Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Updates ( July 11 - 15 , 2014 ) Today's 6.8 quake near Fukushima is the second notable quake in less than a week for Japan ........... Plant status , updates regarding remediation attempts ......

Fukushima Diary.....

[Breaking] M6.8 hit Fukushima offshore / No update on Fukushima plant status

 219  30  0  1

 July 11, 2014

At 4:22 7/12/2014 (JST), a strong earthquake of M6.8 hit Fukushima offshore.

The maximum seismic intensity was 4.

In area where Fukushima nuclear plant is located, it was 3. The epicenter was approx. 10km deep.

At this moment, no update on Fukushima plant situation has been published.

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/

http://weathernews.jp/quake/

M5.8 quake hit South part of Hokkaido “Very shallow”

 0  11  0  7

 July 8, 2014

According to Japan Meteorological Agency, a major earthquake occurred in the South part of Ishikari area Hokkaido.

It was 18:05 of 7/8/2014 (JST). Magnitude was 5.8. The maximum seismic intensity was 5 -.

The epicenter is reported to be “very shallow”.

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/20140708181120495-081805.html

http://www.google.org/publicalerts/alert?aid=b656dc35548c9149&hl=ja&gl=US&source=web

http://weathernews.jp/quake/

Plant Updates.......

Coolant system of Reactor 6 spent fuel pool also suspended for 2 hours

 30  25  0  19

 July 11, 2014

Related to this article.. Reactor 5 temperature jumped up 13 ℃ while losing coolant system only for 2 days [URL]

On 7/11/2014, Tepco announced the coolant system of SFP 6 (Reactor 6 spent fuel pool) was temporarily suspended for a technical problem too.

Reactor 6 was in the process to move all the fuel assemblies from the reactor to SFP 6 in order to centralize the fuels to cool down.

The cooling system was intermitted while they were transferring the fuel. They were planning to restart the coolant system at 17:00 but it was suspended until 19:00.

The cause of suspension was water leakage from a valve again.

From their report, if they couldn’t reboot the coolant system, the pool temperature would have gone over the safety limit in 5 days.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2014/1238967_5851.html

http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2014/1238970_5851.html

Reactor 5 temperature jumped up 13 ℃ while losing coolant system only for 2 days

 4  12  0  2

 July 11, 2014

Graph : Blue line shows the reactor temperature, Green line shows the SFP 5 temperature

Following up this article..

Tepco no clue to reboot coolant system of Pool of Reactor 5 / Gaining time by emergency measures – Photo [URL]

On 7/7/2014, Tepco announced they have no clue to reboot the coolant system of Reactor 5 Spent Fuel Pool.

Based on their estimate, there is 8 days left until the pool temperature reaches the safety limit of 65℃.

The pictures below show the leakage hole on the valve and their temporary repairs. The gray material is reported to be hardening agent but it is not explained if it’s merely cement or bond.

In order to slower the pool temperature going up, Tepco re-use the coolant system of the reactor itself as the emergency measures, but it causes the risk to let the reactor heated up again.

If the reactor temperature goes over 100℃, it is not the cold shutdown state. Tepco is commenting they still have time until it reaches 100℃ however the heating rate per hour is not announced.

From Tepco’s plant parameter, the temperature of Reactor 5 had rapidly increased since they directed the coolant system to SFP 5 (spent fuel pool in Reactor 5) on 7/8/2014.

Until they got the coolant system back to the normal stand on 7/10/2014, the reactor temperature jumped up from 29℃ to 42.5 ℃ (The graph above is the plotted plant parameters).

This means Reactor 5 is still aggressively heated even though Tepco declares it is in the cold shut down state.

In the meantime, SFP 5 was cooled down from 33℃ to 24 ℃.

Tepco still has no clue to reboot the coolant system of SFP 5. Until they finally restart the coolant system, Tepco will have to play a seesaw game to cool down both of the reactor and pool only by one coolant system.

http://fukuichi.mods.jp/?p=3%2C4&fname=p56_1.csv&cnt=120&update=%E6%9B%B4%E6%96%B0

Preceding “frozen” water wall not frozen over 2 months – Video

 0  24  0  3

 July 7, 2014

Following up this article..

Preceding frozen water wall hasn’t worked since April [URL]

Related to this article.. Fukushima worker “Frozen wall was originally designed to stand with clay wall but they removed to cut the cost.” [URL]

A preceding part of the frozen water wall hasn’t been frozen for over a month, according to Tepco.

Tepco has started installing the frozen water underground wall to isolate 4 reactor buildings in Fukushima plant. Preceding the wall, Tepco installed the same wall in underground trench of the seaside of Reactor2 and 3.

Approx. 11,000 t of highly contaminated water is assumed to be retained in this trench to leak to underground and the Pacific.

This was an attempt to stop additional contaminated water flowing from reactor2 turbine building to this trench by freezing water like a wall. However even though they have been trying to freeze the water since the end of April, the water hasn’t been frozen by now.

They assume it is because the inner structure prevents water from being frozen and also the contaminated water is still flowing.

On 7/7/2014, Tepco admitted the preceding “frozen” water wall hasn’t gotten frozen over 2 months after the operation.

They installed the coolant packers at 2 locations of underground trench of the seaside of Reactor2 in the end of April and June but neither of them have been frozen.

As the reason, Tepco comments the water flow is preventing it from frozen. Tepco plans to install additional packers and grout and announces they can still complete freezing the wall by the end of September.

Energy News.....

04:37 AM EST on July 15th, 2014 | 85 comments

Japan experts warn of more quakes off Fukushima coast — Gov’t: There’s fear ‘relatively large’ ones will occur — Recent M6.8 a “delayed tectonic reaction” to M9.0 on 3/11 — “This is just one aftershock of several to come… could occur in next 2 weeks” (VIDEO)

04:08 PM EST on July 14th, 2014 | 52 comments

Officials: Radioactive material released into air from Fukushima plant, areas far away being contaminated — Gov’t tracking plumes using emergency prediction system — “Large amount” of radioactive substances will soon be released (PHOTOS & VIDEO)

09:15 PM EST on July 13th, 2014 | 105 comments

Japan Nuclear Prof.: Fukushima plant now a ‘swamp of radioactive material’ — Can’t stop pumping in more water because they don’t know where melted fuel went — Build roof over entire site? — Asahi: Continued presence of water threatens construction of ice wall around reactors

10:25 AM EST on July 13th, 2014 | 688 comments

Fukushima Press Conference: “To the people of the world… dangerous developments… we need your help” — I vomited blood, skin inside mouth peeled out… no limit to radiation damage… contamination is all over Japan — Speaker nearly cries when revealing babies in rain waiting for food after explosion, “Gov’t didn’t issue any warnings” (VIDEO)

10:05 PM EST on July 11th, 2014 | 29 comments

More quakes hit Fukushima — Official: We ordered workers to evacuate areas after M6.8 hit by nuclear plant — Expert: Typhoon causing increased radioactive runoff into ocean? Storm passed over epicenter of quakes — Another typhoon developing in same area as Neoguri; Japan urged to monitor progress (VIDEO)

05:25 PM EST on July 11th, 2014 | 30 comments

CNN Breaking News: Strong M6.8 quake off Fukushima — Tsunami warning issued — Gov’t: “Marine threat is in place… Get out of the water and leave the coast immediately” — Footage shows nuclear plant shaking for over a minute (VIDEO)

07:28 PM EST on July 8th, 2014 | 154 comments

Newly released data shows 4,000% more radioactive material in Fukushima groundwater than Tepco claimed — 39 billion Bq/m³ in sample from shoreline… after going through filtration process — Results not made public until almost a year later (VIDEO)