Saturday, May 28 Fukushima updates

[robdogbucky]

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Tainted water ills 'massive'
IAEA team visits plant; utility slammed for not disclosing info
Bloomberg

As a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency was visiting the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Friday, academics warned that Tokyo Electric Power Co. has failed to disclose the scale of radiation leaks and faces a "massive problem" with contaminated water.

Tepco has been pumping cooling water into the three reactors that melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. By May 18, almost 100,000 tons of radioactive water had leaked into basements and other areas of the plant, according to the utility's estimates. The radioactive water may double by the end of December.

"Contaminated water is increasing and this is a massive problem," said Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist in isotope analysis and radiation detection at Nagoya University. "They need to find a place to store the contaminated water and they need to guarantee it won't go into the soil."

The 18-member IAEA team, led by the U.K.'s head nuclear safety inspector, Mike Weightman, is visiting the Fukushima reactors to investigate the accident and the government's response. Tepco and Japan's nuclear regulators haven't updated the total radiation leakage from the plant in since April 12…

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110528n1.html


No updates on radiation leakage at Fukushima from Japan's nuclear regulators since April 12. Any questions as to how the Japanese government will handle this calamity going forward?



Sunday, May 29, 2011
As nuke workers wait, tainted water climbs

By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer

While Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to set up a water treatment facility in mid-June to decontaminate the thousands of tons of radioactive water being generated at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, the utility must also find a safe place to store it before it leaks into the ground or finds its way to the sea.

Compounding the problem are the reactors, which are believed to be ridden with cracks, holes or damaged pipes that are allowing the water being used to cool what's left of the reactor cores to escape.

With the rainy season approaching, speed is of the essence. But experts say plugging the leaks is extremely difficult because of the high radiation, which means Tepco could be stuck with the water for years.

"The tainted water needs to be processed as quickly as possible," said Kenji Takeshita, a professor at the Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and an expert on nuclear waste disposal. "If the amount continues to increase, there will be nowhere to store it. And if it overflows, the water could leak into the sea, which will be a big problem…."

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110529a3.html

The scariest part of that article includes the quote at the end from Mr. Koyama: "Because of the high radiation, I'd assume the workers won't be able to build the cooling system that strongly," he said, confirming that it might not be able to hold up if big aftershocks occur.



Radioactive materials found off Miyagi and Ibaraki

Japan's science ministry has detected extraordinarily high levels of radioactive cesium in seafloor samples collected off Miyagi and Ibaraki Prefectures. Experts say monitoring should be stepped up over a larger area to determine how fish and shell fish are being affected.

The ministry collected samples from 12 locations along a 300-kilometer stretch off Fukushima prefecture's Pacific coast between May 9th and 14th. It hoped to get an idea about the spread of nuclear contamination caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Radioactive substances were found in all locations, including those off Miyagi and Ibaraki Prefectures, which had not been previously investigated...

...Professor Takashi Ishimaru of the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology says plankton most probably absorbed the radioactive substances carried by the current near the sea surface, and then sank to the seabed.

He said monitoring must be stepped up over a larger area, as radioactive materials in the seabed do not dissolve quickly, and can accumulate in the bodies of larger fish that eat shrimp and crabs that live on the seafloor.

Saturday, May 28, 2011 22:21 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/28_23.html


Mr. Ishimaru said "radioactive materials in the seabed do not dissolve quickly, and can accumulate..." I could have sworn that some poster here assured us all the radiation is all local and very minor. I sure am glad I bother to read the news from over there each day.



Crippled nuke plant not prepared for heavy rain, wind

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds forecast due to a powerful typhoon moving Saturday toward disaster-affected areas of northeastern Japan, according to the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Heavy rain has been forecast for the areas from Sunday to Monday due to the season's second typhoon, Songda, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Tokyo Electric, or TEPCO, has for the last month been spreading anti-scattering agents around the troubled Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings to prevent radioactively contaminated dust from being carried into the air and sea by rain and wind.

But some of the reactor buildings have been left uncovered after they were damaged by hydrogen explosions following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. TEPCO plans to launch the work to put covers on the destroyed buildings in mid-June.

A TEPCO official said, "We have made utmost efforts, but we have not completed covering the damaged reactor buildings. We apologize for the lack of significant measures against wind and rain..."

(Mainichi Japan) May 28, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110528p2g00m0dm013000c.html



Great. They have known the stormy season was approaching and have done nothing in over 2 months. They apologize for the lack of significant measures against wind and rain. Great. TEPCO could have known, should have known. Don't care about safety, only profits.



Doubts deepen over TEPCO truthfulness after president's sightseeing trip uncovered

Suspicions that Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is hiding information were heightened on May 27 with revelations that its president was not where TEPCO had said he was on the day of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

TEPCO had claimed that on March 11 its President Masataka Shimizu was on a trip to meet with Kansai-area business leaders. The Mainichi discovered, however, that Shimizu was in fact sightseeing in Nara -- a discrepancy that TEPCO now refuses to discuss.
According to sources close to the matter and the Nara Prefectural Government, Shimizu, his wife and secretary checked into a hotel in the ancient capital on March 10 for a two-night stay. The trio had planned to go watch a traditional event at Todaiji temple the next day.

On the afternoon of March 11, in his role as chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC), Shimizu went to "observe" the site of the Heijokyu Imperial Palace. The FEPC had sponsored the 2010 celebration of the 1,300th anniversary of the transfer of the Japanese Imperial seat to the palace...

(Mainichi Japan) May 28, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110528p2a00m0na004000c.html



Softbank CEO Son morphs into advocate of nuclear phaseout
BY YASUAKI OSHIKA ASAHI SHIMBUN WEEKLY AERA
2011/05/28

When the crisis unfolded at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of Softbank Corp., suddenly "saw the light" and transformed into a promoter of new energy sources and the phasing out of nuclear power.

Observers wonder if it was simply patriotism at a time of national crisis or smart entrepreneurship sensing a timely business opportunity that threw the switch for Son.

It's clear that the Softbank CEO followed the unfolding events following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 and the subsequent tsunami that engulfed the Fukushima plant and knocked out its cooling system with great interest.

On March 16, just after successive explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Son said on Twitter, "Japan is facing the largest crisis in history," and he asked on March 20, "What is the evacuation shelter closest to the Fukushima plant?"…

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105270192.html




Hi ho!

[Gregorian]

1. Rob whatshisname says things are just fine. Dr. Caldicott says things are horrific.

Despite the claims on this very forum that Dr. Caldicott is nuts, I believe she knows her science. It looks like the IAEA backs that up.

I sure hope we don't need more of these in order to dissuade the pro-nuclear crowd that it's time to dismantle the potentially deadly form of energy generation.

[intheflow]

2. This is so sad/scary/disgusting.

I pray for the people of Japan. I pray for our planet. I pray for humanity's enlightenment that we learn from this and shut down all nuke plants.

[Gregorian]

3. Here is my crude comparison of nuclear and solar.

I posted it on a nuclear thread that was unrec'd out of existence. So I'm posting it here. It is a very rough first stab, but cannot be far from the truth. I might mention that I'm intimately familiar with Diablo Canyon. And it doesn't take much to know just what is involved in solar. Having said that, here's Watts versus complexity and footprint area of a fairly comparable facility.



40MW takes up 540 acres. (And of course when it's night time, there is no generation. That's what tidal and wind are for.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldpolenz_Solar_Park

Diablo Canyon produces a GW.

It is located on close to 1000 acres.

So as for area taken up, they are not significantly different.


Looking at the two facilities, it definitely appears that Diablo Canyon takes up a world of resources more than the photovoltaic farm. I've been inside Diablo Canyon. I have seen it. It is not trivial, like photovoltaics.

And then there is "disposal" of nuclear waste. And accidents. It's not much of a comparison in terms of steady state power. One shuts off when the sun goes down. It's also not much of a comparison in terms of safety and health. That is now very obvious.

[PCIntern]

4. We GUARANTEE it won't go into the water table, or your money BACK!!

Promise!!!

Two free hands of bananas for each KWH used...