Saturday, November 9, 2013

Fukushima Updates November 8-10.....Overview of spent fuel problem facing Tepco , conundrum of where are the melted cores , pondering the unabated and uncontrollable releases of contamination in sea and ground water.... Tepco running out of trained workers and amateurs to be deployed for spent fuel pool work - would could go wrong ? Additional items of note touching on the Fukushima disaster presently underway since March 11 , 2011.....

Energy News......


http://enenews.com/expert-there-may-be-an-accident-of-criticality-during-fuel-removal-at-fukushima-unit-4-tv-rods-could-crumble-frightening-that-tepco-is-in-charge-of-potential-catastrophe-videos

( Tepco in charge of the spent fuel removal is akin to Moe , Larry and Curly running the show... )



AFP, Nov. 7, 2013: Experts warn that any slip-ups could quickly cause the situation to deteriorate. Even minor mishaps will create considerable delays to the already long and complicated decommissioning. If the rods are exposed to the air they would release radiation and could heat up, a process that if left unchecked could lead to a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. TEPCO says that is unlikely, but sceptics say that with so many unknowns in the novel operation, there is potential for a catastrophe. [...] “Any trouble in this operation will considerably affect the timetable for the entire project,” he said. “This is an operation TEPCO cannot afford to bungle.” Hiroaki Koide, assistant professor at Kyoto University Reactor Research Institute in Kyoto, said success was far from guaranteed. “It is not easy work,” he said. The comments reflect an increasingly widespread view that the giant utility is not capable of dealing with the mess its nuclear plant has created.
The Real News, Nov. 8, 2013 — Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Ph.D. in engineering (specialization: nuclear fusion) from the University of California at Berkeley (at 2:30 in): The spent fuel may be difficult to dislodge because it’s no longer in its proper original position. The fuel rods may break, and the fuel may wind up at the bottom of the reactor in the spent fuel pool. There may be an accident of criticality. I haven’t examined their plans in detail, but I do think it is very essential to remove this spent fuel, because in my judgment, the bigger danger is leaving it there and waiting for the earthquake to happen.
Watch the extended interview with Arjun Makhijani here

RT, Nov.7, 2013 — Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear: The fuel itself could be bent, it could be damaged, it could be corroded. They used salt water at one point to cool the nuclear waste in this pool, which could have corroded the assemblies. They could break apart; they could crumble when they go to try to remove them. Even the director of the nuclear regulation authority of Japan has warned that this process should not be rushed; they should not try to force these assemblies out of their storage channels. But they have to get them out before a bigger earthquake takes the building down, the cooling water would drain away, and the waste with them will catch on fire. There is no radiological containment around the pool and if this waste would catch fire it could be 10 times worse than Chernobyl. That’s how much radioactivity is stored in that pool. Just in terms of the radioactive cesium content. [...]  It’s absurd that Tokyo Electric is in charge of this globally significant extracting of the fuel from the pool. If something goes wrong, this could be a global catastrophe that dwarfs what has happened on Fukushima Daiichi thus far. Tokyo Electric has shown its true colors time and time again, its incompetence and its dishonesty, so it’s very frightening that Tokyo Electric is in charge of this.




and....




Japan Lawmaker: “Children coming down with many health problems… this is reality” — CNN: “Many parents of Fukushima blame nuclear accident” for higher cancer rate (VIDEOS)

TV: “Fukushima is potentially the biggest ticking time bomb in human history” — “An enormous problem that’s getting bigger” — Scariest part is what could still happen (VIDEO)

Pro-Nuclear Engineer: Potential for “a very, very serious accident” when unloading Fukushima Unit 4; “The thing that keeps me up late at night” — Expert: Concern over “positioning of fuel rods” in pool — Tepco: It’s not ‘particularly dangerous’

BBC: ‘The real dead zone’ at Fukushima — Monitor went off scale, over 180,000 CPM — Experts shook their heads when asked where melted fuel is — Tepco: Don’t ask what we’ll do with Reactors 1, 2, 3 — CNN: Tepco only wanted to show us Reactor 4, strict rules about what we could film (VIDEO)

Japan Experts: “Very worried” about accident at Fukushima Unit 4; Concern fuel to be dropped, could break apart and overheat — Tepco Adviser: It’s only as hot as a ‘few toasters’

Caldicott: 50 years or more of highly contaminated water flowing into Pacific from Fukushima — Tepco VP not optimistic: “I have concerns” for long-term plan — Location of melted fuel a mystery (VIDEO)

Top Nuclear Official: “Very large risk potential” when attempting fuel removal at Fukushima Unit 4 pool — CNN: Debris in rods may damage Tepco’s efforts (VIDEO)

Nuclear Expert: Fuel rods are “in a jumble” at Fukushima Unit 4 pool; Unclear if they are cracked — US pressing Japan on removal, fears terrorist activity at plant (VIDEO)

U.S. Ambassador’s letter from former Japan Ambassador: “Worsening radioactive contamination of the sea will soon awaken whole world” — Problem at Fukushima is “beyond control”

Nuclear Expert: Water may NOT have stopped melted fuel from going down into concrete at Fukushima — I raised this issue years ago, but it’s too difficult for regulators to deal with (VIDEO)




Fukushima Diary......



Tank area dam water leaked again / Strontium-90 : 140,000 Bq/m3

Note : If you are from the international mass media, Don’t read this site before taking a contact with me.


According to Tepco’s email sent to the press on 11/9/2013, they found another leakage from a tank area dam.
The water was retained in the local dam. The cause of the leakage is not announced. They stopped the leakage by putting sandbags supposedly.
Tepco reported Cs-134/137 density was lower than the detectable level, but Strontium-90 density was 140,000 Bq/m3.
A part of the retained water (29 m3) was transferred to an underground reservoir, which also experienced the leakage this April.
Tepco states the leakage is far enough from the drain, the leaked water didn’t flow to the sea.
Tank area dam water leaked again / Strontium-90 : 140,000 Bq/m3
2 Tank area dam water leaked again / Strontium-90 : 140,000 Bq/m3
3 Tank area dam water leaked again / Strontium-90 : 140,000 Bq/m3



Vice president of Tepco “Don’t know how much radiation level can be decreased to decontaminate reactor3″

Note : If you are from the international mass media, Don’t read this site before taking a contact with me.


Tepco has measured over 1.9 Sv/h at some places on the top of reactor3 building.
In order to remove the fuel from reactor3 pool like reactor4, they need to decrease the radiation level on the top of the crippled reactor building.
However Tepco’s vice president Aizawa stated on 11/8/2013 that they don’t know how much radiation level they can decrease until they actually start it.
Major debris has been removed by now. They plan to vacuum the dusts on the top to decontaminate it.
Tepco is planning to reduce it to 1 mSv/h but the feasibility is not even tested yet.












2,500,000,000,000,000 Bq of all β nuclides is 

still retained in the turbine buildings in total

Note : If you are from the international mass media, Don’t read this site before taking a contact with me.


From the report that Tepco submitted to NRA on 10/30/2013, the turbine buildings still retain 79,000 m3 of contaminated water, which contain 2,500,000,000,000,000 Bq of all β nuclides (including Strontium-90), 3,400,000,000,000,000 Bq of Cs-137, and 41,000,000,000,000 Bq of Tritium in total.
The report says the sampling date was in October 2013, but this data hasn’t been published on Tepco’s website for some reason.



Tepco’s president confessed to NRA / Serious shortage of the workers

Note : If you are from the international mass media, Don’t read this site before taking a contact with me.


On 10/28/2013, Tepco’s president had a closed meeting with the chairman of NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) Tanaka.
From the rough minutes, Tepco’s president Hirose revealed the fact that they are already suffering from the shortage of the workers, which was the top of the list of decommissioning circumstances related problems.
Hirose stated they are struggling to collect both of the workers and experts. They are also troubled to improve the skills.


Tepco to train amateur workers in reactor4 pool

Note : If you are from the international mass media, Don’t read this site before taking a contact with me.


In the press conference of 11/8/2013, Tepco’s spokesman stated the amateur workers are to be trained in reactor4 pool to remove the fuel.
Tepco plans to start the fuel removal from mid-November. According to their statement, the skilled workers who have experienced the fuel removal are to have training in the mock-up test. After the training, those workers come to reactor4 pool and train the workers who have the least experience in the actual site.


Groundwater level rising in the tank area / only 40cm to the ground surface

Note : If you are from the international mass media, Don’t read this site before taking a contact with me.


The groundwater level is rising in the tank area, according to Tepco. The tank areas are in a distance from the coastal line of the plant. Tepco states the mechanism is not investigated.
On 11/8/2013, Tepco published the water level data of the 9 boring holes around the tank area that experienced 300m3 of leakage.
It became clear that the water level of one of the borings located on the mountain side of the tank area had 2 m increase since mid October, and it’s stably high.
The groundwater level is 36m, where the ground level is 36.4m. The water is already coming up 40cm to the surface of the ground.
Tepco made the soil stabilization to 1.2 deep underground. The stabilized area is already sunk under the rising groundwater.
Tepco’s spokesman commented if there is no rainfall, they can expect it to decrease. They won’t take any countermeasures for this problem.

Related article..[Photo] Fukushima plant’s collapsed slope due to the Typhoon [URL]



NRA “won’t allow Tepco to restart another nuclear plant until they get to control Fukushima plant situation”

Note : If you are from the international mass media, Don’t read this site before taking a contact with me.

On 11/6/2013, the chairman of NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) Tanaka stated they won’t start the review for the restart of K.K. (Kashiwazaki-Kariwa) nuclear plant until they confirm Tepco got to take the control over Fukushima situation, which is convincing enough for Japanese people.
Having been financially limited, Tepco is forced to raise the power rates unless they can restart K.K. nuclear plant.
Tanaka commented Fukushima plant is full of problems, which Japanese people are the most concerned about. Unless Tepco shows the solution to convince people, NRA cannot publish the permission no matter how long it takes.
Related article.. [Column] No hope for the external pressure [URL]



Simply Info......



Oops! TEPCO Drops A Flashlight Into Reactor Suppression Chamber

Oops! TEPCO Drops A Flashlight Into Reactor Suppression Chamber
TEPCO had a long history before the disaster of losing routine objects into their reactors. Everything from clipboards in reactor vessels to shoes found inside the suppression chamber and various tools lost within the systems of the reactor. This is apparently still a problem as workers lost a flash light into the suppression chamber inside one of the reactors at Fukushima Daini. The flashlight had a magnet on the side of it to allow it to …Read entire article »



Pandora’s Promise; What You Need To Know

This film claims to be a documentary but is more of an informercial funded by the nuclear power industry, it airs tonight in the US on CNN. The film’s claims have been torn apart by just about every corner of the energy and environmental communities. A new rebuttal was posted on CNN’s website today http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/06/opinion/pandora-nuclear-energy-opinion-cavanagh-cochran/ We dissected the deceptions in this film when it first came out here: http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=9327 For even more reality check on the notion that nuclear is a climate change solution: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/189258-greens-dispute-climate-scientists-on-nuclear-power   … Read entire article »






Nuclear Whoppers

A recent NY Times oped resurrects yet again a number of logical fallacies about radiation risk and Fukushima. Probably the most frequently recurring theme is the idea that people should not be evacuated during a nuclear disaster. This has been heavily repeated by various nuclear industry insiders, usually from the US. The likely reason for these efforts to downplay Fukushima have little to do with Japan and more to do with the US. The US has an aging reactor fleet that is now mired in heavily populated urban areas. Evacuation around these plants is impossible. When evacuation is impossible the only solution that pleases the nuclear industry is to end evacuations. In order to do this … Read entire article »





Why Fukushima’s Reactors Failed

Why Fukushima’s Reactors Failed
One vulnerable system appears to be able to take out an entire nuclear plant if it fails and it isn’t the back up generators. SimplyInfo.org member Peter Melzer outlines how this one critical system holds the key to a nuclear plant surviving or melting down. Read the entire report on Peter’s blog here. … Read entire article »










Fukushima Shift; Japan May Take On Entire Disaster Response

Fukushima Shift; Japan May Take On Entire Disaster Response
The current government in Japan is considering taking on the costs and responsibility of the decontamination work, contaminated soil storage, decommissioning the reactors and the contaminated water problems at the plant. This is all of the current responses to the disaster short of compensating people for their losses and relocation. The government is considering permanently closing some areas of the … Read entire article »

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