Fukushima Diary.....
![[Photo] Heap of removed soil for decontamination piled up right behind a residential street in Fukushima](http://fukushima-diary.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Photo-Heap-of-removed-soil-for-decontamination-right-behind-a-residential-street1-800x500_c.jpg)
Iori Mochizuki
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”.
Tepco no clue to reboot coolant system of Pool of Reactor 5 / Gaining time by emergency measures – Photo
Following up this article..
Spent fuel pool of Reactor 5 suspended for coolant system failure / Tepco “We have 9 days to go” [URL]On 7/6/2014, Tepco announced the coolant system of Reactor 5 had a leakage failure to stop cooling the spent fuel pool.Reactor 5 is shut down with Reactor 6, however they still need to keep cooling down the reactors and the spent fuel pools.(cf, Reactor5 and 6 officially shut down as of today [URL])From Tepco’s statement, the troubled coolant system is a seawater pump of a nuclear reactor auxiliary machine cooling system, which is to exchange the heat with the direct coolant water. They found approx. 1.3 t of coolant seawater leaked in Reactor5 building.At 13:10 of 7/6/2014, Tepco suspended the coolant system of the spent fuel pool of Reactor 5 in order to stop the leakage.The leaking point was a hole of 3mm diameter flow regulating valve.The pool temperature was 23℃ when suspended. Tepco states they still have 9 days until it reaches the safety limit of 65℃.However, it is not clear how they are going to fix the leaking point. Tepco hasn’t announced their next measures after the 10th day.
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.
Spent fuel pool of Reactor 5 suspended for coolant system failure / Tepco “We have 9 days to go”
On 7/6/2014, Tepco announced the coolant system of Reactor 5 had a leakage failure to stop cooling the spent fuel pool.
Reactor 5 is shut down with Reactor 6, however they still need to keep cooling down the reactors and the spent fuel pools.
(cf, Reactor5 and 6 officially shut down as of today [URL])
From Tepco’s statement, the troubled coolant system is a seawater pump of a nuclear reactor auxiliary machine cooling system, which is to exchange the heat with the direct coolant water. They found approx. 1.3 t of coolant seawater leaked in Reactor5 building.
At 13:10 of 7/6/2014, Tepco suspended the coolant system of the spent fuel pool of Reactor 5 in order to stop the leakage.
The leaking point was a hole of 3mm diameter flow regulating valve.
The pool temperature was 23℃ when suspended. Tepco states they still have 9 days until it reaches the safety limit of 65℃.
However, it is not clear how they are going to fix the leaking point. Tepco hasn’t announced their next measures after the 10th day.
Contaminated groundwater has started breaking into common pool, to where Tepco is transferring the fuel assemblies from Reactor4 pool.
From Tepco’s announcement of 7/3/2014, they found groundwater was leaking into the basement floor of common pool building from 3 points of through-hole for piping.
They state the water is drained from the floor funnel to contaminated water circulating system.
The water is reported to be just groundwater, however it is contaminated.
Cesium-134 density : 21,000 Bq/m3
Cesium-137 density : 60,000 Bq/m3
All β nuclide density : 170,000 Bq/m3
It is not clear why the contaminated groundwater suddenly started breaking into the common pool.
However Tepco had stopped transferring fuel assemblies from SFP 4, two days before this announcement. The reason is supposed to be the annual inspection of on-premises transportation container and the cranes.
Tepco is not commenting they postponed this announcement until they suspended fuel transfer for annual inspection.
The fuel transfer is planned to restart this September.
↑ From a Twitter post of a Fukushima citizen. He said, “The authorities came to check the radiation levels every few days for 3 times in total, but the readings went up every time they measured. They removed the soil again from where the radiation level significantly rose up. Some people are complaining because some of the soil bags are torn in residential district. Decontamination is just a fantasy.”
Related to this article.. [Photo] Heap of removed soil for decontamination piled up right behind a residential street in Fukushima [URL]
The soil removed from the ground for “decontamination” is starting to break out of the bags in Fukushima.
Environmental NPO staff leaks, the bags are severely deteriorated already because of putrefaction gas from the soil and also the sprout from the plants included with the soil.
The bags are the normal “Flexible container bag”, but there are 140,000 bags in approx. 600 temporary storage areas in Fukushima prefecture. One bag is 1m × 1m, weighs 1 ~ 1.5 t.
Originally, the bags are supposed to last only 3 ~ 5 years.
The government of Japan has not announced any measures to properly preserve the increasing soil from decontamination.
On 7/4/2014, one of the borough chairmans in Okuma-machi town made the declaration not to go home. The declaration was submitted to Okuma-machi town government.
It’s the district in 7km radius area from Fukushima nuclear plant.
The residents are approx. 200. Atmospheric dose is about 30 μSv/h.
The residents state the reasons are because Japanese government is requesting the town to accept the interim storage facility of the soil removed for decontamination and also they can’t expect the infrastructure to be restored.
[Photo] Heap of removed soil for decontamination piled up right behind a residential street in Fukushima
Related to this article.. [Photo] A heap of removed soil for decontamination in Minamisoma [URL]
On 6/26/2014, another Fukushima citizen posted a picture of the piled soil bags removed for decontamination.
“The bags of soil removed for decontamination is being piled in temporary storage area.
It’s right behind my friend’s house with two children.
It would be a major hot spot when it’s full. ・・・”
Typhoon Neoguri headed for Japan. Forecast model has it as a cat 5 Monday night SSW of Tokyo but it will diminish as it makes landfall and probably just be a tropical storm when it reaches Fukushima with heavy rain,, no storm surge:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/western-pacific/2014/typhoon-Neoguri?map=5day
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteworld/asiasatellite_large.html?clip=undefined®ion=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteworld/eastasiasatellite_large.html?clip=undefined®ion=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteworld/westpacificglobalsatellite_large.html?clip=undefined®ion=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined
Good morning, I hope everyone had a nice fourth.
ReplyDeleteA nice typhoon is not exactly what Fukushima needs. Amazing how they have hid the facts on how bad that place is.
Have a great day
Morning Kev , NW - hope you both had a happy , restful and safe 4th of July ! Yeah , the beat goes on regarding Fukushima.....regretfully , it probably will take something going completely sideways before Authorities are forced to start telling more of the truth about that situation. until that day comes , expect more lies , concealment , foot dragging .....
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