World community needed at Fukushima
The announcement that nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit Japan in the coming week to help with planning in a critical stage of the decontamination operation at... (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
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Modern industrial society is a fanatical religion. We are demolishing, poisoning, destroying all life-systems on the planet. We are signing IOUs our children will not be able to pay...We are acting as if we were the last generation on the planet. Without a radical change in heart, in mind, in vision, the earth will end up like Venus, charred and dead. – Jose Antonio Lutzenberger, Brazilian Minister for the Environment
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Removal of used nuclear fuel from Fukushima No. 1 plant’s reactor 4 said imminent
Removal of used nuclear fuel from Fukushima No. 1 plant’s reactor 4 said imminent
Work to remove spent nuclear fuel from the reactor 4 storage pool at the Fukushima No. 1 complex will begin Tuesday at the earliest, a source close to operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday.
Fuel extraction operations started last Monday, with workers first removing 22 unused fuel assemblies that are relatively easier to handle than spent fuel.
(NOTE: JAPAN IS ACROSS THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE AND TUESDAY IN TOKYO IS MONDAY ON THE WEST COAST OF THE USA
Yakuza gangsters 'forcing homeless people to work on the Fukushima nuclear plant clear-up… who are fired once they suffer high radiation doses'
Yakuza gangsters 'forcing homeless people to work on the Fukushima nuclear plant clear-up… who are fired once they suffer high radiation doses'
- Authorities are facing a desperate shortage of workers for the clear-up
- Subcontractors are said to have reached out to crime bosses
- Undercover reporter claims to have infiltrated the clear-up operation
- He says he has 'solid evidence' that people are being forced to work
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Japan's notorious Yakuza gangsters are forcing homeless people to join the desperate clear-up effort at the Fukushima nuclear plant before simply firing them when they suffer high doses of radiation, it has been claimed.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) which operates the plant have been struggling to recruit workers who are desperately needed to join the hazardous operation dismantling the plant.
As a result Tepco subcontractors reportedly reached out out to the Yakuza for help. The gangsters are said to often provide workers at short notice for large scale construction projects.
Work to remove used fuel at Fukushima No. 4 spent fuel pool eyed Tues. (11/25/13 Pacific)
Work to remove used fuel at Fukushima No. 4 spent fuel pool eyed Tues. (11/25/13 Pacific)
TOKYO, Nov. 23, Kyodo
Work to remove spent fuel from a storage pool inside a damaged reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex will begin on Tuesday at the earliest, a source close to the operator of the Fukushima plant said Saturday.
Fuel removal work started last Monday, with workers first extracting 22 unused fuel assemblies that are relatively easier to handle than spent fuel.
The second batch of work involves removing 22 spent fuel rod assemblies as part of a yearlong mission to eventually remove over 1,000 assemblies from the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 unit of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant to deal with one of the major hazards in the cleanup activities. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Dump It in the Ocean: TEPCO's Plan for Radioactive Fukushima Water
Dump It in the Ocean: TEPCO's Plan for Radioactive Fukushima Water
A nuclear expert helping with the clean-up at the crisis-stricken Fukushima plant has joined a chorus of voices saying that all the accumulating radioactive waste water must eventually be dumped into the ocean.
Speaking with Australia's ABC, Dale Klein, former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and current head of the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee hired by plant operator TEPCO, described the situation at the plant as "challenging." (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Radiation dunce Dr. Shunichi Yamashita finally admits giving bad info about Fukushima fallout
Radiation dunce Dr. Shunichi Yamashita finally admits giving bad info about Fukushima fallout
(NaturalNews) How can an expert on radiation give such fallacious advice and counsel? Well, that's a question more than a few Japanese must be asking themselves.
If you've been following the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster, which occurred as a result of a strike by a massive tsunami-generated wave in March 2011, you know about Dr. Shunichi Yamashita (a.k.a. Dr. 100 mSv). He was the head of the Fukushima Health Survey for a time following the accident and provided advice immediately following the disaster that was consistently incorrect.
According to a recently published interview in theAsahi Shimbun, one of five national daily Japanese newspapers, Yamashita demonstrated that he did not even understand the basics of the lingering disaster and that he "did nothing to seek out information so he could give informed opinions about what people should do," says an analysis of the report on the website SimplyInfo. (LINK--FULL ARTICLE)
If you've been following the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster, which occurred as a result of a strike by a massive tsunami-generated wave in March 2011, you know about Dr. Shunichi Yamashita (a.k.a. Dr. 100 mSv). He was the head of the Fukushima Health Survey for a time following the accident and provided advice immediately following the disaster that was consistently incorrect.
According to a recently published interview in theAsahi Shimbun, one of five national daily Japanese newspapers, Yamashita demonstrated that he did not even understand the basics of the lingering disaster and that he "did nothing to seek out information so he could give informed opinions about what people should do," says an analysis of the report on the website SimplyInfo. (LINK--FULL ARTICLE)
FUKUSHIMA: Rice farmers sense glimmer of hope after nuclear disaster
FUKUSHIMA: Rice farmers sense glimmer of hope after nuclear disaster
It is early October and an idyllic scene is unfolding beneath a clear autumn sky. As red dragonflies flit by, the air is filled with the melodious hum of combine harvester reaping through rice fields.
Residents of Hirono in Fukushima Prefecture have been waiting nearly three years to witness this moment.
The reason? The 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant rendered the land useless for planting rice.
“It is really a good feeling to see the rice piled up in the vats again,” says 49-year-old Kazuya Igari.
When he began planting again this year, Igari faced a very different situation compared with before the nuclear catastrophe.
He lived 200 meters from the coast. His home was destroyed in the tsunami generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake. His tractor and other farming equipment were also swept away, and his rice paddies were submerged in mud. He now lives in temporary housing with his 49-year-old wife and 25-year-old daughter.
Igari farms a plot about 1.2 hectares wide. The land is actually rented from a friend. It lies more than 4 kilometers further inland than his own farm.
Like most rice farmers in town, this is a side job for Igari. Yet this didn’t stop him from buying used farming equipment to go about his tasks.
“These paddies give me a purpose in life. I didn’t want to give them up,” he explains.
At the end of April, Igari sprinkled potassium chloride on the decontaminated paddies. The chemical compound was donated by the town to help prevent rice plants absorbing radioactive cesium. A few days later, Igari was tilling the fields on a second-hand tractor he had just bought. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Surface pathway of radioactive plume of TEPCO Fukushima NPP1 released 134Cs and 137Cs
THIS IS A SCIENTIFIC PAPER --Some definitions
134 AND 137 Cs are isotopes of Cesium. Cesium has a half life of 30 years. It takes about ten half lives to lose toxicity, or about 300 years. Plumes of cesium are making their way slowly across the Pacific Ocean to North America. Contrary to some of the reporting in the mass media cesium does not dilute into the oceans and fall to the seafloor but rather stays just under the surface and in condensed plumes. Sea life swims through these plumes and uptakes the cesium particles. When smaller life forms (krill, etc.) are eaten by bigger life forms the cesium begins to condense. Eventually this makes its way into the food chain since fish spawn, get eaten by bears and other wildlife on the land surface which deposit it onto the soils through elimination and decay upon death. The particles then either sink into the ground polluting the fresh water or are blown about by the wind spreading cesium particles over an ever widening area. The cesium now being released into the atmosphere will be here for many generations. After the Fukushima explosions cesium with the Fukushima signature was discovered in France. We should not take this lightly. Cesium is very toxic.
40N is the 40th parallel North. The Pacific Northwest is centered around the 45th parallel North and California is roughly between the 34th and 40th parallel North. This plume crossing the ocean will eventually separate into two currents. One working north to Alaska, the other branching south to Southern California. These currents will then rotate toward each other carrying this cesium up and down the coast and eventually down to the equator where it will loop back around to the Asiatic region. Dilution out of these plumes will take decades.
Argo floats are a series of 3606 robotic floats that measure the temperature, salinity and other factors of the oceans. These floats rise and fall in the ocean in a ten day cycle.
The International Date Line is not quite halfway across the Pacific and is not a straight line as it maneuvers around land masses in the Pacific. These plumes reached the Date Line March 2012. From here it will take approximately one and a half years to reach the North American continent and will arrive spring 2014.
Surface pathway of radioactive plume of TEPCO Fukushima NPP1 released 134Cs and 137Cs
Abstract. 134Cs and 137Cs were released to the North Pacific
Ocean by two major likely pathways, direct discharge
from the Fukushima NPP1 accident site and atmospheric deposition off Honshu Islands of Japan, east and northeast of
the site. High density observations of 134Cs and 137Cs in
the surface water were carried out by 17 cruises of cargo
ships and several research vessel cruises from March 2011
till March 2012. The main body of radioactive surface plume
of which activity exceeded 10 Bqm−3 travelled along 40 N
and reached the International Date Line on March 2012, one
year after the accident. A distinct feature of the radioactive
plume was that it stayed confined along 40 N when the
plume reached the International Date Line. A zonal speed
of the radioactive plume was estimated to be about 8 cm s−1
which was consistent with zonal speeds derived by Argo
floats at the region.
(LINK TO REPORT)
134 AND 137 Cs are isotopes of Cesium. Cesium has a half life of 30 years. It takes about ten half lives to lose toxicity, or about 300 years. Plumes of cesium are making their way slowly across the Pacific Ocean to North America. Contrary to some of the reporting in the mass media cesium does not dilute into the oceans and fall to the seafloor but rather stays just under the surface and in condensed plumes. Sea life swims through these plumes and uptakes the cesium particles. When smaller life forms (krill, etc.) are eaten by bigger life forms the cesium begins to condense. Eventually this makes its way into the food chain since fish spawn, get eaten by bears and other wildlife on the land surface which deposit it onto the soils through elimination and decay upon death. The particles then either sink into the ground polluting the fresh water or are blown about by the wind spreading cesium particles over an ever widening area. The cesium now being released into the atmosphere will be here for many generations. After the Fukushima explosions cesium with the Fukushima signature was discovered in France. We should not take this lightly. Cesium is very toxic.
40N is the 40th parallel North. The Pacific Northwest is centered around the 45th parallel North and California is roughly between the 34th and 40th parallel North. This plume crossing the ocean will eventually separate into two currents. One working north to Alaska, the other branching south to Southern California. These currents will then rotate toward each other carrying this cesium up and down the coast and eventually down to the equator where it will loop back around to the Asiatic region. Dilution out of these plumes will take decades.
Argo floats are a series of 3606 robotic floats that measure the temperature, salinity and other factors of the oceans. These floats rise and fall in the ocean in a ten day cycle.
The International Date Line is not quite halfway across the Pacific and is not a straight line as it maneuvers around land masses in the Pacific. These plumes reached the Date Line March 2012. From here it will take approximately one and a half years to reach the North American continent and will arrive spring 2014.
Surface pathway of radioactive plume of TEPCO Fukushima NPP1 released 134Cs and 137Cs
Abstract. 134Cs and 137Cs were released to the North Pacific
Ocean by two major likely pathways, direct discharge
from the Fukushima NPP1 accident site and atmospheric deposition off Honshu Islands of Japan, east and northeast of
the site. High density observations of 134Cs and 137Cs in
the surface water were carried out by 17 cruises of cargo
ships and several research vessel cruises from March 2011
till March 2012. The main body of radioactive surface plume
of which activity exceeded 10 Bqm−3 travelled along 40 N
and reached the International Date Line on March 2012, one
year after the accident. A distinct feature of the radioactive
plume was that it stayed confined along 40 N when the
plume reached the International Date Line. A zonal speed
of the radioactive plume was estimated to be about 8 cm s−1
which was consistent with zonal speeds derived by Argo
floats at the region.
(LINK TO REPORT)
GREG RAY: Beware nuclear village
GREG RAY: Beware nuclear village
...One of the many points of interest about Macfadyen’s story was that, when he arrived in Hawaii, an academic asked him to join a group of racing yachtsmen surveying marine pollution. In particular, the yachtsmen were asked to help monitor plumes of radiation from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear reactors. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Friday, November 22, 2013
Fukushima Watch: Individual Radiation Monitoring Spurs Debate
Fukushima Watch: Individual Radiation Monitoring Spurs Debate
...“They want evacuees to go home sooner. Safety is not a priority!” a blog by anti-nuclear organization Protecting Children from Radiation declared. “Individual Monitoring Covers Up Slow Cleanup Progress,” a headline in the Tokyo Shimbun read in the paper’s Thursday’s morning edition. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
TEPCO Begins Relocating Fuel At Fukushima Unit 4
TEPCO Begins Relocating Fuel At Fukushima Unit 4
The ticklish operations involved in decommissioning Tokyo Electric’s ruined nuclear power plant at Fukushima began on Monday. Workers at the plant began removing unused nuclear fuel from the fourth-floor storage pool at the damaged Reactor Unit 4. As planned, they lowered a special fuel transport container by crane into the storage pool, which holds 1,533 rods of uranium pellets in secondary containment. Careful transferof the first four fuel rods took about three and a half hours.
According to televised reports, teams of six people are working two-hour shifts–the upper limit of allowable radiation exposure–to maneuver the cranes used to move the rods. The container cask can hold 22 units of fuel at a time. The first set of transfers from the pool is either still under way or completed by now. Over the next week, TEPCO employees will move the cask cautiously by truck and place the fuel in a safer and larger ground-level storage pool a short distance away. About 10 iterations of this process will clear the clean fuel rods from Unit 4. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
America’s Fukushima?
America’s Fukushima?
...Last year, nuclear scientist Donald H. Alexander, formerly of the DOE, likened Hanford to the doomed 1986 Challenger mission, a disaster arising from an excess of confidence.
Speaking of the cosmos: Some have suggested we launch our nuclear waste into space, to be swallowed by the sun. That may sound insane, but spend a little time sorting through the Hanford morass, and just about anything other than the status quo will seem appealing. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
UK nuclear safety review finds 38 cases for improvement Government review concludes UK's nuclear industry is broadly safe but lessons from Fukushima must be implemented
UK nuclear safety review finds 38 cases for improvement
A review of nuclear safety in the UK has found 38 areas where safety could be improved, in lessons drawn from the Fukushima incident in Japan early this year.
The review, ordered by the government following the Japanese experience, pinpointed critical areas for concern, including risks associated with flooding, the layout of plants, and the state of preparedness for emergencies. Ministers and the relevant regulators will be asked to look at these as a matter of urgency. (FULL ARTICLE --LINK)
Fukushima: High-Risk TEPCO Work at Reactor 4 Has Started (Great to date synopsis)
Fukushima: High-Risk TEPCO Work at Reactor 4 Has Started
UPDATE: The process of removing the fuel rods at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has so far been successful. The first of the 22 rod assemblies planned for removal (which contain unspent fuel) have been removed. See this Bloomberg News article for more. Also in the same article, a description of what “criticality” would mean for Reactor 4, if the spent rods go critical.
________
________
It’s difficult to get consistent news out of Japan about the Fukushima nuclear plant, but it appears, after a rumored delay on Friday, work at Reactor 4 is now under way. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Whistleblowers in Jeopardy as Nuclear Industry Looks for Shortcuts
Whistleblowers in Jeopardy as Nuclear Industry Looks for Shortcuts
In sworn testimony in Monroe, Michigan, the NRC admitted that it has stripped whistleblower protection from the licensing of new nuclear power plants. (FULL ARTICLE AND VIDEO-LINK)
Nuclear Energy: Profit Driven Industry “Nuclear Can Be Safe Or It Can Be Cheap … But It Can’t Be Both”
Nuclear Energy: Profit Driven Industry
“Nuclear Can Be Safe Or It Can Be Cheap … But It Can’t Be Both”
Nuclear Power Is Unsafe Because the Operators are Pinching Pennies and Cutting Corners
Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen was said in a recent interview that nuclear power can be made safe, but not at a competitive price:
[Interviewer] With air transport, it’s incredibly safe. Could nuclear power ever reach that level of safety?[Gundersen] I have a friend who says that nuclear can be safe or it can be cheap, but it can’t be both.***It boils down to money. If you want to make nuclear safe, it gets to the point where it’s so costly you don’t want to build the power plant anyway … especially now with plummeting renewable costs. (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Nuclear Overseers Are “Fake” Agencies Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry
Nuclear Overseers Are “Fake” Agencies Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry
The Christian Science Monitor noted recently:
Just as the BP oil spill one year ago heaped scrutiny on the United State’s Minerals Management Service, harshly criticized for lax drilling oversight and cozy ties with the oil industry, the nuclear crisis in Japan is shining a light on that nation’s safety practices.***[Russian nuclear accident specialist Iouli Andreev, who as director of the Soviet Spetsatom clean-up agency helped in the efforts 25 years ago to clean up Chernobyl ] has also accused the IAEA of being too close with corporations. “This is only a fake organization because every organization which depends on the nuclear industry – and the IAEA depends on the nuclear industry – cannot perform properly.”
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is no better.
As nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, Duane Peterson (president of VPIRG & coordinator for the campaign to retire Vermont Yankee nuclear plant), investigative reporter Harvey Wasserman and Paul Gallay (executive director of Riverkeeper) point out in a roundtable discussion: (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
TEPCO risks all at Fukushima
TEPCO risks all at Fukushima
..Experts are unanimous that the engineering challenges are on a scale unseen to date, given that the fuel pool was damaged in a fire caused by a cooling failure and a subsequent explosion during the meltdowns. If the fuel rods, some of which may be damaged, come too close to each other, there is a chance that the nuclear
chain reaction would resume, which would be catastrophic in the presence of so much fissile material, as well as extremely difficult to stop.
If, on the other hand, a fuel rod breaks or is exposed to air and ignites, this would release into the atmosphere a massive amount of radiation, likely necessitating the evacuation of the plant. The total amount of radiation present in the pool is estimated at 14,000 times that released by the atomic bomb dropped at Hiroshima, or about the same as in the combined cores of the three reactors that melted down.
"[F]ull release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date," states The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013, compiled by two independent nuclear energy consultants. [1] (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
..Experts are unanimous that the engineering challenges are on a scale unseen to date, given that the fuel pool was damaged in a fire caused by a cooling failure and a subsequent explosion during the meltdowns. If the fuel rods, some of which may be damaged, come too close to each other, there is a chance that the nuclear
chain reaction would resume, which would be catastrophic in the presence of so much fissile material, as well as extremely difficult to stop.
If, on the other hand, a fuel rod breaks or is exposed to air and ignites, this would release into the atmosphere a massive amount of radiation, likely necessitating the evacuation of the plant. The total amount of radiation present in the pool is estimated at 14,000 times that released by the atomic bomb dropped at Hiroshima, or about the same as in the combined cores of the three reactors that melted down.
"[F]ull release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date," states The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013, compiled by two independent nuclear energy consultants. [1] (FULL ARTICLE--LINK)
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
TEPCO clean-up boss says Fukushima's radioactive water will be dumped into Pacific Ocean
TEPCO clean-up boss says Fukushima's radioactive water will be dumped into Pacific Ocean
The man in charge of the clean-up at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant says growing stores of contaminated water from the site will eventually have to be dumped into the sea.
In an exclusive interview with the ABC, the chairman of the Fukushima Monitoring Committee, Dale Klein, has also admitted there are likely to be more blunders and slip-ups at the plant in the months and years to come. (Continued-LINK)
Fukushima fallout damaged thyroid glands of California babies
Fukushima fallout damaged thyroid glands of California babies
A new study finds that radioactive Iodine from Fukushima has caused a significant increase in hypothyroidism among babies in California, 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.
A new study of the effects of tiny quantities of radioactive fallout from Fukushima on the health of babies born in California shows a significant excess of hypothyroidism caused by the radioactive contamination travelling 5,000 miles across the Pacific. The article will be published next week in the peer-reviewed journal Open Journal of Pediatrics. (LINK--CONTINUED)
Radiation And Risks At Fukushima
In this photo provided by Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), NRA commissioners inspect storage tanks used to contain radioactive water at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan, Friday, Aug. 23, 2013. (AP/Nuclear Regulation Authority)
What a nightmare at Japan’s deeply wounded Fukushima nuclear power plant. Two years and counting after the plant was rocked by earthquake and tsunami, it remains a giant, lethal mess on Japan’s northeast coast.
Hundreds of tons of water being pumped through every day to keep it from boiling over. Hundreds of tons of radioactive water leaking. A new plan approved today to freeze a huge swath of shore to keep a radioactive river from despoiling the sea. And it’s always worse than we’re told.
This hour, On Point: the lethal nuclear mess at Fukushima, and how far it could spread.
- Tom Ashbrook
45 Minutes
UN nuclear experts to revisit Fukushima to review shutdown plan
UN nuclear experts to revisit Fukushima to review shutdown plan
Vienna (AFP) - UN nuclear experts will visit Japan again next week to review government efforts to shut down the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant and prevent further worrying leaks, the IAEA said Tuesday.
"An IAEA expert team will visit Japan this month at the request of the Japanese government to review the efforts and plans to decommission TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.
The 19-strong mission will take place from November 25 to December 4, it said.
Tokyo has drawn up a long-term roadmap towards decommissioning the Fukushima plant, which saw the world's worst nuclear disaster in a generation when it went into meltdown after being hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
"The IAEA mission will assess that plan and, in particular, efforts to manage contaminated water at the accident site and to remove fuel assemblies from the Spent Fuel Pool in Reactor Unit 4, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog said.
Removing the fuel rods is a tricky operation but essential in decommissioning the complex, which is expected to take decades. (CONTINUED--LINK)
Fukushima nuclear disaster is warning to the world, says power company boss
Fukushima nuclear disaster is warning to the world, says power company boss
An aerial image of reactors 3 and 4 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station as decommissioning work continues. Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty
The catastrophic triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011 was "a warning to the world" about the hazards of nuclear power and contained lessons for the British government as it plans a new generation of nuclear power stations, the man with overall responsibility for the operation in Japan has told the Guardian.
Speaking at his Tokyo corporate headquarters , Naomi Hirose, president of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which runs the stricken Fukushima plant, said Britain's nuclear managers "should be prepared for the worst" in order to avoid repeating Japan's traumatic experience. "We tried to persuade people that nuclear power is 100% safe. That was easy for both sides. Our side explains how safe nuclear power is. The other side is the people who listen and for them it is easy to hear OK, it's safe, sure, why not?
"But we have to explain, no matter how small a possibility, what if this [safety] barrier is broken? We have to prepare a plan if something happens … It is easy to say this is almost perfect so we don't have to worry about it. But we have to keep thinking: what if …"
British ministers recently agreed a commercial deal with the French state-owned energy company EDF Energy to build the UK's first new nuclear reactor in a generation at Hinkley Point in Somerset. The agreement included the UK government providing accident insurance.
Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi facility on the coast about 124 miles (200km) north-east of Tokyo, comprising six nuclear reactors, was hit by a giant tsunami with waves peaking at 17 metres high caused by the Great East Japan earthquake on 11 March 2011. In what quickly became one of the world's worst nuclear disasters, operators lost control of the plant when the power supply, including emergency back-up, failed amid massive flooding. As cooling systems malfunctioned, reactors 1, 2 and 3 suffered meltdowns.
Reactor 4 was closed for routine maintenance at the time. But one of several hydrogen explosions blew the walls and roof off the reactor building. This week a delicate and lengthy operation to remove fuel rods from that reactor began.
Radiation leakage following the explosions forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the surrounding area. An exclusion zone roughly 11 miles by 19 miles remains in force around the plant two and half years later. The entire facility is now being decommissioned, but Tepco's clean-up, which has been strongly criticised by environmentalists, is expected to take up to 40 years.
Hirose said that although the situation facing Fukushima Daiichi on 11 March was exceptional, measures could have been adopted in advance that might have mitigated the impact of the disaster. Tepco was at fault for failing to take these steps, he said.
"After I became president [in 2012], we formed a nuclear safety review committee. We focused mainly on what we could do, what we could learn. We had a lot of data by then. Three other reports, one from the Diet [Japan's parliament], one from government. We had a lot of information. Tepco's own report, too. We concluded that we should have avoided that catastrophic accident, and we could have. We could see what we should have done."
Preventative measures included fitting waterproof seals on all the doors in the reactor building, or placing an electricity-generating turbine on the facility's roof, where the water might not have reached it. In addition, wrong assumptions were made, he said.
"I don't know if I could have seen or thought this before the accident … Probably I assumed that people had discussed counter-measures to avoid a huge tsunami by something very special like a complete shutdown."
It transpired that the huge cost and technical complexity of a multiple shutdown, in what was considered the unlikely event of an abnormally large tsunami, had led managers to discount such a scenario as implausible and inefficient, he said.
"What happened at Fukushima was, yes, a warning to the world," he said. The resulting lesson was clear: "Try to examine all the possibilities, no matter how small they are, and don't think any single counter-measure is foolproof. Think about all different kinds of small counter-measures, not just one big solution. There's not one single answer. (LINK)
Monday, November 18, 2013
Removal of nuclear fuel begins at Fukushima (ADDITIONAL REPORT)
Removal of nuclear fuel begins at Fukushima
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun removing nuclear fuel from a storage pool at a damaged reactor building.
Workers placed a special fuel transport container in the storage pool of the Number 4 reactor building.
The pool holds 1,533 units of nuclear fuel, of which 1,331 are highly radioactive spent fuel. The rest are unused.
At around 3PM on Monday, the workers started to hoist the unused fuel units into the steel container, which can store 22 units of fuel. The utility decided to remove these units first as they do not release high levels of radiation and heat. A TEPCO official said that the first fuel unit was moved into the container by 4PM, and that the workers had encountered no problems.
The first 22 units will be transferred into the container through Monday night. (continued) (LINK)
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun removing nuclear fuel from a storage pool at a damaged reactor building.
Workers placed a special fuel transport container in the storage pool of the Number 4 reactor building.
The pool holds 1,533 units of nuclear fuel, of which 1,331 are highly radioactive spent fuel. The rest are unused.
At around 3PM on Monday, the workers started to hoist the unused fuel units into the steel container, which can store 22 units of fuel. The utility decided to remove these units first as they do not release high levels of radiation and heat. A TEPCO official said that the first fuel unit was moved into the container by 4PM, and that the workers had encountered no problems.
The first 22 units will be transferred into the container through Monday night. (continued) (LINK)
TEPCO starts removing fuel from Fukushima No. 4 pool
TEPCO starts removing fuel from Fukushima No. 4 pool
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started a yearlong mission Monday to remove fuel from a pool at a damaged reactor building, in a move to address one of the major hazards remaining at the accident-stricken plant.
While the process of removing fuel assemblies from the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor unit is a milestone toward the decommissioning of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant, the work will require careful attention so as not to result in another radiation-leaking incident.
The Nos. 1 to 4 units lost their cooling systems during the 2011 nuclear crisis, as huge quake-triggered tsunami waves knocked out most of the emergency diesel power generators at the site.
The No. 4 unit suffered damage to the building due to a hydrogen explosion, but avoided a reactor meltdown, unlike the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors, as all of its fuel was stored in the spent fuel pool due to the reactor undergoing periodic maintenance work at that time.
However, the condition of the spent fuel pool on the highest floor of the crumbling building was a major source of concern in the early days of the crisis, as the water level was suspected to have dropped low enough to expose the fuel. TEPCO later said the fuel of the No. 4 unit was unlikely to have sustained major damage.
To ensure radioactive substances will not spread outside during the fuel removal work, TEPCO has created a huge cover, supported by steel frames, to blanket the reactor building. (CONTINUED) (LINK)
Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant begins fuel rod removal
The delicate operation is seen as a necessary step in stabilising the site.
It will take about two days to remove the first 22 fuel rod assemblies, plant operator Tepco says.
Overall, more than 1,500 assemblies must be be removed in what correspondents describe as a risky and dangerous operation set to take a year.
Experts say hydrogen explosions after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 have made the current storage facility vulnerable to further tremors.
The fuel rod assemblies are four-metre long tubes containing pellets of uranium fuel, and the fear is that some may have been damaged during the disaster.
Removing fuel rods
- The fuel rods - 4m-long tubes containing pellets of uranium fuel - are in a precarious state in the Unit Four storage pool
- The rod assemblies will be lifted out in batches of 22 in casks filled with water, using a crane - each batch will take 7-10 days
- Two critical issues are whether the rods were damaged during the disaster and so are likely to leak, and whether the casks remain watertight so the rods have no contact with air
- The fuel rods will be deposited into a new "common" pool with a cooling system
- (continued) (LINK)
TOKYO (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant took the first step on Monday in the long and hazardous process of decommissioning the facility, extracting four fuel rods from their container for later removal.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, known as Tepco, said it transferred the rods to a steel cask within the same cooling pool in a badly damaged reactor building, beginning the delicate and unprecedented task of removing 400 tonnes of highly irradiated spent fuel from that reactor.
"We will continue with the work from tomorrow and proceed, paying close attention to safety," Tepco said in a statement.
While battling leaks of radiation-contaminated water around the plant, which was knocked out by Japan's mammoth March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Tepco has embarked on decommissioning four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. That task is likely to take decades and cost tens of billions of dollars.
The company must carefully pluck more than 1,500 brittle and potentially damaged assemblies from the unstable reactor No. 4. Tepco estimates that removing all the rods from the reactor will take a year, although some experts say that is an ambitious target.
The cask holds 22 rods. Transferring this first batch will take about two days and it will take about a week to get the cask to the common storage pool in another building, a Tepco spokesman said.
Moving them is urgent because they are being stored 18 metres (59 feet) above ground level in a building that has buckled and tilted and could collapse if another quake strikes. (continued) (LINK)
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