Fukushima state of disrepair update.....
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/02/2013 22:13 -0400
http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-melted-fuel-is-exiting-fukushima-site-its-being-dispersed-to-humans-a-long-way-from-plant-situation-is-beyond-mans-control-audio
From Energy News.....
and....
Lots of all-beta (that includes strontium), tritium, but not so much cesium or gamma emitters.
But first, let's do the quick recap of the water treatment system at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that has been operational since mid 2011:
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/09/puddle-captured-in-tank-area-photo-tepco-its-rain-%E2%86%92-tepcos-own-data-no-rainfall/
![[Photo] A part of the leaked 300m3 flows to outside of Fukushima plant port](http://fukushima-diary.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/imagebot841-450x249.png "[Photo] A part of the leaked 300m3 flows to outside of Fukushima plant port")
As More Fukushima Leaks Are "Discovered", Japan Vows "Quick Action"
First it was "contained." Then we found out there was a "small leak." Then, after numerous media reports confirmed it, Japan admitted there was "a big leak," which only became bigger with time. Then the severity level of Fukushima was raised from level 1 to level 3, the highest since the March 2011 disaster. And now it is many leaks. According to AP, "Japan's top nuclear regulator raised safety concerns Monday about hastily built storage tanks and their foundations at the damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant after signs of new leaks of radioactive water. The latest leak was found over the weekend in a connecting pipe. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said it suspects there may also have been leaks from three storage tanks because elevated radioactivity was detected near them. The levels were not considered deadly." Oh so it was not the 1.8 sieverts/hour reported over the weekend? Maybe in the case the honorable Prime Minister can take a big swig from the supposedly undeadly water.
But wait, it just gets better:
Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a news conference that the small leak and possible other leaks have added to concerns about the plant's stability.They follow a major leak two weeks ago. TEPCO reported a loss of 300 tons of highly radioactive water from a steel tank on Aug. 19, saying most of it is believed to have seeped underground but some might have escaped into the sea. The company has yet to determine the cause or exactly where the water went.The leakage of water that had been used to cool the plant's three melted reactor cores triggered fears of similar leaks from more than 300 other similar tanks. The tanks are part of approximately 1,000 tanks holding 330,000 tons of contaminated water at the plant, where the radioactive waste water from the reactors grows by 400 tons daily.The latest leaks have triggered further concerns about the plant's ability to manage the contaminated water. Experts have said that radioactive water from underground and utility tunnels connected to reactors and turbine buildings has been leaking into the sea for some time.Tanaka said he believed the discoveries of the subsequent leak and signs of possible additional leaks were the result of closer inspections after the large leak two weeks ago. That leak was the worst from a tank at the plant, which was badly damaged by a massive March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.Tanaka raised concerns about the safety of the foundations of the tank sites. TEPCO recently revealed that one of the tank sites had partially sunk during a test to see if a tank was watertight."Because those tanks were built in an emergency situation, it is questionable whether sufficient ground surveys were conducted," Tanaka said. "We believe experienced companies did a fine job, but we still have concerns and we must step up our watch for leaks."
Well as long as there is belief, one can ignore the blatanly criminal behaviour of Tepco then:
TEPCO also said it overlooked several signs of leaks — increases of radioactivity near the tanks and higher exposure levels for workers — for more than a month.
But wait, because it gets better. Japan's response, two and a half years after the catastrophe... is to "vow to take quick action."
Japan vowed quick, decisive action, including the use of public funds, to tackle the worsening problem of contaminated water pouring from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, as the authorities step in to help the facility's embattled operator.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government "will step forward and implement all necessary policies" to deal with the flood of radioactive water from the plant, a legacy of the world's worst atomic disaster in a quarter century.The government will present a "comprehensive package of measures" on the water problem as soon as Tuesday, a senior official said."The government has stayed in the background and extended support for Tokyo Electric's effort to tackle the problem of contaminated water. But we've now decided that Tokyo Electric's patchwork response has reached its limit, and the government needs to come forward and quickly respond, even by using budget reserves," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
And here is where it gets best: the punchline is just much funding Japan will spend in its "quick action" response. From Reuters:
The Japan government plans to spend at least 40 billion yen ($402.60 million) to contain the leaking of radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Nikkei newspaper said, citing government sources.The government is expected to announce on Tuesday a package of measures to deal with the crisis at the Tokyo Electric Power Co plant wrecked by an earthquake in 2011.The government intends to cover all the costs for freezing the soil around the reactors to prevent groundwater from mixing with contaminated water inside the reactor, the daily said.The work will start this fiscal year and about half of the pledged clean-up money is expected to come from the contingency fund of Japan's budget, the business paper said.
So... Japan's response is to spend the mindblowing sum of $400 million, or about 20% of what the Fed or the BOJ monetize any given day, to firmly and decisively deal with the Fukushima debacle.... by freezing the soil.
If this wasn't reality, this unbearably ridiculous script would never make it past page two.
http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-melted-fuel-is-exiting-fukushima-site-its-being-dispersed-to-humans-a-long-way-from-plant-situation-is-beyond-mans-control-audio
Title: Japan’s radioactive water – the impact on humans and wildlife
Source: Voice of Russia – UK Edition
Date: Sept. 2, 2013
Source: Voice of Russia – UK Edition
Date: Sept. 2, 2013
At 2:30 in
John Large, nuclear consultant: At Chernobyl […] the radioactivity was controlled and held within a landmass, and there were very few opportunities for that radioactivity to seep a long way out beyond the 30 km zone.What we have in Fukushima is an accident with about 1/3 in terms of radioactivity the size of Chernobyl [See also: Study: Fukushima released 100 quadrillion becquerels of cesium into atmosphere... In just ONE day -- About equal to Chernobyl's total release], but it hasn’t finished yet, so this accident is ongoing and there’s opportunity for the radioactivity on the site — which involved 3 reactors and not one as at Chernobyl, very roughly 3-4 times the amount of radioactivity is available for release — we can see that accident is still going on 2 years after the event.It’s not as though like Chernobyl, the situation was controlled and contained by a sarcophagus built around the damaged reactor, here we have a situation where the reactor fuel, the intensely radioactive fuel, is being carried away into the marine environment and beyond man’s control as to how further it disperses away from the site. [...]The problem with it going into the marine environment, not only does it spread much further, but it also gets ingested and re-concentrated by fish and filter feeders like oysters who re-concentrate the amount of radioactivity in a cubic meter of water from a few hundred becquerels, counts on a Geiger counter, to several hundred thousand becquerels because they re-concentrate it in their flesh. That’s another chain, another uptake route, to members of the public.The other uptake route is as its swept along the eastern seaboard coastline of Japan, the tides will take it into the beach line, you get the intertidal strip […] here we’re talking about tiny particles of metal fuel being washed up on the beach line. They dry out between the tides, re-suspend and blow over the local communities. So you have a very efficient and effective way of dispersing the radioactivity to human beings a long way away from the plant. That’s the concern here.
From Energy News.....
and....
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013
What's in the RO Waste Water at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant?
Lots of all-beta (that includes strontium), tritium, but not so much cesium or gamma emitters.
But first, let's do the quick recap of the water treatment system at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that has been operational since mid 2011:
- Water (filtered water + treated water) is injected into the reactors to cool the corium.
- Water gets highly contaminated with radioactive materials from the corium, accumulates in the basements of the reactor buildings and turbine buildings which are connected.
- Highly contaminated water get somewhat diluted by the groundwater seeping in (400 tonnes a day).
- The water is then transported from the turbine building basements to either Central Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility or High Temperature Incinerator Building, which have been converted to storage of contaminated water.
- From these buildings, the water is transported to Cesium Absorption Apparatus (which is currently Toshiba's SARRY only; Kurion's system has been off-line for a long time now, and AREVA's co-precipitation decontamination system is not used anymore). Most of radioactive cesium is removed by this process, from tens of thousands of becquerels per cubic centimeter to ND or close to ND. This water still contains high tritium and high all-beta. It also contains chloride, from the seawater injection in the early days of the accident in 2011.
- The water treated at SARRY then undergoes desalination process, using Reverse Osmosis Apparatus to remove chloride. (Evaporative Concentration System, another desalination process, is not currently used.)
- After being treated by Reverse Osmosis Apparatus, the water, though still high in tritium and containing all-beta (which cannot be removed at this point, as ALPS has been halted and there is no effective way to remove tritium), is mixed with filtered river water, and gets injected into the reactor.
- The waste water after reverse osmosis process, high in chloride and high in all-beta and tritium, is stored in the tanks (assembled metal tanks or welded tanks), and this is the water that is found leaking from the tank(s) this time.
Here's the latest nuclide analysis of water at different stages of water treatment, published on August 8, 2013. No.8 water (in red rectangle) is the RO waste water:
Gamma
Cs-134: 1.1E+00, or 1.1 Bq/cm3
Cs-137: 2.7E+00, or 2.7 Bq/cm3
Sb-125: 3.0E+01, or 30 Bq/cm3
Tritium: 7.7E+02, or 770 Bq/cm3
All-beta: 7.5E+04, or 75,000 Bq/cm3
Gamma
Cs-134: 1.1E+00, or 1.1 Bq/cm3
Cs-137: 2.7E+00, or 2.7 Bq/cm3
Sb-125: 3.0E+01, or 30 Bq/cm3
Tritium: 7.7E+02, or 770 Bq/cm3
All-beta: 7.5E+04, or 75,000 Bq/cm3
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/09/puddle-captured-in-tank-area-photo-tepco-its-rain-%E2%86%92-tepcos-own-data-no-rainfall/
Puddle captured in tank area photo / Tepco “It’s rain” → Tepco’s own data “No rainfall”
Posted by Mochizuki on September 2nd, 2013 · No Comments
Following up this article..[Photo] Water mark of the leaked water is obviously “brown” / “Isn’t inside deteriorated ?” [URL]
In the photos, some parts of the ground look wet around the tank, where are outside of the “leakage” area. The photos were taken on 8/31/2013.
In the press conference of 9/2/2013, Tepco’s spokesman commented it’s not the further leakage, but the rainfall.
However, other data of Tepco themselves shows there has been no rain at least since 8/27/2013. It is the report about the groundwater levels on the seaside of reactor2.
Tepco’s statement can contradict their own report.
↓ Puddles around the tanks (Blue circles). Photos taken on 8/31/2013.
↓ Tepco’s data shows there was no rainfall.
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/09/photo-leaking-tank-drain-goes-to-outside-of-fukushima-plant-port/
[Photo] Leaking tank drain goes to outside of Fukushima plant port
Posted by Mochizuki on September 2nd, 2013 · 2 Comments
About 300m3 leakage from the tank, Tepco has been only publishing the maps excluding the coastal line.
It was difficult to compare the tank location to the sea from their release.
From the original research of Fukushima Diary using Google map, the drain of the leaking tank area is designed to let all the waste water flow outside of the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Tepco has been commenting the contaminated water is mostly retained inside of Fukushima plant port. However, it clearly proves at least a certain part of the 300m3 water flowed outside of the port.
On 9/1/2013, 130,000 Bq/m3 of Tritium was measured at the downstream of the drain, where is upstream of the outlet to the Pacific.
Related article..Tepco “We are not going to dam up the drain that the leaked water flowed into” [URL]
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/09/tepco-we-are-not-going-to-dam-up-the-drain-that-the-leaked-water-flowed-into/
Tepco “We are not going to dam up the drain that the leaked water flowed into”
Posted by Mochizuki on September 2nd, 2013 · 1 Comment
In the press conference of 9/2/2013, Tepco’s spokesman commented they don’t plan to dam up the drain around the leaking tanks.
High level of radiation is measured in the drain, which shows the leaked contaminated water flowed from the tanks into the drain.
The drain is straightly connected to the sea. Once leaked water flows into the drain, it travels to the Pacific.
Related article..[Possible hidden tank leakage ] All β level rising in another drain [URL]
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/09/300000000000-bqm3-of-all-%CE%B2-nuclide-to-include-sr-90-detected-from-the-leaked-water-of-tank/
300,000,000,000 Bq/m3 of all β nuclide to include Sr-90 detected from the leaked water of tank
Posted by Mochizuki on September 2nd, 2013 · No Comments
Following up this article..One of the new tank leakage still continuing [URL]
According to Tepco, 300,000,000,000 Bq/m3 of all β nuclide was measured from the dripping water to leak of the tank.
All β includes Strontium-90.
They didn’t analyze the sample for Cesium-134/137. The reason is because “The volume of the sample was not adequate.”.
The sampling date was 8/31/2013.
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/09/tritium-450000-bqm3-%E2%86%92-900000-bqm3-in-bypass-well-leaking-tank-effect/
Tritium 450,000 Bq/m3 → 900,000 Bq/m3 in bypass well / Leaking tank effect
Posted by Mochizuki on September 1st, 2013 · No Comments
Having 300m3 of highly contaminated water leak, Tepco is investigating the effect of groundwater.
Tepco plans to pump up the groundwater to discharge before it reaches the reactor buildings, but the pumping wells are located downstream of the 300m3 leakage tank.
On 8/30/2013, Tepco measured 900,000 Bq/m3 of Tritium from the pumped water. It was less than 450,000 Bq/m3 from 12. 2012 to 3. 2013. This measurement strongly suggests the leaked water has already reached the pumping wells.
Tepco was planning to discharge the pumped water to the sea, which is called “Groundwater bypass”, without filtration.
Either way, Tritium can’t be filtered.
This measurement would significantly affect their groundwater bypass plan.
However, based on their own estimate, even if they pump up the groundwater, the same volume of groundwater is gathered from the surrounding areas. It can’t be the solution anyway.
As a conclusion, Tepco will have to keep building the tanks but because the contaminated water to stock increase faster than they build the tanks, Tepco will run out of the capacity in November ~ December.
↓ The issued pumping well is in the blue circle. The leaking tank is in the yellow circle.
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