Update # 29 – July 9 & 10, 2011
by Nelle Maxey
More trouble with the decontamination system at Fukushima. It was halted for 12 hours on Sunday, but has now resumed.
No word on temperatures at reactors (Units 1, 2 & 4) due to 12 hour suspension of cooling.
I'll check the JANTI report tomorrow to see if temperatures rose and report then. Unit 2 experienced a significant rise in temperature over the last two weeks at the bottom of the RPV (reactor pressure vessel) where the fuel rods were located before melt "through". You can see in the JANTI parameter report below the rise from over 100°C to almost 150°C between June 26 and July 7.
http://www.gengikyo.jp/english/shokai/special_4.html
TEPCO suspends decontamination system
"The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suspended part of the activity of the radioactive water decontamination system as a liquid substance was found leaking from the device. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, said that it stopped the system on Sunday morning.
The liquid was found leaking from the hose for injecting chemicals to break down radioactive materials in the French-made device.
About 50 liters of liquid is believed to have leaked.
TEPCO said it is examining whether the liquid was the chemicals or radioactive water, as well as the cause of the leak. …"
Sunday, July 10, 2011 16:46 +0900 (JST)
Decontamination resumed after suspension
"…Shortly before 5 AM on Sunday, 50 liters of contaminated water leaked from a French-made device, and the system had to be stopped.
A crack was found in a vinyl chloride part that connects the pipe with the hose inside the device.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the plant, replaced the part with a metallic one, and resumed the decontamination work around 5:40 PM…."
Monday, July 11, 2011 01:01 +0900 (JST)
Yesterday NHK reported that the government and TEPCO say it will be 10 years (if the technology can be developed) before the melting fuel rods can be removed and the reactors decommissioned. Not sure how much faith to place in this estimate.
Govt., TEPCO draw roadmap to reactor decommission
"A roadmap toward decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant indicates that the removal of melted nuclear fuel rods at the plant may begin in 10 years….
The work is considered to be the most important phase in the decommissioning process. The roadmap indicates that removal will start in 2021 if technology essential for the work has been developed before that….
The roadmap shows that reactor buildings could be finally demolished and cleared away after the removal of melted fuel rods is completed, and that it will possibly take dozens of years."
Saturday, July 09, 2011 13:49 +0900 (JST)
Also of interest on Saturday is the report that TEPCO has now more than DOUBLED their estimate of the Tsunami's height. Hmmm . . .more than 43 feet high rather than 18 feet high? How this computer generated estimate squares with the photographs of the Tsunami on the site is unexplained. Nor do they detail what "other" information was used to arrive at this estimate. Also note the last statement in the article, that the ground fell 1.5 to 2 feet, would have to do with the earthquake NOT the tsunami which followed it.
TEPCO: 13.1 meter tsunami hit Fukushima plant
"The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant estimates that the facility was hit by a tsunami as high as 13 meters on March 11th.
Tokyo Electric Power Company released a computer simulation based on data recorded during the disaster and other information. TEPCO estimates that a 13.1-meter-tall tsunami passed a tidal observatory near the plant 51 minutes after the earthquake struck. That figure is far higher that the company's originally estimate of 5.7 meters. Ten kilometers away at the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant, a tsunami up to 9.1 meters high was recorded 48 minutes after the quake.
TEPCO says the differences in height of the 2 waves may have been caused by topographic features of the seafloor. It says tsunamis were generated at 6 locations on seabed faults, resulting in the Daiichi plant being hit with a higher wave.
TEPCO also says the ground beneath the 2 plants fell by 50 to 65 centimeters after the disaster."
Saturday, July 09, 2011 09:05 +0900 (JST)
And speaking of earthquakes, the largest aftershock to date, according to the USGS a magnitude 7 quake, hit northeastern Japan yesterday at 10 am. That is a big quake. It followed a smaller aftershock reported on Wednesday of 5.6 magnitude. Good thing TEPCO got the steel supports under Unit 4's spent fuel pool completed before this large quake hit.
Also note the leak in the decontamination system began 5 hours prior to the quake.
Meteorological Agency warns of aftershocks
Here is the Global News (Canada) report on the quake from last night:
Remember the contaminated beef story from Friday. Well, apparently the municipal government in Tokoyo is concerned enough that it is attempting to trace beef from six OTHER cows that were shipped to their city from the same farm. Odd that the central government agricultural ministry isn't involved. And that they aren't enforcing the testing at the production sites. This story confirms claims from the public that their food is contaminated.
Tokyo traces cows from contaminated farm
"The Tokyo Metropolitan government has begun tracing beef from 6 cows shipped from a Fukushima farm where 11 other cows were found contaminated with high levels of radioactive cesium…."
Sunday, July 10, 2011 07:33 +0900 (JST)
An excellent article appeared in Forbes on-line on Saturday concerning fukushima contamination in the USA.
Harm from Fukushima Radiation: A Matter Of Perspective
Jul. 9 2011 – 9:32 am |
By JEFF MCMAHON
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 08:
"A leading biophysicist has cast a critical light on the government's reassurances that Americans were never at risk from Fukushima fallout, saying "we really don't know for sure."
When radioactive fallout from Japan's nuclear disaster began appearing in the United States this spring, the Obama Administration's open-data policy obligated the government to inform the public, in some detail, what was landing here…."
More on the email scandal, this time from Reuters:
Japan's nuclear industry credibility crumbles amid email scandal
Fri Jul 8, 2011 7:20am EDT
By Linda Sieg
"TOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) – A Japanese nuclear power plant has come under fire for trying to sway the outcome of a public forum on atomic safety, dealing a fresh blow to the industry's credibility four months after the world's biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl…."
Cryptogon posted a very beautifully filmed and disturbing 2-part (10 minute each) video on Saturday:
Nuclear Ginza: Japan's at risk labour force.
Note this was filmed in 1995, but from recent reports it seems little has changed. The film has interviews with an activist monk and workers and their families on exposures, illnesses and death from working in the nuke plants in Japan.
Here is the YouTube location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fravQ528jSI&feature=player_embedded
USA
Also an Update on both Los Alamos following the fire and Ft. Calhoun flooding can be found at EnergyNews this weekend.
Los Alamos
I assume the "cold-war era contamination" refers to the fact they conducted above ground testing at Los Alamos and therefore soil contains "trace" contamination. Although it may refer to stored spent fuel or laboratory waste from that era as well.
" According to [Chris Cantwell, the lab's associate director for environment, safety, health and quality] only one acre burned on lab property, but two major canyons above the lab suffered damage.
Cantwell said lab crews had also begun installing additional storm water controls and monitoring systems in canyon bottoms where trace Cold War-era contamination may be present. The controls were aimed at slowing the ability of sediments to move down canyon."
Fort Calhoun Nebraska
There is also a report that Army Core of Engineers is predicting up to 17 more levees on the Missouri River may fail.
"The military helicopter's black shadow dances on an engorged Missouri River as the aircraft slowly loops the flood-encircled Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station – the same left-leaning turns the pilot navigated two days prior. Warrant Officer Boe Searight, 32, with the Nebraska Air National Guard […] and his colleague Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eric Schriner also are looking for new signs of trouble for the flooded plant."
Full story and pictures found here: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110710/NEWS01/707109923