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Saturday, October 4, 2014
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Updates ( October 4 - 5 , 2014 ) Fukushima To Be Hit By Typhoon Phanfone , Causing Ocean Contamination: Tepco ..... Stated another way ---- Fukushima No. 1 at risk of 26-meter tsunami: Tepco ....... Items of note from Energy News.....
NHK WORLD, Oct 6, 2014: Rain flows into Fukushima nuclear plant — [TEPCO] says rainwater has flowed into some of the buildings at the facility. A typhoon brought very heavy rain to Fukushima on Monday. [TEPCO] says an alarm on Monday morning warned of a water leak in the turbine building of the No.1 reactor. Workers found rainwater pouring into the building from an exterior pipe. TEPCO officials say a water leak was also detected at the No.3 reactor building, adding that a camera captured images of rainwater pouring in. The officials say no radioactive water has been leaked outside.
Fukushima Daiichi worker @Happy11311, Google Translate, Oct 5 at 10:52p ET (emphasis added): Typhoon has… past, but it was like there is a puddle quite the scene (>_<)
Fukushima Daiichi worker @Happy11311, Google Translate, Oct 5 at 7:30p ET:It came up to the rest area, but I think that’s 1F direct hit from (>_<) Now disciple rain wind was getting stronger … pretty. Sometimes, gust came, but was impossible but (>_<), workers patrol, because will patrol kit in this storm, please safety first anyway work with enough to do the support…
Fukushima Daiichi worker @Happy11311, Google Translate, Oct 5 at 5:11p ET: Typhoon No. 18, the pattern of hit the 1F now. Typhoon hit like thistime was perhaps the first time since the earthquake… expected rainfall 150mm [6 inches] Hamadori of the day today. It’s rainfall to nearly twice the previous time, it was very heavy rain… The site, because there full of things worry, if you do not halt with minimal damage
Japan Times, Oct 6, 2014: [A] strong typhoon whipped through the Tokyo metropolitan area after making landfall further south, bringing torrential rain and strong winds to the Kanto region. More than 2 million people in eight prefectures were advised to evacuate from Typhoon Phanfone… The city of Shizuoka got 87 mm per hour in Aoi Ward, while Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, got 72 mm — both local records. The typhoon… was about 150 km east of Iwaki,Fukushima Prefecture, the agency said, and… still packing gusts of up to 180 kph.
The approach of Typhoon Phanfone forced search and rescue operations to be suspended Sunday on Mount Ontake, where 12 people are officially listed as missing from the deadly volcanic eruption on Sept. 27.
Phanfone, the 18th storm of the year, was expected to bring heavy rain to areas around Ontake, dropping about 120 mm over a 24-hour period through Monday morning, the Nagano Meteorological Observatory said.
Heavy rain combined with the thick volcanic ash left by the eruption of the 3,067-meter-high volcano is posing a high risk of mudslides.
A total of 51 deaths have so far been blamed on the nation’s worst postwar volcanic disaster, after more four bodies were retrieved on Saturday.
Authorities in the towns of Kiso and Otaki at the foot of the volcano straddling Nagano and Gifu prefectures have warned residents to stay alert for flooding and mudslides.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, as of 7 p.m. on Sunday Phanfone was roughly 200 km (125 miles) south of Cape Ashizuri in Kochi Prefecture, moving northeast at a speed of 30 kph with an atmospheric pressure of 945 hectopascals at its center and packing winds of up to 216 kph (135 mph).
The typhoon is expected to come close to the Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka, and the Pacific coast of eastern Japan on Monday, with the possibility of making landfall, the agency said.
An aerial photo taken by the land ministry shortly after the March 11, 2011, earthquake shows tsunami reaching the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. land ministry/kyodo
Fukushima No. 1 at risk of 26-meter tsunami: Tepco
JIJI
Tokyo Electric Power Co. has warned its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could be hit by tsunami as high as 26.3 meters.
The deluge would likely cause seawater to mingle with the radiation-tainted water accumulating in the basements of the reactor buildings at the six-unit plant, allowing 100 trillion becquerels of cesium to escape, according to an estimate that Tepco revealed Friday at a meeting of the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
Tepco said a tsunami of that size occurs once every 10,000 to 100,000 years.
The Fukushima No. 1 plant, more than 40 years old, was crippled by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami after waves as high as 15.5 meters inundated the facility, knocking out all power and disabling the vital backup cooling systems for reactors 1 to 4, triggering three core meltdowns.
Tepco also said the nearby Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant, which is nearly as old as Fukushima No. 1, could be hit by tsunami of up to 27.5 meters, but that its idled reactors and fuel pools would not be damaged by such an event.
MOSCOW, October 4 (RIA Novosti), Ekaterina Blinova - Tepco, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, has revealed that the approaching typhoon could hit the damaged, decommissioned 40-year old nuclear power facility Fukushima No.1, which was severely affected during the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
"The deluge would likely cause seawater to mingle with the radiation-tainted water accumulating in the basements of the reactor buildings at the six-unit plant, allowing 100 trillion becquerels of cesium to escape, according to an estimate that Tepco revealed Friday at a meeting of the Nuclear Regulation Authority," the Japan Times reports.
According to the media outlet, tidal waves from the storm are likely to reach a maximum height of 26.3 meters or more. The storm is likely to strike the Fukushima No.2 nuclear plant as well, but "its idled reactors and fuel pools" are not expected to be destroyed, Tepco officials assert.
It should be noted that the 2011 tsunami reached a height of 15.5 meters when it hit the plant, which was followed by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.
In order to minimize the impact of the hurricane, Tepco "will reduce the vast quantity of radioactive water" on the site, the Asahi Shimbun notes. Citing Tepco's officials, the media source claims that the amount of contaminated wate, which is expected to spill into the ocean, could be decreased to 30 percent "by filling in trenches near reactors."
Tokyo Reporter 
Russian Scientists Take Water Samples from Near Fukushima Nuclear Plant
Powerful Typhoon Phanfone could strike Japan, Tokyo this weekend
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