Saturday, April 12, 2014

Fukushima and US Nuclear Disaster Weekly Updates - April 12 - 18 , 2014 - Ongoing global threatening Fukushima Disaster News For The Week , Documentation Of Tepco ineptitude and Lies ( Recent articles and links included ) ....... Updates For Hanford and WIPP !

http://www.asmmag.com/2012-12-30-14-40-18/feature/6496-capturing-a-drone-eye-view-of-fukushima.html



Tamioka DroneAdventuresDrone Adventures teamed up with Taichi Furuhashi, researcher at the Center for Spatial Information Science at the University of Tokyo, to map some of the hardest hit towns on the eastern coast of Japan that were incapacitated by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster. Three towns in Fukushima district were mapped, including Iidate village, Hisanohama, and Tomioka.
The drone-eye view provided an update on the status of cleanup and reconstruction efforts in these cities. The unique perspective was captured using senseFly eBee drones for mapping and Pix4Dmapper software for data processing and orthomosaic generation. Mapbox hosts the data.
IIDATE: While 60 km north-west of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, this village was directly inline with prevailing winds during the explosions of Units 1, 3 and 4, and received some of the highest levels of contamination. Workers in the town were actively processing and moving contaminated soils to a storage facility.
HISANOHAMA: A village 30 km south of Fukushima Daiichi with much of the earthquake damage repaired, but with low-lying areas still deeply impacted by the tsunami. Building foundations are all that remains of many of the buildings.
TOMIOKA: This town just 10 km south of Fukushima Daiichi has yet to be cleared of damage. Click for a GigaPan image that shows the desolation in high resolution (c) MAPconcierge/GigaPan.jp CC BY).
The data collected during this mission was first presented by Taichi to the Japanese government and to members of the local governments of affected municipalities at the Geospatial Expo in Tokyo last November.  It has since been presented at various other local conferences, including the Race for Resilience – DRM Hackathon and as part of a keynote at the Recovering Symposium in Sendai by TOYOTA Foundation.
For photos of the mission check out the Drone Adventures photo gallery.


Russia Today....



No room for error? Fukushima basements mistakenly flooded with 200 tons of radioactive water

Published time: April 14, 2014 11:24
AFP Photo / Toru Hanai / Pool
AFP Photo / Toru Hanai / Pool
A pump at Japan’s battered Fukushima power plant has mistakenly flooded its basements with highly contaminated cooling-tank water. But the latest mishap follows a far more worrying discovery about one last year’s leak.
About 200 tons of water ended up flooding the basements beneath the complex, although the water didn’t have a pathway to reach the ocean or leak out to any other areas, fortunately. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., ordered the leakage to be removed as soon as possible, The Asahi Shimbun reports.
The water has gathered beneath a cluster of facilities responsible for processing waste.
The scary part about this particular brand of tainted water has to do with its function to cool nuclear fuel rods in storage tanks. This catapults the amount of becquerels per liter of cesium into the tens of millions. The water had leaked before going through a purification process designed to reduce these levels.
The first signs of trouble came April 10, as water levels indoors suddenly weren’t being siphoned off, instead rising. But the discovery that four pumps used specifically to reverse the flow of water were active was only made two days later, on April 12. They weren’t switched off until the early evening the next day.
This is after the battered power plant saw close to a ton of toxic water escape a storage tank on Sunday. No contact with the ocean has been found.
Japanese media put that leak at 1,640 becquerels per liter of radioactive cesium, judging by the water remaining in the tank. TEPCO said one of its workers had found it in a tank some 700 meters away from the shoreline at about midday GMT Sunday.
The water didn’t manage to seep into the Pacific, because there’s no ditch around the area; however, it did manage to pour into the ground, according to one official, who reported damage to the lower part of the tank.
However, the mishaps don’t stop there. The leaks come on the heels of a far more worrying discovery about radiation amounts in an August incident last year.
TEPCO revealed Friday that the massive leak of 300 tons of toxic water in August is far more catastrophic than initially thought, after recalculating radiation levels.
Just as the government overturned the initiative for a nuclear-free Japan by 2030, amid public outrage, news emerged that the Pacific Ocean had received a dose of 280 million becquerels per liter of radioactive materials from the August 2013 leak. The Japan Times reports that the Nuclear Regulation Authority put the incident at Level 3 (out of a possible eight).
TEPCO had used data from 173 water samples it had collected by last October and found that its measurements could have been offset by bad formulas. TEPCO then used a theoretical formula to arrive at the new results by performing some extrapolations.
Cleaning up the power plant is becoming an increasingly complex and challenging task. While Japan has had to cut high energy costs by refusing to get rid of nuclear power, the price of cleaning up the area, siphoning off toxic water and decontaminating the plant will be a decades-long venture costing the country billions of dollars.









Fukushima Diary



Someone turned on 4 irrelevant pumps / 203t 

of 37,000,000,000 Bq/m3 contaminated water 

transferred to wrong place

203 m3 of highly contaminated water was transferred to the wrong plant buildings.
Cs-134/137 density was 37,000,000,000 Bq/m3 in the wrongly transferred water.

The basement floors of reactor1~4 retain the coolant water and groundwater that increase by 400 m3 per day. Both of them are highly contaminated.
Tepco pumps it up and reuse it for the coolant water after purifying to an extent.

On 4/13/2014, Tepco employee found a part of the retained water was transferred to the wrong plant building. It was 2 days after they found abnormality in the water level of the plant buildings.

From the investigation, they found no less than 4 pumps were turned on, which are not used usually.

In the emergency email to the press, Tepco emphasizes that they didn’t find the wrongly transferred water leaking out of the building. However, no explanation has been made on why 4 pumps were unusually turned on and who might have done it.

On 4/13/2014, a 1m3 tank was found damaged and leak all the stocked water as well. It is not known how / who made the hole on the tank either.
(cf, 1 m3 of contaminated water leaked again / “Did someone make a hole on the tank for malicious purpose again ?” [URL])











“Like a garbage house” / Tepco’s spokesman 

“Storage cabinet is too messed to track the 

past samples”

Following up this article.. [Tepco's upward revision] “80 BILLION was actually 280 BILLION Bq/m3 in last summer’s leakage” [URL]

The storage cabinet of contaminated water samples is not properly managed, remains like a “garbage house”, Tepco’s spokesman talked on 4/11/2014.

Regarding 300 m3 leakage of contaminated water, Tepco revised the radioactive density from 80 billion Bq/m3 to 280 billion Bq/m3 on 4/11/2014.
From their report submitted to NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority), they have already “abandoned” the actual sample, so calculated the density based on their correction model. It therefore is not known how much the actual density was.

Regarding the reason why the sample was abandoned, Tepco’s spokesman said, every sample is supposed to be stocked for 3 months. However the storage cabinet is not organized as it should be, it is being like a “garbage house”.
Among the disorganized samples, the workers must look for the right sample just based on the label put on the case. They don’t know why the issued sample of 280 billion Bq/m3 was abandoned either.

Tepco is not even able to organize the contaminated water samples, but they are believed to be able to operate the decommissioning site of Fukushima.



[Tepco's upward revision] “80 BILLION was 

actually 280 BILLION Bq/m3 in last summer’s 

leakage”

Following up this article.. Leaked all β of “300m3 leakage accident” was also underestimated / INES level might be increased [URL]

All β nuclide density was 280,000,000,000 Bq/m3 in the leaked tank water last summer. All β nuclide means the collective of the nuclides to include Strontium-90. 
Tepco announced the all β nuclide density was 80,000,000,000 Bq/m3 in the beginning. They raised the reading by 3.5 times much after over half a year has passed.

Though contaminated water issue is the main concern of the entire Pacific region, Tepco was mis-analyzing the contaminated water and the wrongly analyzed samples were all underestimated instead of overestimated. Tepco states the wrongly analyzed samples were only 173, and they submitted the report about the 168 revised analysis data to NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) on 4/11/2014.
The analysis of “280,000,000,000 Bq/m3″ was quietly mentioned in this report, which Tepco didn’t refer to until a press inquired in the press conference of 4/11/2014.

Whether it was intentional or not, the government of Japan and Tepco tend to publish the unrealistically optimistic data in the beginning, and have upward revision when the public opinion withdraws from the issue.






[Video column] Fukushima Diary talks “Tepco 

washing off Plutonium to the Pacific, huge risk 

for the least effect”

Tepco plans to start discharging the bypass water to the Pacific from this coming June, but alpha nuclides including Plutonium-238/239/240 and Uranium-235/238 will not be tested nor filtered.
It would decrease only 10~25% of the groundwater flowing to the plant buildings, but why do they have to take such a risk ?
When they finish building the underground wall on the seaside, the stopped groundwater may come up to the bypass well point as well.
Fukushima Diary thinks it’s nothing but a performance of the government of Japan and Tepco to show as if they could be still doing something, they had a card in their hand.







Tepco started pumping up the bypass water to discharge / Tritium density jumped up to 87% of desired safety level

↑ The groundwater bypass wells


↑ The tanks to stock pumped water before discharging


Following up this article.. Tepco NOT to analyze Plutonium or Uranium in bypass water before discharging to the Pacific [URL]

Tepco started pumping up the groundwater from the bypass wells on 4/9/2014. They have already stocked the pumped water, but adding the new water to prepare to discharge to the sea.
They announced they are going to take approx. 1 month to analyze the water. However they usually take longer than a few months to analyze α nuclide to include Plutonium, Uranium and Americium etc.. in the water sample. This means they won’t analyze the pumped water for those nuclides.

Since they announced to discharge the bypass water “after radiation check”, contamination levels have been increasing in the water for some reason.
From the radiation test of 4/8/2014, Tritium density marked the highest readings in 3 of 8 bypass wells. In one of the wells, the highest density of Tritium has been exactly 1,200,000 Bq/m3 this March as if it was set not to indicate over this certain number. (cf, [Coincidence ?] 3 highest densities of Tritium are “exactly 1,200,000 Bq/m3″ in groundwater bypass [URL 2]) However it swiftly went up to 1,300,000 Bq/m3. This is already 87% of Tepco’s “desired dischargable level”.




Tepco NOT to analyze Plutonium or Uranium in 

bypass water before discharging to the Pacific

Following up this article.. Tepco plans to discharge pumped groundwater to the sea this coming June [URL]

Tepco is not going to analyze / put the safety limit on α nuclides including Plutonium-238/239/240 and Uranium-235/238 in bypassed groundwater to discharge.
They are planning to discharge the pumped groundwater to the Pacific from this coming June. They are supposed to analyze the contamination though they won’t filter the pumped water.

However from their answer to the local fishery cooperative, α nuclides will be excluded from the checking list. No matter how contaminated by Plutonium, Uranium, or / and Americium the water is, the pumped water will be discharged limitlessly.

α nuclides, which are the highest risk for the health and environment, are hardly checked in fishery products either. Potential Plutonium or Uranium of Fukushima plant will be discharged to the Pacific without any checking, and it can be transferred to the body of the fishery products consumers with no control.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/news/2014/images/140404a.pdf





Ex SKF




FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2014


#Fukushima I NPP: Tank Alarm Didn't Sound, But the Reason Is Probably Not What You Think


After countless mishaps in controlling and monitoring the huge steel tanks that store waters with different degrees of contamination - from water with hardly any contamination (rainwater, water drawn from the wells for the underground water bypass plan) to water with extremely high beta nuclides (waste water after SARRY/Kurion and desalination) - and countless promptings from Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioners, TEPCO installed water gauges to all 1000 tanks.

The water gauges are monitored in a room dedicated to monitoring the tanks, using a PC.

On April 8, TEPCO quietly announced that alarms went off on two of the tanks, without the staff in charge of monitoring (TEPCO employees) noticing the alarms for two hours. They turned out to be false alarms, and there was nothing wrong with either tank.

Now, why didn't the workers hear the alarm?

Then on April 9, TEPCO further admitted that there were not just two but 433 tanks whose alarms on water gauges were turned off.

Why? Because someone had turned off the sound on the PC.

This has got to be one of the lowest level of (non-)performance, even for TEPCO. But hardly anyone pays any attention any more to anything happening or not happening at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and even the NRA commissioners seems resigned to the fact that nothing they say or suggest to TEPCO will be fully heeded by TEPCO anyway. Chairman Tanaka, in recent press conferences, reportedly said "TEPCO is just that, that kind of company..."

From Mainichi Shinbun (4/9/2014):
汚染水タンク:433基の水位計 異常警報が「消音」状態

Alarms on water gauges on 433 tanks that store contaminated water were "off"

 東京電力は9日、福島第1原発の汚染水をためるタンク約1000基のうち433基に設置された水位計が、水位の異常を示す警報が出ても音が鳴らない「消音」状態になっていたことを明らかにした。8日には実際に水位計が故障して警報は出ても音が鳴らず、約2時間気付かなかったケースがあったという。

TEPCO revealed on April 9 that the water gauges on 433 tanks out of 1000 tanks that store contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant had been set so that there would be no sound even if an alarm was sounded to indicate abnormal water levels. On April 8, some water gauges malfunctioned and alarms were issued, but since there was no sound [the workers] didn't notice for two hours.

 東電によると、水位が上昇したり、急激に低下したりした時に警報が鳴る仕組みだが、全ての水位計を制御するパソコンで、警報音が鳴らない「消音」の設定になっていたという。2月に高濃度汚染水が漏れた際は警報音が鳴っており、東電はそれ以降に「消音」設定されたとみて「操作ミスかどうか原因を調べている」としている。

According to TEPCO, an alarm goes off when the water level rises or drops rapidly. However, the sound of the PC that controls all water gauges was set "off". When the highly contaminated water leaked in February this year, the alarm did go off. TEPCO believes the sound setting was changed to "off" after the February incident, and says they are investigating whether the sound was turned off by mistake.

My guess is that there were so many false positives that the workers couldn't stand the alarm noise and turned off the sound on the PC.



Energy News - Japan


National Geographic: Fukushima considered world’s worst nuclear accident — Physician: Fukushima remains a “global health concern” — Kaku: “It’s so bad, they don’t even have a picture of melted core… the agony is unending” (VIDEO)

Senior Scientist: Cancer increase expected on West Coast from Fukushima exposures; Radioactive particles can bio-accumulate and form hotspots while crossing Pacific — KCRW: Concern California wildlife to be impacted; Sea life can biomagnify nuclear waste, leading to higher levels of radiation (AUDIO)

Radioactive Spike in Ocean off Fukushima: Highest Cs-137 levels at location since 2011 — 22,000 Bq/m³ in Pacific outside port — Japan notifies IAEA of ‘elevated’ readings (MAP)



TV: Hundreds of tons of water in contact with melted nuclear fuel have now flooded basements at Fukushima plant — Nearly 10 Trillion Bq of Cesium — Concentration of strontium-90 and other radioactive materials not reported (VIDEO)

Fairewinds Video: ‘Anomalies’ in plants and animals documented by Fukushima residents, some severely deformed — Scientists: Genetic mutations observed in Fukushima include trees with peculiar distortions, insect abnormalities, tumors in birds, more (PHOTO)

Quake hits just off Fukushima plant, felt along 500 kilometer stretch of Japan coast — Seismic intensity of 4 on scale up to 7 — Camera shakes for about 1 minute (VIDEO)

New radioactive leak reported at Fukushima on Sunday — Previous leak admitted to be “far more toxic” than public told — Over 80 trillion becquerels flowed into Pacific, unspecified amount of “nuclear fuel material” — Already rated an INES ‘Level 3′ incident using the much lower incorrect figures




New radioactive leak reported at Fukushima on Sunday — Previous leak admitted to be “far more toxic” than public told — Over 80 trillion becquerels flowed into Pacific, unspecified amount of “nuclear fuel material” — Already rated an INES ‘Level 3′ incident using the much lower incorrect figures




Fukushima worker on verge of breakdown speaking about 3/11: “The earth around me distorting like Jell-O” — Massive upheavals taking entire Reactor 1 turbine building with it — “Sounds like it wants to come apart, going to explode” — “Concrete floor and walls around us began to crack” (AUDIO)


Fairewinds Video: Many in Fukushima told me of family or friends dying suddenly — “I sense something grave is happening” — People are sicker in Tokyo as well — I also experienced unusual symptoms when in Japan recently



Experts: Nuclear chain reactions may have lasted over 7 months at Fukushima — Neutron leakage from ‘active’ molten fuel — “Core producing radioactive sulfur” — Top Gov’t Official: MOX fuel could be neutron source


AP: Fukushima children flee radiation; “Getting nosebleeds, growing pale and lethargic”; Mistrust of officials high — Father: “Cases of cancer are up… we are worried” — Mother: I don’t believe it’s as safe as gov’t claims, raising questions can get you branded a troublemaker


U.N. Agency: Fukushima Reactor 2 “burst” after fuel melted — Then radiation doses quickly hit highest levels of entire crisis for many places across region… went in almost every direction… then skyrocketed all at around same time (VIDEO)




Energy News - US and Canada .....





Nuclear Engineer: Radiation levels “much higher” in areas of Fukushima plume headed to west coast than models show — Radio: Concern “other isotopes” besides cesium to cross Pacific (AUDIO)


TV: “Far more serious than Feds letting on” at US nuclear site — Many workers in much worse shape than reported — Week-long nosebleeds, intense headaches, shaking, burning lungs, vomiting — Worker: Now I’m worrying… after two weeks I feel worse, not better (VIDEO) #Hanford


Navy Sailors: Frozen Fukushima steam blanketed ship; Crew suffered massive radiation doses, dozens have cancer — Calls for it to be sunk… still too radioactive; Navy: There’s some contamination, but it’s ok — Tepco: No way US officials would rely on information we were telling to public




Gov’t model shows airborne radioactive plume covering entire west coast of US & Canada on Mar 22, 2011… 10 times more radioactive than plume coming from Fukushima plant on same day — Radiation levels in some plumes had no discernible decrease after crossing Pacific (VIDEO)


Professors: Seafood off N. American coast predicted to exceed gov’t radioactivity limit — “High priority looming threat” to global ocean from Fukushima releases — Radiation levels ‘well above’ 1,000 Bq/kg according to model


Expert: No one in world has ever dealt with something like WIPP disaster — Continuous release of radioactive material ’24/7′ to environment — Nobody knows when leaking will end — It’s a ‘major failure’ for so many people to be exposed — Gov’t yet to say if dump will open again (AUDIO)





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