Update #59: Sept 7, 2011
This is the first update in over ten days. In that time, I have collected 30 pages of stories on Fukushima (and related topics). The new format with new headings will, I hope, make it easier for readers for follow the main topic streams from many different sources. I will only synopsize sources and readers can then go to the links which interest them to read full articles or hear audio programs or see videos.
Today I'll start with an audio broadcast of Helen Caldicott interviewing Arnie Gunderson on Sept 2. (Hat tip to Kevin Logan for forwarding.)
This broadcast gives an excellent overview of the key issues at both the plant site and with the contamination in Japan (as well as an update on the state of the reactors affected by the earthquake in the eastern USA last week).
Listen here: http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org
The Gunderson Interview is about 1/2 hour and is in the first part of the show.
Here are the points concerning the plant site which I find of most significance.
AIR CONTAMINATION:
- Currently 12 Giga-Bequerels (GBq) of radiation per day are being emitted from Fukushima into the atmosphere. This translates to 120 Billion Bq/day;
- Tents will be constructed over reactor buildings to limit these emissions into the atmosphere. These tents are for worker protection on the site, a good thing.
- However, the radiation collected inside the tents will be VENTED into the atmosphere further exposing both the Japanese population and, as Arnie says, "British Columbia, Alaska and the Pacific coast of the USA" to higher levels of radioactive fallout/rainout than we are currently experiencing.
WATER CONTAMINATION
- The Water Decontamination System (which is finally working fairly well), is reducing the amount of contaminated water being produced at the plant.
- That is, now that the water is being somewhat decontaminated (I believe the rate is around 30%), it can be recirculated for cooling purposes.
It could not be used for cooling without decontamination as all the equipment and pipes would have been too radioactive to be run and serviced by workers.
- While amounts of new radioactive water being produced are reduced, radioactive filters from the systems is a NEW source of radioactive waste. If these are stockpiled or burned they become another source of air contamination. If they are buried they can become a source of soil and potentially water contamination.
As Helen Caldicott points, "You can't get rid of radioactive waste!"
- We don't know what TEPCO is doing with the filters and sludge from the system.
PLANT STRUCTURE
- All the reactor buildings remain very unstable and further damage and contamination could be caused by earthquakes.
-
Gunderson's concern with the structural stability of all the reactor buildings is echoed at Physics Forum: "There are three large reactor buildings that have been severely damaged by hydrogen explosions. Working inside those buildings, given probable continued seismic activity as well as corrosion is going to be a hazard over the foreseeable time period (10 to 20 years)." Follow this ongoing discussion back from the latest post here: http://www.physicsforums.com/s
howpost.php?p=3490164&postcoun t=11166
FUKUSHIMA Plant Site News
This first story is very important as it concerns the government's Nuclear Safety Agency request to see the TEPCO EMERGENCY OPERATION PROCEDURE MANUAL in their attempt to understand what happened in the very first hours following the earthquake and tsunami in March. It appears that TEPCO is trying to escape scrutiny in this matter by blacking out 99% of the manual prior to submission!.The physical protection (PP) referred to in the article means the physical protection of the reactors in an emergency situation.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
TEPCO's Extreme Blackout
All you can read is about 10 or so lines, according to Tokyo Shinbun citing Kyodo News (9/7/2011).
TEPCO submitted the 12-page document as requested by a Lower House committee concerning the emergency operation procedure at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.
Following the "request" (it was a formal request) from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to pay close attention to the PP (Physical Protection), TEPCO blacked out almost all of the information, resulting in the document as you see in the picture.
According to TEPCO's Matsumoto, it was [only] part of the document that was blacked [out]. I suppose 99% is still considered "part".
Needless to say, the committee chairman is not very happy, and requested that TEPCO re-submit the document.
The committee requested the information on emergency procedure from TEPCO, as the allegation that manually stopping the IC (emergency cooling system) may have caused the meltdown in Reactor 1 …
I personally don't buy that allegation, particularly when they say it was a "mistake by the worker". (The committee chairman should have asked for the "true" manual…)
You can view the TBS news and see the completeness of the blackout by TEPCO.
This brief Japanese newscast is truly astounding when you see the amount of information that is blacked out. Available at the SKF link to this story above or HERE
STATUS OF REACTORS
On September 5th, NHK reported TEPCO will scrap Units 1 & 4 for sure. Odd since Unit 3 is the most damaged. And since they pumped seawater into all the reactors which they experts say destroys them for future use.
TEPCO to scrap Fukushima reactors
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
"[…] Answering a question by a prefectural assembly member, Nishizawa said that TEPCO will scrap the damaged No.1 to No.4 reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
He added, however, that TEPCO will judge, based on the opinions of local municipalities, whether the remaining reactors that are less damaged will be abolished. He was referring to 2 reactors at the Daiichi plant and 4 reactors at the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant. The Daini plant is located about 10 kilometers south of the Daiichi plant."
On September 4, Bloomberg (and many others) reported this good news story.
No. 3 Reactor Temperature Falls to Below 100 Celsius, Tokyo Electric Says
By Tsuyoshi Inajima – Sep 4, 2011 9:13 PM PT
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the temperature of the No. 3 reactor pressure vessel at its crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant fell to below 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit), one of the conditions for achieving cold shutdown.
The temperature on the outside of the base of the vessel was 98.4 degrees Celsius at 5:00 a.m. today from 102.7 degrees 24 hours earlier after the utility known as Tepco this month added a spraying system to cool the reactor, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager, told reporters.
It doesn't mean the reactor has reached cold shutdown status because the utility still needs to assess the amount of radioactive materials leaking from the reactor, he said. Temperatures remain higher than 100 degrees on other sections of the reactor, the utility said. […]
Comment on this article from Physics Forum
http://www.physicsforums.com/s
"Yeah. But with the actual water injection rate (6m3/h through feedwater line and 3 m3/h through Core Spray) the temperatures are stabilizing after the first rapid fall. So this won't be enough, as it seems. Something is still missing."
This comment is a reference to the following data from the JAIF Reports using TEPCO data which show a total of 9 cubic meters of cooling water per hour continues resulting in the following temperatures, showing a 5° drop from Sept 3 to 4, a 4° drop frim Sept 4 to 5, a 1.8° drop from Sept 5 to 6 and a 0.5° drop from Sept 6 to 7:
Unit 3 Temperature @ Bottom of RPV-9/07 96.1, 9/06 96.6, 9/05 98.4, 9/04 102.7, 9/03 107.7
SEAWATER CONTAMINATION AND PROTECTION (?)
Thursday, Sept 8 this story appears at NHK. A terabequerel has 12 zeros following it. Thus, 15,000TBqs is written out as 15,000,000,000,000,000. This figure would be read as 15 quadrillion bequerels. It could also be written as 15 PBq or petabequerels which has 15 zeros following it. Note the estimate of contamination dumped into the ocean between March and April has more than tripled the original estimate between April and May.
Radioactive release into sea estimated triple
A group of Japanese researchers say that a total of 15,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances is estimated to have been released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea.
Researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Kyoto University and other institutes made the calculation of radioactivity released from late March through April.
The combined amount of iodine-131 and cesium-137 is more than triple the figure of 4,720 terabecquerels earlier estimated by Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant operator. The utility only calculated the radioactivity from substances released from the plant into the sea in April and May.
The researchers say the estimated amount of radioactivity includes a large amount that was first released into the air but entered the sea after coming down in the rain.
They say they need to determine the total amount of radioactivity released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant in order to accurately assess the impact of the disaster on the sea.
This may explain this story which appeared two days ago, which I found astounding at that time. The above estimate of contamination doesn't make the efficacy any more believable to me, but it explains the story's release.
TEPCO to build wall off Fukushima Dacha plant
Tuesday, September 06
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant plans to build an iron wall on the ocean side of the plant to prevent radioactive water from leaking into the sea.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says more than 110,000 tons of highly radioactive water remains in the basements of reactor buildings at the plant. There is growing concern that the water may eventually pass via underground water into the ocean.
The utility will use thousands of iron pipes to create an 800-meter-long [2,625 foot] wall surrounding the water intakes of 4 reactor facilities.
Each pipe, 22-meters [72 feet] long and one meter [3 feet] wide, will be installed deep below the sea bed to stop the flow of groundwater.
The firm says it will also prepare for a rise in underground water levels around the plant after the wall is built. It says it will closely monitor the level of groundwater and consider pumping it away to prevent overflow.
Construction will begin as early as the end of this year and be completed in about 2 years.
Prevention of sea-water contamination is one of pillars in the company's roadmap to contain the nuclear accident.
A mile-long wall of pipes to stop water and groundwater flow? How will they seal wall to water flow? This makes little sense to me. Furthermore, the drawing in the second link below shows that this will lead to more contaminated water (not just rising groundwater flows) that TEPCO will have to pump some where, some how.
Here are some comments from the net:
This one (from a technical blog} is concerned that this won't happen for 2 years. Thus "too little, too late".
Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo to build giant 2,625 feet long Iron Wall around Fukushima Daiichi, still too little too late
WORKERS CONTAMINATED
This story from a week ago regards an accident at the plant where workers were doused in water containing beta radiation. Apparently the workers were not trained properly as they removed a hose on one of the decontamination system tanks without closing the valve when they were changing filters. Here is some background information on BETA RADIATION as there seems to be some confusion in the press regarding this type of radiation exposure. Alpha and Beta radiation is particle radiation. Gamma radiation is wave radiation. An example of a beta radiation emitter is Strontium 90.
BETA PARTICLES
Beta rays are much lighter [than alpha] energy particles. The beta particle is an energetic electron given off by the nucleus of unstable isotopes to restore an energy balance. They leave the nucleus at a speed of 270,000 kilometres per second. They can be stopped, for instance, by an aluminium sheet a few millimetres thick or by 3 metres of air. The RS-500 can detect most energetic beta particles through the case. Weaker beta particles can be detected through the tube window. Although the beta particle is around 8000 times smaller than the alpha particle, it is capable of penetrating much deeper into living matter. Each encounter with a living cell, and there may be many before the beta energy is dissipated, is likely to damage some of the chemical links between the living molecules of the cell or cause some permanent genetic change in the cell nucleus. If the damage occurs within the generative cells of the ovaries or testes, the damage may be passed to new generations. The normal background radiation level must contribute to the mutation of the gene pool. Most mutations are undesirable with a very few leading to "improvements". Any increase in the background level of radiation should be considered harmful.