Fukushima News 11/7/13: Fukushima At Most Dangerous Phase Since 311; IAEA & Fukushima Seawater

MissingSky101


   

Published on Nov 7, 2013

Japan is bracing itself for the most dangerous operation at the Fukushima nuclear plant since it was crippled by a quake and tsunami in March 2011. The company running the facility plans to move radioactive fuel rods to safe storage. RT's Alexey Yaroshevsky is in Japan for us. Christina Consolo, Founder and Host of Nuked Radio, doubts that engineers will be able to pull this off - given the level of damage at the plant.

Fukushima plant prepared for uranium and plutonium removal
Nuclear engineers in Japan are preparing to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods at Fukushima, their most difficult and dangerous task since the plant's runaway reactors were brought under control two years ago.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_11...
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_11...

IAEA experts inspect seawater checks off Fukushima
Two experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency have inspected the procedures for checking radioactivity in seawater off the damaged Fukushima plant.
David Osborn directs the IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco and Hartmut Nies is the head of the IAEA Radiometrics Laboratory.
They left Onahama port in Fukushima Prefecture on board a boat for seawater monitoring on Thursday.
The plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, commissioned the boat to collect water samples within 20 kilometers of the facility.
The inspection took place after Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority and the IAEA agreed to cooperate to bolster the credibility of seawater checks and analysis.
International concern over radioactive contamination of the sea is growing because of repeated leaks of tainted water at the plant.
Osborn said methods to collect seawater samples were appropriate under international standards. He said the IAEA will continue to cooperate if requested by Japan.
On Friday, the team is scheduled to visit a facility where collected samples are analyzed for levels of radioactive substances.

Mystery: Starfish turn to 'slime' along Pacific coast — "We're talking about a loss of millions and millions" — Compared to medieval 'Black Death' — Innards become exposed and fall apart — Cases ballooning in Alaska (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/mystery-disease-tu...

Fukushima operator mulls overhaul to counter break-up plans
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ5h1t...

Caldicott: 50 years or more of highly contaminated water flowing into Pacific from Fukushima — Tepco VP not optimistic: "I have concerns" for long-term plan — Location of melted fuel a mystery (VIDEO)
https://plus.google.com/events/cr0dal...

NRA "won't allow Tepco to restart another nuclear plant until they get to control Fukushima plant situation"
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/11/nr...

Origin of 16,703 food products not known in the radiation test of Ministry of health
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/11/or...

Indigenous Elders and Medicine Peoples Council Statement on Fukushima
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/11/05...

Nuclear Expert: Fuel rods are "in a jumble" at Fukushima Unit 4 pool; Unclear if they are cracked — US pressing Japan on removal, fears terrorist activity at plant (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-fue...

Top Nuclear Official: "Very large risk potential" when attempting fuel removal at Fukushima Unit 4 pool — CNN: Debris in rods may damage Tepco's efforts (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/top-japan-nuclear-...

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Tepco Under Increasing Fire Over Nuclear Accident Site

Wall Street Journal

Panel Appointed by Firm Criticize Slow Release of Information

By
• MARI IWATA

TOKYO—As problems mount at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, more experts and overseers are accusing the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. 9501.TO -9.84% of incompetence in how it is dealing with one of the world's worst nuclear accidents.
An advisory panel of outside experts—appointed by Tepco itself—blasted the utility on Friday for its slow release of information about a recent leak of radioactive water.
The panel, which is tasked with making recommendations to improve Tepco's performance after the missteps surrounding the 2011 accident, said that the company needed to improve its risk management, communication and water-management planning.

More

• Radioactive Water Detected at Fukushima

"I'd like to say myself how disappointed and distressed I was when I arrived in Japan," said Barbara Judge, a former chair of the British Atomic Energy Authority and deputy chair of the panel. "To find that communications with respect to the leak problem have been so difficult and so late was very devastating," she said.
Underscoring the concerns, just a day after the panel's meeting, the utility said that it had found new dangerous levels of radiation in a trench near one of the heavily damaged reactors.
Earlier in the week, Japan's nuclear regulator had also expressed skepticism about Tepco's ability to keep the situation at the damaged plant under control.
"It is simply too big for one company to handle," said Shunichi Tanaka, Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman, at a news conference Wednesday. "Placing all the burden (of controlling the site) on them won't solve the problem."
Mr. Tanaka suggested that the government may have to eventually step in with money and other resources to help out.
"As the organization in charge, we can only say we will tackle the challenges in a responsible manner," a Tepco spokesman said in reply to Mr. Tanaka's comments.
Tepco's decommissioning effort has already been aided by ¥99.7 billion ($1 billion) in government financing for research and development of new technologies, he said, and Tepco is planning to work with nuclear-equipment makers such as Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp.in dismantling the plant.


Read More Here


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Japan Daily Press

International nuclear experts tell TEPCO ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Ida Torres  

 

Two international nuclear experts who were invited to a nuclear reform monitoring panel took to task the organizer, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for their handling of the toxic water leaks at their crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The operator has been facing problem after problem ever since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami resulted in a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, the worst nuclear disaster in recent history.
Dale Klein, former head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) bluntly told the panel, composed of two foreign experts and four Japanese members including TEPCO’s chief executive, that their actions indicate they “don’t know what you are doing,” and that they do not have a conservative decision-making process. “It also appears that you are not keeping the people of Japan informed…and that you are not doing all you can to protect the environment and the people,” Klein blasted at TEPCO. He added that everyone is frustrated with the recent developments, and that because of this all the progress they’ve made on the clean-up at the plant will go unnoticed.


Read More Here


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Radiation in the water at Fukushima as high as in 2011

15 hours ago by Tokyo Times in National

The radiation in the water leaked from the premises of the Fukushima nuclear power plant is as high as it was during the 2011 disaster caused by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Saturday it has detected 2.35 billion becquerels of cesium per liter from water in an underground passage at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that is leaking into the sea. This is roughly the same level as the level of radiation measured in April 2011, shortly after the nuclear disaster the preceding month.
The water sample taken Friday from a trench contained 750 million becquerels of cesium-134 and 1.6 billion becquerels of cesium-137 per liter, while 750 million becquerels of other radioactive substances were detected, according to TEPCO, quoted by Kyodo.


Read More Here


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Nuclear Event - Japan, Prefecture of Fukushima, [Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant]

Earth Watch  Report  -  Nuclear  Event

Fukushima's damaged reactor building at the Japanese nuclear plant. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AP

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19.07.2013

Nuclear Event

Japan

Prefecture of Fukushima, [Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant]

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Nuclear Event in Japan on Thursday, 18 July, 2013 at 07:58 (07:58 AM) UTC.

Description

Steam has been spotted in a reactor building at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, its operator said Thursday, but stressed there is no sign yet of increased radiation. The incident, which Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said was not "an emergency situation", is the latest event serving to underline how precarious the plant remains more than two years after it was wrecked by a tsunami. "Steam has been seen around the fifth floor of the Reactor 3 building," a spokesman at TEPCO said. The roof of the building was blown off in a hydrogen explosion in the days after the March 2011 meltdowns, sparked when cooling systems were flooded with seawater after a huge undersea quake. "(The steam) was drifting thinly in the air and it's not like a big column of steam is spurting up," the spokesman said. "Neither the temperature of the reactor nor readings at radiation monitoring posts have gone up. "We do not believe an emergency situation is breaking out although we are still investigating what caused this." The pool is on the fifth floor and stores devices and equipment removed from the reactor before the disaster as part of regular operations. TEPCO said it had confirmed the reactor remained subcritical at 9.20am (0020 GMT), one hour after the steam was first spotted. Criticality is the term used for reactors in which there is a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Workers were continuing to pump water into the reactor and fuel pool as part of on-going cooling efforts, the company said, adding it would measure dust near the building as well as the air above it to gauge radiation levels. A 9.0 earthquake and the resulting massive tsunami in March 2011 knocked out cooling systems at Fukushima Daiichi, causing the meltdowns of reactors. Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes by the threat of radiation in the planet's worst nuclear accident for a generation. TEPCO is struggling to manage the clean-up, which scientists say could take up to four decades to complete. The steam is the latest in a growing catalogue of mishaps that have cast doubt on the utility's ability to fix the world's worst atomic disaster in a generation. A series of leaks of water contaminated with radiation have shaken confidence, as did a blackout caused by a rat that left cooling pools without power for more than a day. The company has admitted in recent weeks that water and soil samples taken at the plant are showing high readings for potentially dangerous isotopes, including caesium-137, tritium and strontium-90. Japan's nuclear watchdog said last week the Fukushima reactors are very likely leaking highly radioactive substances into the Pacific Ocean. Members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority voiced frustration at TEPCO, which has failed to identify the source and the cause of spiking readings in groundwater. NRA officials are urging TEPCO to offer more detailed and credible data and make efforts to better explain to the public what it knows. Most of Japan's nuclear reactors remain off-line, largely due to public distrust of the industry. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, as well as utilities, are hoping to restart them.

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Steam seen in Fukushima reactor 3 building

Unit still subcritical, Tepco assures; vapor on fifth floor near MOX in fuel pool

AFP-JIJI, Kyodo

• Jul 18, 2013

Steam has been spotted in the reactor 3 building at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, but there was no sign yet of increased radiation, Tepco said Thursday, speculating the vapor was just evaporated rainwater hitting a hot metal surface.
The incident, which Tokyo Electric Power Co. said was not “an emergency situation,” is the latest event underlining how precarious the plant remains more than two years after it was wrecked by tsunami and subsequently suffered three meltdowns. One of them, reactor 3, is the only one at the plant to use the highly lethal mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel, some of which is in its spent-fuel pool near the top of the reactor.
“Steam has been seen around the fifth floor of the reactor 3 building,” a Tepco spokesman said. The spent-fuel pool is on that floor.
The roof of the building was blown away in a hydrogen explosion at the beginning of the crisis in March 2011, sparked when cooling systems were flooded by tsunami after the huge March 11 undersea quake.
“(The steam) was drifting thinly in the air and it’s not like a big column of steam is spurting up,” the spokesman said. “Neither the temperature of the reactor nor readings at radiation monitoring posts have gone up.
“We do not believe an emergency situation is breaking out, although we are still investigating what caused this,” he said.
The temperature readings on reactor 3 pretty much stayed the same as before the steam was found, as have the radiation figures around it.
As of 6 p.m. Thursday, the steam was still coming out, Tepco said.
What is creating the steam is unclear, but Tepco said the best explanation is that rainwater, which had fallen from Wednesday night, dropped onto the containment vessel’s lid and evaporated.
The steam appears to be emanating from a seal over the top of the reactor.
The lid of the containment vessel is just below that seal and the rainwater is dropping onto the lid from some inner space, Tepco speculated.



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Fukushima rainfall caused steam above reactor, says Tepco

Firm says radiation levels are stable after video images showed steam rising from damaged building housing reactor No 3

• Justin McCurry in Tokyo
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 July 2013 05.46 EDT

Fukushima's damaged reactor building at the Japanese nuclear plant. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AP

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said on Thursday that radiation levels were stable after vapour was detected coming from one of the three reactors that went into meltdown after the triple disaster in Japan in March 2011.
Video images showed the vapour, which is thought to be steam, rising from the damaged building housing reactor No 3.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), reeling from recent criticism of its handling of contaminated water at the plant, said the reactor's spent fuel pool was stable, adding that there had been no significant rises in radiation levels in the vicinity.
A worker monitoring live camera images noticed that what appeared to be steam was hovering just above the primary containment vessel at 8.20am on Thursday. The vapour was still visible two hours later, reports said.
Tepco said rainfall on Wednesday night could have been the cause.



Read More Here


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