Japan's Fukushima debacle and the New Mexico WIPP nuclear debacle updates May 25 , 2014 .........Apart from noting the similarities regarding how information or the lack thereof is desminated by both the US and Japan regarding both situations , also note the restart of Oi nuclear plant in Japan has been blocked by a Japanese Court .

Simply Info....


WIPP....

WIPP Storing Weapons Grade Plutonium In Room 7

While DOE and WIPP officials have been telling the public that the waste inside WIPP is mostly things like old gloves and radiation suits, they are failing to inform the public and the media of the much different reality going on below ground. WIPP has had the rules that dictate what can be sent there changed repeatedly. At the same … Read entire article »

WIPP Update; 500 Barrels At Risk, State Demands Immediate Actions At WIPP

The state of New Mexico Environmental Department is demanding WIPP seal up panel 6 and also panel 7, room 7 where the incident happened within 10 days to eliminate what they consider to be a risk to the public. Some in the federal govt. questioned the state’s authority to do this. There has not been any review yet of potential … Read entire article »

WIPP; 57 Nuclear Waste Containers From Los Alamos At Risk For Explosion

57 nuclear waste containers from Los Alamos national lab are considered at risk for explosion after two similar barrels were identified as the cause of the incident in the WIPP underground. DOE and the state of New Mexico have not confirmed the location of all 57 containers. The state did request that all shipments that were in transit, above ground … Read entire article »

WIPP Finds Leaking Drum, More Problems Ahead

Officials at WIPP have released photos and some details about the new findings in the waste site. They have visually identified one barrel that caused damage in room 7. A black 50 gallon barrel appeared to have burst along the lid seam. The barrel did have a bag of magnesium oxide (MGO) on top of it. The bag itself was … Read entire article »

Fukushima........

Fukushima; The Loss Of Homeland

The central government has declared the towns of Futaba and Okuma to be interim storage sites for the growing piles of contaminated debris in Japan. Bags of contaminated dirt and debris remain piled up in communities all over Honshu with nowhere to go. The government has agreed to purchase land in the two towns for the storage facility but insists … Read entire article »

Fukushima Unit 3 Leak Found, Unit 1 Loses Containment Pressure Monitoring

Two significant admissions were made by TEPCO at the end of the week. Unit 3 Scope work into the unit 3 MSIV room found multiple locations where steam pipes were leaking. The handout appears to show locations on the joints of the pipes before the main steam isolation valves where they found leaks. The section where these pipes go through the containment … Read entire article »

Fukushima Unit 4; 880 Fuel Assemblies Removed

880 fuel assemblies have been removed from unit 4 to the common pool as of Monday. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/index-e.html This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this … Read entire article »

Japanese Court Blocks Oi Nuclear Plant From Restarting

A Japanese court has ruled that the Oi nuclear plant can not restart. A number of lawsuits have been filed since the 2011 disaster trying to block local nuclear plants from restarting. Kansai electric will appeal the ruling. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that the estimations for quake resistance given by the power company were unreliable. The NRA says … Read entire article »

Japan Government To Take Over Fukushima Decommissioning & Costs

A new law has been enacted by the Diet to allow the current entity dealing with compensation for victims to now also manage much of the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi. They will also be tasked with using government funds for any decommissioning effort TEPCO balks at paying for. They will also have some authority to instruct TEPCO to do things. The The … Read entire article »

Fukushima Town Demands Decontamination To Pre-Disaster Levels

This may be a first. The town of Nahara has demanded the central government decontaminate the town to what would be roughly pre-disaster levels before the town would be considered safe to reopen. The article states the requested levels be “one millisievert” that is likely per year as that is the ICRP level suggested for public exposures. The town also … Read entire article »

EX SKF.......

SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2014

Tritium in Seawater Over 30 Years in Japan

TEPCO has started the groundwater bypass operation, releasing the groundwater drawn before it reaches the highly contaminated reactor buildings in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Fukushima Minpo (5/24/2014) has the information on nuclide analysis of the seawater after the release:

東京電力福島第一原発の「地下水バイパス」計画で東電は２３日、放水前後の海水の放射性物質濃度の測定結果を発表した。放水前後で目立った変動は見られなかった。

TEPCO released the nuclide analysis of seawater before and after the release of groundwater from "the groundwater bypass" scheme on May 23, 2014. No significant change was observed.

東電によると、初めて放水した２１日に地下水バイパスの排水口から南へ約２２０メートル離れた付近で海水を採取し分析したところ、セシウム１３４、１３７は放水前後がいずれも検出下限値未満、全ベータは放水前が１リットル当たり１２ベクレル、放水後が同１１ベクレルだった。

According to TEPCO, the seawater sample was taken about 220 meter south of the groundwater bypass drainage outlet and analyzed. Cesium-134 and cesium-137 were below detection levels before and after the release of the groundwater. All-beta was 12 Bq/L before the release, and 11 Bq/L after the release.

トリチウムは放水前が同３・９ベクレル、放水後が同２・２ベクレルだった。

Tritium was 3.9 Bq/L before the release, and 2.2 Bq/L after the release.

Tritium in single-digit becquerels per liter of seawater. How does this compare to what existed before the Fukushima nuclear accident?

From the database maintained by Japan Chemical Analysis Center (radiation monitoring around nuclear facilities in Japan), the historical range for Fukushima Prefecture from 1979 to 2010 (two nuclear power plants - Fukushima I and Fukushima II) is approximately 0.4 Bq/L to 4 Bq/L.

How does Fukushima compare to other prefectures with nuclear power plant?

Here's a chart plotting tritium levels in Fukushima (two plants with 8 boiling water reactors), Ibaraki (2 plants, one decomissioned, one boiling water reactor from 1978 on), and Hokkaido (one plant with 3 pressurized water reactors, from 1989 on).

Now Fukushima is in red triangles (which I have no control over in the chart creation app at the website), Hokkaido in blue squares, and Ibaraki in black crosses. The range is approximately 0.4 Bq/L to 200 Bq/L (Ibaraki).

Hokkaido's spike above 10 Bq/L in 2011 may be the effect from the Fukushima nuclear accident, but the sample was collected in August 2011, nearly five months after the start of the accident and four months after the leak of extremely contaminated water from Reactor 2.

Now let's add "Nuclear Ginza" - Fukui Prefecture, with 13 reactors (most of which are pressurized water reactors). The range is approximately 0.4 Bq/L to 1100 Bq/L (Fukui).

1100 Bq/L of tritium was measured from the sample taken off Tateishi on April 24, 2009, according to the Japan Chemical Analysis Center database. Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant is located nearby. I couldn't find any incident on or around that date for the plant.

Finally, a chart that includes all prefectures with tritium measurement:

I am trying to find the data on tritium levels in seawater off Fukushima AFTER the accident, but it's not in the Japan Chemical Analysis Center database. The prospect of shifting through the government data on ever-changing links is not very appealing...