Update # 34: July 16-19, 2011
by Nelle Maxey
Three big stories out of Japan over the last few days have been the beef/hay contamination, the faltering radioactive water decontamination system at Fukushima and the government/TEPCO announcement that the "goals" of Step 1 in TEPCO's control plan for Fukushima have "mostly" been reached. Today, Tuesday, July 19th, the government/TEPCO is releasing Step 2 of the plan which is reported to include lifting of emergency evacuation zones Japan.
Let's begin with the faltering decontamination system.
Today's story at NHK reiterates previous stories that the system is not functioning at rated capacities. After removing air from 1.4 kilometres of pipes the rate increased by 2 tons per hour but has now dropped back to the 37 tons per hour as previously reported. There is much speculation on blogs as why the system isn't operating at rated capacities, but as I reported last week it is likely that the system will be replaced with the new Toshiba system. The question really is whether the system is decontaminating enough volume of water to cool the reactors on an ongoing basis.
Radioactive water in Fukushima poses challenge
"The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company will announce on Tuesday a revised plan to bring the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant under control. They are expected to say that the first stage of the plan has been almost completed on schedule…."
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 06:53 +0900 (JST)
Here are a couple of comments from Physics Forum blog site both before and after the rate dropped again to 37 tons/hr:
"Two reasons are suspected for the decrease of the water treatment facility flow rate to 37 ton/hour instead of the expected 50 ton/hour: air trapped in pipes and foreign bodies. After bleeding air from pipes yesterday, the flow increased to 39 ton/hour. Tepco keeps investigating."
This comment leads one to believe that there is some kind of a sedimentation or corrosion problem in the pipes/tanks of the decontamination system since the level dropped again after the bleeding of the pipes.
The second Physics Forum comment is:
"Tepco is taking 570 tons of fresh water from the river to raise the water level in the fresh water tank. No water had been taken in the river for two weeks. Yomiuri says this is due to the water treatment facility's poor performance, but I am not sure I understand. Have they really run out of stored decontaminated water? On 12 July, they had 4563 cubic meters in the desalinated water receiving tank, according to http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp…/110713e10.pdf . If the 3 reactors together need 400 cubic meters every day, this was enough to cover more than 11 days."
Further on in this report (See Saturday NHK story below: "Fukushima reactors 1-3 stabilized) you will see the statement that the water levels were not reported correctly which explains the need to add river water to the stored decontaminated water used for reactor cooling. I believe this answers the question in the above comment.
The beef contamination story has been covered for a week in the international press. The government has finally, today, ordered shipments of beef from Fukushima prefecture to be stopped. However there are now two other prefectures with highly contaminated hay reported. The 648 head of cattle reported in the story below (at an estimated by me 900 lbs of beef each) would amount to approximately 58,000 pounds of contaminated meat in the marketplace.
Govt bans beef cattle shipments from Fukushima
Japan's government has suspended all beef cattle shipments from Fukushima Prefecture for fear of widespread radioactive contamination caused by the troubled nuclear plant.
The government's nuclear disaster task force ordered the suspension on Tuesday.
The health ministry says rice straw contaminated with radioactive cesium in amounts exceeding a government standard was fed to cattle at farms in Fukushima, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures.
The ministry says 648 head of cattle were shipped from the farms, and that beef from the cattle was distributed to 35 prefectures…." Tuesday, July 19, 2011 20:01 +0900 (JST)"
Further to this story:
I forwarded last week's Bloomberg article on contaminated beef and the lifting of the import ban on Japanese foodstuffs in Canada to my MP Alex Atamanenko on Friday and received a reply from his office that they were also forwarding this information to Libby Davies (NDP Health Critic) and to Malcolm Allen (NDP Critic for Agriculture and Agri-Food). I received a reply from Mr. Allen's Parliamentary Secretary this morning thanking me for the information and saying that information is greatly appreciated. So if any of you readers would like to weigh-in on the importing of Japanese food into Canada and the levels of testing that Health Canada is doing on these imports, you could forward your concerns to these two MPs.
Here are their email addresses: malcolm.allen.a1(at)parl.gc.ca; libby.davies(at)parl.gc.ca
Here is a link to a comprehensive article on the lifting of the Canadian import ban, June 15 in the Journal of Commerce:
Canada Lifts Japanese Food Import Restrictions
Now let's look at how the government and TEPCO are framing the arguments for progress in containing the Fukushima disaster and lifting of the emergency evacuation orders. Here is an article posted on NHK on Saturday:
Fukushima reactors 1-3 stabilized
"The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company say they have stabilized the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
But problems continue with the system for purifying contaminated water.
In a joint assessment, the government and TEPCO say they have completed the first step of a plan outlined in mid-April for a complete cold shutdown of the reactors. They say they completed the first step within the original 3-month deadline.
The assessment adds that reactors 1, 2 and 3 have been stably cooled down, and that nitrogen has been injected into their containment vessels to prevent hydrogen explosions.
Pools of spent nuclear fuel are also stable.
The government and TEPCO say radiation levels in the surrounding air and seawater have been declining, and the goal of reducing the amount of radiation leaking outside the plant has been achieved.
But the crisis is far from over. The assessment admits that contaminated water has leaked out of storage tanks, and that water level settings at its water purification facilities were incorrect."
Saturday, July 16, 2011 08:04 +0900 (JST)
And here is the Sunday story from NHK:
Govt,TEPCO:1st goal attained in stabilization plan
"The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company are set to announce that they have completed the first step of a plan to cool the nuclear reactors at the utility's Fukushima Daiichi plant….work has yet to begin on covering the damaged reactor buildings." Sunday, July 17, 2011 05:51 +0900 (JST)"
I looked around for internet comments on these stories, since we know the reactors have NOT been stabilized to cold shutdown, that is, the reactor temperatures are not below 100°C. Indeed it has been my understanding that it is questionable if they even CAN be stabilized. Talk on the Physics Forum was in the same vein as this comment from SKF which verifies my understanding.
PM Kan: Step 2 Will Be Brought Forward So That You Can Go Home
Sunday, July 17, 2011
"Extend and Pretend" continues in Japan, getting beyond delusional particularly in light of more evidence of widespread radiation contamination.
Prime Minister Kan, who survived the vote of no confidence and is determined more than ever to stay on (or dissolve the lower house and hold a general election with "beyond nuke" message, as some analysts have suggested, to appeal to the Japanese who are increasingly anti-nuke), now promises the 12 heads of the municipalities around Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that completion of the "step 2" of the so-called "roadmap" will be expedited so that their people can go home.
What is the "step 2"? It is to bring the reactors to a "cold shutdown".
Don't laugh. And don't ask how they can bring three broken reactors which may not even have the fuel (or corium) inside to a "cold shutdown". Technically, a "cold shutdown" assumes a sound RPV and containment, not a RPV with a hole or two, Containment Vessel with a hole or two, and the reactor building top blown to smithereens. They will probably have to change the very definition of "cold shutdown" to claim they will have achieved the "cold shutdown".
Let's see, according to TEPCO, the Reactor Pressure Vessel's temperature for Reactor 1 is 102 degrees Celsius at the bottom of the RPV, the temperature for Reactor 2's RPV at the same place is 127 degrees Celsius. Reactor 3's RPV is hotter at 141 degrees Celsius at the water feeder. But just wait another 3, 4 months or so till the corium completely falls out of the RPVs and hopefully out of the Containment Vessel and deep into the concrete or substrate, so that the RPV's temperature drops down below 100. Call that a cold shutdown, and they're all set."
The above is very astute assessment of what is really going on, as you can see from today's story at NHK:
Govt to define "cold shutdown"
"The second-stage target to bring the nuclear disaster under control will involve achieving a cold shutdown, under which the disabled reactors are to be cooled down to about 100 degrees Celsius or lower.
The Japanese government is due to make this clear on Tuesday when it releases a revised plan to contain the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The government has so far failed to specify what a cold shutdown entails. It now plans to define the term as bringing reactor-bottom temperatures to about 100 degrees or lower, and substantially reducing the public's radiation exposure by controlling the release of radioactivity…." Tuesday, July 19, 2011 09:42 +0900 (JST)"
If you are interested in how the residents' in evacuation areas are responding to lifting of bans and to people returning, you can watch the two heart-wrenching video's posted on Energy News today. The first video is from a City council member and the second from a citizen group. Neither want the bans lifted until the radiation contamination data for all radionuclides in their areas are published by government. Here is the link:
As you see by this final story NHK story today (just posted), the government has acceded to some degree to citizen concerns on contamination in these areas:
Govt renews Fukushima plant stabilization plan
"The Japanese government has announced new stages of a plan to bring the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant under control….
The meeting approved a renewed plan, including the second stage to be completed by next January, and mid-term targets to be achieved within about three years after that.
Under the renewed plan, the government will carry out regular health checks for about 30 years on residents in Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located. The checks will include thyroid cancer screening tests for children, the estimate survey of external exposure, and the measurement of internal exposure.
The government will also start a safety assessment of radiation levels in the evacuation advisory zone around the plant, in an aim to lift the advisories currently in place there.
As for the evacuation zone and the 20-kilometer no-entry zone, the government will start monitoring radiation levels earlier than planned. The government will start lifting its evacuation orders for areas where safety has been confirmed, after the plan's second stage is achieved by next January…." Tuesday, July 19, 2011 20:44 +0900 (JST)"
Just keep in mind that the reduction of radiation from the plant is directly tied to the cooling of the reactors with the faltering water decontamination/circulation system. Also you should be aware that the temperatures of spent fuel pool in Unit 4 is rising again according to the JAIF reports and that none of the reactors are below 100°C at the bottom of the RPV (reactor pressure vessels) according to the JANTI report. Also the cover has not been put over Unit 1 to lower contamination.
Other stories at NHK include the problems with more rainwater from the typhoon Ma-On and TEPCO's putting a roof over the Turbine building for Unit 3 to keep rainwater from contributing to the pools of highly radioactive water stored in the turbine building.
Also I have seen some interest in Kan's announcement for a "nuclear-free" future in Japan. As the following report makes clear this is a only a "personal opinion" not a political position so far.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/07/pm-kan-step-2-will-be-brought-forward.html
"….Some expressed a huge disappointment at the prime ministers explanation in the cabinet meeting and in the Diet that his "beyond-nuke" stance was only his personal opinion. In response, the prime minister said his administration's unified view on the issue would be decided soon."
Energy News has two video's you will want to watch. The first concerns highly contaminated rain in Lake Louise, BC posted by a fellow who is on a cross-country drive checking radiation levels. the YouTube link has more of his videos from his drive across BC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dccszCEKFdY
The second is a new video by Dr.Chris Busby filmed on Sunday in Japan. I haven't been able to watch it yet as I haven't found it embedded anywhere.
I have read a couple of reports however. Here are the links to the video and the report:
http://japanfocus.org/-Chris-Busby/3563