10,000 liters a day. Even for TEPCO, the amount is too large not to have spotted it much sooner. Workers who are sent out daily to patrol the site have been spotting leaks with few hundred liters. TEPCO says the workers didn't find anything until August 19.
TEPCO hasn't found any leak from the visible part of the tank itself, but the level of waste water in the tank continues to decrease, albeit at rates that are not consistent with the constant leak.
TEPCO measured the water level of the tank No.5 on August 20, and
- From 9:30AM to 3:30PM, the water level dropped by 5 centimeters.
- In the next 6 hours, it dropped by 1 centimeter.
- So in 12 hours it dropped by 6 centimeters, which translates into 10 tonnes in 24 hours.
(Hmmm. Why are there two different, drastically different rates? How could they extrapolate this into 24-hour rate?)
Could the leak be from the bottom of the tank, which is made of five 16-millimeter thick SS400 steel sheets fastened together? (They did use epoxy sealerinside to prevent corrosion.)
(From TEPCO's presentation to NRA Working Group, 8/21/2013)
Could the leak be from the bottom of the tank, which is made of five 16-millimeter thick SS400 steel sheets fastened together? (They did use epoxy sealerinside to prevent corrosion.)
(From TEPCO's presentation to NRA Working Group, 8/21/2013)
Could the concrete platform have cracks through which the waste water has been leaking?
TEPCO couldn't answer, as there is no way to check the leak at the bottom of the tank unless the water is first emptied.
3. Has the water leaked into the open water?
TEPCO says they have found locations along the drain that have high radiation levels, and says the possibility cannot be denied.
However, the analysis of seawater on August 20 near the location where the C drain drains to the ocean shows cesium-137 at 0.0018 Bq/cm3, cesium-134 and all-beta were ND. If the waste water has been leaking into the ocean, the measurement at this location should show the high level of all-beta. It hasn't, so far, this time.
So, in conclusion, neither TEPCO nor NRA know exactly what's happening, and but at this point it is more likely than not that this waste water with high beta hasn't leaked much into the ocean, at least not through the drains located nearby.
There is a possibility that the tank No.5 wasn't full, and that it wasn't 300 tonnes that leaked. And there is a possibility that the leak is from the bottom of the tank, and it has been leaking through a crack in the concrete (if there's a crack). In case of the latter, radioactive materials, especially all-beta, will show up in the groundwater sooner or later if TEPCO monitors the wells for the groundwater bypass plan.
TEPCO has finished emptying the tank No.5, but the radiation level inside the tank is just too high right now for closer inspection, according to NHK.
But the facts (or I should say the lack thereof) don't matter much any more to most people, and the Japanese media (like NHK) is almost gleeful that the attention of foreign media like BBC, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, etc. is again on the plant. The most recent entity to weigh in is IAEA, saying it "views this matter seriously and remains ready to provide assistance on request."
TEPCO couldn't answer, as there is no way to check the leak at the bottom of the tank unless the water is first emptied.
3. Has the water leaked into the open water?
TEPCO says they have found locations along the drain that have high radiation levels, and says the possibility cannot be denied.
However, the analysis of seawater on August 20 near the location where the C drain drains to the ocean shows cesium-137 at 0.0018 Bq/cm3, cesium-134 and all-beta were ND. If the waste water has been leaking into the ocean, the measurement at this location should show the high level of all-beta. It hasn't, so far, this time.
So, in conclusion, neither TEPCO nor NRA know exactly what's happening, and but at this point it is more likely than not that this waste water with high beta hasn't leaked much into the ocean, at least not through the drains located nearby.
There is a possibility that the tank No.5 wasn't full, and that it wasn't 300 tonnes that leaked. And there is a possibility that the leak is from the bottom of the tank, and it has been leaking through a crack in the concrete (if there's a crack). In case of the latter, radioactive materials, especially all-beta, will show up in the groundwater sooner or later if TEPCO monitors the wells for the groundwater bypass plan.
TEPCO has finished emptying the tank No.5, but the radiation level inside the tank is just too high right now for closer inspection, according to NHK.
But the facts (or I should say the lack thereof) don't matter much any more to most people, and the Japanese media (like NHK) is almost gleeful that the attention of foreign media like BBC, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, etc. is again on the plant. The most recent entity to weigh in is IAEA, saying it "views this matter seriously and remains ready to provide assistance on request."
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