Fukushima Update – Secret Dump Piles of Rad Waste

Update # 45: August 6, 2011

by Nelle Maxey

There continues to be little news at NHK on Fukushima, but there are some interesting developments in the international and Japanese press and on blog sites.

First is a new video from Arnie Gunderson of Fairewinds.

Lethal Levels of Radiation at Fukushima: What Are the Implications?

Also embedded here:

http://radiationnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/842011-lethal-levels-of-radiation-at.html

The video relates to the story of TEPCO discovering locations on the Fukushima plant site with lethal levels of external gamma radiation.

Contrary to most stories in the press to date, which have talked about the radiation being blown into the elbow in the venting pipe during the explosion in March, Gunderson proposes a different source of the radiation. As he points out, the site has been extensively mapped for radiation for months and this hot spot was not detected until recently. He suggests therefore that the radiation has been building at this location and this accounts for the recent readings. Here is his reasoning. This is a ventilation stack which has been venting the containment areas of Unit 1 and Unit 2 for months. Since what is being vented are hot radioactive gases, these gases would condense when they meet the cold walls of the vent stack and run down the vertical portion of the stack and accumulate in the horizontal portion. This makes great sense to me and is confirmed by the rust stains on the outside of the stack and the fact that the levels were only recently detected. Also it explains the diagram from the Japanese press which showed accumulated water in the horizontal portion of the stack. I commented when I sent this through a couple of days ago that I was puzzled about this diagram. Well I'm not puzzled anymore.

The other thing that is so important in the video is this statement at 4:50 minutes in:

"When they get into these building they are going to find even higher radiation levels…The nuclear core has leaked out and is laying like a pancake on the concrete floor working its way down, but probably not through the concrete."

Looking at a diagram of the reactors, we see the concrete floor lies below the red colored "reactor vessel" (RPV). The concrete floor is in fact the bottom of the "drywell" which is a steel-covered concrete shell, more often referred to as the primary containment vessel (PCV).

Now look at the diagram which accompanies the next story and you can see the myth being perpetuated that the fuel cores are still in the RPV.

As to the rest of the article which is based on TEPCO's explanations, it makes no sense to me at all. Consider that Unit 3 is the one that had the largest explosion blowing away most of the reactor building and damaging Unit 4 beside it. It only stands to reason that MORE damage was done to the RPV and the PCV in Unit 3 than in the other reactors, not less as this story purports. So I would surmise that in Unit 3 all of the MOX fuel is pancaked on the concrete floor of the dry well (PCV) which may have holes in it as well. this would better account for the massive amounts of water required to cool it. But I'm just a grandma in the Kootenies, not an "expert", so believe what you will.

TEPCO may use 'shower spray' on troubled reactor side view of cooling water path

Friday August 05, 2011 By TAKASHI SUGIMOTO / Staff Writer

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering changing the method of injecting water into the No. 3 reactor at its hobbled Fukushima nuclear power plant as the current system isn't cutting it.

The No. 3 reactor is consuming nearly three times the coolant water that the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors are taking to cool down their fuel rods, as a considerable amount is missing the target.

TEPCO said that the pressure vessels in the No. 1 through No. 3 reactors, where fuel meltdowns have occurred, currently have temperatures at the bottom between about 90 and 120 degrees. In the meantime, the amount of water pumped in daily to maintain the  temperatures at these levels is about 216 tons for the No. 3 reactor, as opposed to 84 tons for the No. 2 reactor, which is about the same size and contains roughly the same number of fuel rods, and 91 tons for the No. 1 reactor, which is smaller.

The question is, why is this discrepancy occurring?

TEPCO said that in all three reactors, coolant water is being injected from outside the shroud, a major component covering the core.

Analysis conducted so far has hinted at the possibility that, unlike in the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, part of the melted fuel in the No. 3 reactor did not fall through to the bottom of the pressure vessel but has stayed on the grid-like core support plate. The current injection method cannot pump water into there, resulting in inefficient cooling and increasing the amount of radioactive water.

The new water injection method under consideration is based on the use of an emergency cooling system called a "core spray." It can pour water down like a shower above the fuel rods, resulting in more efficient cooling and the use of less coolant water, TEPCO said.

Much has been learned about the state of the cooling pipe systems since

workers regained access to the reactor buildings. On Aug. 3, TEPCO conducted tests on the operability of valves along the piping.

"We plan to make decisions in two or three weeks," a TEPCO official said."

Here is another story on Asahi, not covered on NHK. I have spoken before of radioactive waste being dumped in the mountains behind Fukushima. It is continuing and escalating.

City resorts to secret dumping to deal with piles of radioactive dirt

Friday August 05, 2011

FUKUSHIMA–Deep in the mountains, a 4-ton dump truck unloads burlap bags that land with a thud in a hole shaped like a swimming pool 25 meters long and more than 2 meters deep. Another dump truck soon arrives, also filled with burlap bags.

The two male workers in the first truck wash off the tires and then rumble off.

The Fukushima city government has not made this place known to the public, even to residents living near the area. That's because it is the dumping site for huge amounts of radioactive sludge and dirt collected by city residents cleaning up and decontaminating their neighborhoods….

Fukushima Prefecture is encouraging citizens to rid their neighborhoods of radioactive substances that spewed during the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. It offers subsidies of up to 500,000 yen ($6,370) per neighborhood association for that purpose. But as the clean-up efforts increase, the radioactive sludge and dirt pile up.

At 6 a.m. on July 24, as many as 3,753 residents and cleaning company workers in Fukushima city's Watari district started clearing gutters and ditches of radioactive dirt….

After four hours of cleaning, 5,853 bags of dirt were piled high. Radiation levels dropped to half in some areas, an official said.

The 67-year-old leader of the neighborhood association glanced at a dosimeter and said, "As we had feared, the figure has passed the  (permissible) level." It was 9.9 microsieverts of radiation, the maximum measurement of the dosimeter.

One resident asked the neighborhood association leader where the bags would go.

"I asked that to a city official once," the leader said. "I was told not to ask this particular question since it's not that simple." (This article was written by Noriyoshi Otsuki and Satoru Murata.)

And then there was this story at Asahi yesterday which confirms the  cosmetic nature of the political changes in leadership at the nuke agencies in Japan. It would seem that government policy within agencies is determined by the industry just like in western governments and will not change despite this horrific disaster. Sigh . . . Of course the difference is that the press in Japan is talking about the behind the scenes deals. Something we rarely see in the Western press.

Kaieda picks bureaucrats from pro-nuclear faction to lead METI

August 05, 2011

"Banri Kaieda's "reborn" industry ministry is looking quite similar to highly criticized one that was heavily armed to thwart the energy reforms pushed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The industry minister on Aug. 4 decided on the replacements for three leading ministry officials who will be dismissed over the series of accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the manipulation of public opinion at state-sponsored symposiums on nuclear energy.

"The three successors are people who will not promote reforms nor override objections from the energy industry," said a senior officials of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry…."

After reading the above story, I assume we can take this story at NHK today with a grain of salt.

Kan: No-nuclear generation society a gov't policy

"Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan says he will promote the idea of a society without reliance on nuclear power generation, not as a personal assertion but as a government policy…." Saturday, August 06, 2011 15:59 +0900 (JST)

More contamination and high radiation levels are meanwhile revealed at SKF blog.

Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 700 Liters of Highly Contaminated Water Leaked

The water leaked (for nth time) somewhere in the contaminated water treatment system at Fukushima I Nuke Plant. This time, what's notable is not that the system leaked but the density of radioactive materials in that leaked water. I'm surprised TEPCO actually announced the numbers:

        • Cesium-134: 5.5 million becquerels/cubic centimeter

        • Cesium-137: 6.27 million becquerels/cubic centimeter

 They are much, much higher than the numbers below that TEPCO last announced (July 15) as the densities of radioactive materials in the water before the treatment:

        • Cesium-134: 1.5 million becquerels/cubic centimeter (1.5 x 10^6)

        • Cesium-137: 1.7million becquerels/cubic centimeter (1.7 x 10^6)

 So, in the 700 liters of water that leaked, there are:

        • Cesium-134: 5.5 million x 1000 x 700 = 3,850,000,000,000 [trillion] or 3.85 terabecquerels

        • Cesium-137: 6.27 million x 1000 x 700 = 4,389,000,000,000 [tillion] or 4.389 terabequerels

  From Yomiuri Shinbun (1:04AM JST 8/6/2011): [Translated from Japanese]

 "TEPCO announced on August 5 that 700 liters of highly contaminated water was found leaking from the hose inside the Central Waste Processing Facility at Fukushima I Nuclear power Plant.

There was no effect on the environment outside the building. TEPCO hadn't tested the density of the contaminated water [at that location?] until the leak was found. It again raises the question of the effectiveness of TEPCO's safety measures.

According to TEPCO, the leak was found at the hose that routes the water used to flush the vessels [Kurion's system] back into the treatment system. Cesium-134 was detected at 5,500,000 becquerels/cubic centimeter, and cesium-137 was found at 6,270,000 becquerels/cubic centimeter. The level of cesium is about the same as that of the contaminated water in the basements of the turbine buildings at Reactors 3 and 4."

What? That's the level of contamination in the water in Reactors 3 and 4? That's news to me also. Water in the basements of Reactors 1 and 2 is considered even more radioactive.

SKf is translating an interview given by Professor Komada. There is much more of interest in this interview than the snippet below.

Friday, August 5, 2011

"Summary (Part 1) of Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama's Interview with Daisuke Tsuda on August 5

Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama of Tokyo University, whose fiery remark at the Health and Labor committee in the Lower House of Japan's Diet has inspired many people in Japan and in the world, spoke with independent journalist Daisuke Tsuda in his office at the university on August 5. 

The interview was set up by Shukan Gendai, a popular weekly magazine in Japan with extensive coverage of the Fukushima nuclear accident and the resultant radiation contamination throughout Japan. Professor Kodama, in person, is very much relaxed and soft-spoken, as you can see in the video at the end of the post. Self-deprecating, and a patient teacher, from the way he describes the radiation issues as he sees them.

[…] How scientists communicate with the lay public regarding radiation:

     "Scientists talk based on certain assumptions. But when the assumptions are wrong, then everything based on those assumptions is wrong.

     "A good example is the standard for radiation safety. To assess the radiation safety we use "microsieverts". Such and such microsieverts/hr is detected, so it's safe/dangerous, and the argument goes on for ever over the number. But what we have now cannot be understood by this number alone. The 5 microsieverts/hour radiation detected [on March 15 in Ibaraki]. What's more significant than this high number is that it was detected 100 kilometers from the plant. An enormous amount of radiation was released. The average may be 5 microsieverts/hr, but in one spot it could be 500 microsieverts/hr, in another 0.5 microsievert/hr. That's how I see the problem.

     "Ministry of Education and Science decided on the radiation level for children based on the time they spend in schools. But children are exposed to radiation in their homes. The radiation level for food was decided, as if there were a few food items that were radioactive. But we may have radioactive materials in almost all food. Unexpected concentration of radioactive materials may happen. The fundamental nature of the problem has changed. But mainstream scientists and the government don't seem to notice the change, and continue to apply the old standard of radiation protection, which is to take care of a radiation "spot". Now, what we have is two dimensional or three dimensional space filled with radiation.

Compare the above comments to this story at NHK today:

Govt may allow brief home visits to evacuees

"The Japanese government may allow evacuees whose homes are close to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to return home temporarily.

In response to the nuclear accident in March, the government set up a 20-kilometer no-entry zone around the plant. Later, it allowed brief visits by residents whose homes are located within 3 to 20 kilometers of the plant.

But visits to homes within 3 kilometers of the plant have been banned.

The government says it is now making arrangements for those residents to return temporarily because the plant's reactors are being cooled in a stable manner, and radiation levels are declining.

The government will soon begin detailed radiation monitoring in the area to ensure the safety of the returning evacuees." Saturday, August 06, 2011 09:04 +0900 (JST)

SKF on this story: "This has got to be the biggest "Extend and Pretend" stunt so far by the power that be in Japan.

Everything's under control. Fukushima I Nuke Plant is stable. TEPCO has  submitted the plan for emergency cooling systems, which was immediately approved by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency the very next day. 

Everything's fine.

The Japanese government wants to have the residents within the 3-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuke Plant to return temporarily. Which towns fall within the 3-kilometer radius? Okuma-machi and Futaba-machi where Fukushima I is located. Okuma-machi is is also where plutonium was found in the soil back in April….

From Yomiuri Shinbun (2:07PM JST 8/6/2011): [Translated from Japanese]

Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of nuclear plant accident [and assistant to the prime minister], indicated that the government will start planning for a temporary return of the residents within the 3-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. He spoke with the press after he met with Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato in Fukushima City.

Mr. Hosono said, "Safety is the most important, but we're now reaching the point where we need to seriously discuss the possibility (of returning the residents in the 3-kilometer radius temporarily)." 

However, he said the radiation level around the power plant was still high, and continued, "A cautious approach is called for. We will need to decide on the procedure and the timing."

We're now reaching the point??

Now that the radiation levels inside Fukushima I Nuke Plant are expressed in "SIEVERTS", we're reaching the point where the residents closest to the plant can return? […]"

***

The Watershed Sentinel is proud to share Nelle Maxey's Fukushima Updates prepared for the BC environmental community.

Every day, Nelle pours over the media and other reports of the status of the reactors at Fukushima, comparing figures and trying to make sense out of the conflicting reports.

 

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