Update #13 – June 3, 2011
At NHK today:
Nelle's Comments:
Finally Tepco admits it can't get a handle on containing all the HIGHLY contaminated water and overflow is likely.
They also give some comprehensive numbers
There are now 105,100 tons of HIGHLY contaminated water which contain 720,000 terabecquerels of radiation. That looks like this 720,000,000,000,000,000,000 . . . let's see have I got that right . . . hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, yup!
The bequerel (Bq) is a measurement of activity (not dose or exposure) of a quantity of radioactive material. One Bq means one radioactive nucleus decays per second.
Going one step further, dividing the tons of water by the radioactivity gives us a figure for the radioactivity in each ton of water as 6.85 terabecquerels of radiation. With the amount of water increasing at the rate of 500 tons a day, the radiation is increasing at the rate of 3,425 terabequerels per day.
TEPCO says contaminated water may overflow
"Tokyo Electric Power Company says that, in a worst case scenario, highly radioactive water may overflow from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as early as June 20th.
The company is set to start operating filters for highly radioactive water from June 15th. However, it warns that if the filtering does not go to plan, highly radioactive water may overflow from a tunnel at the Number 2 reactor.
TEPCO says that by May 31st, 105,100 tons of waste water had accumulated. It contains an estimated 720,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances. Tera stands for one trillion.
The utility plans to treat 1,200 tons of water per day at a storage facility and transfer the filtered water to temporary tanks. It says it has already set up tanks for 13,000 tons of filtered water and will increase storage capacity by 20,000 tons per month.
TEPCO officials say that in the event the filters don't work properly, the utility will complete an additional underground tank for highly contaminated water by mid-August.
The basements of the reactor buildings and turbine buildings are full of highly radioactive water. The amount is increasing by 500 tons a day due to ongoing injections of fresh water to cool the damaged reactors and fuel rods."
Friday, June 03, 2011 20:15 +0900 (JST) http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/03_31.html
Here is Bloomberg's take on this story (re-printed in the San Francisco Chronicle):
Fukushima Water Found to Have More Radiation Than Released Into Atmosphere
"The water level in basements and trenches at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant rose and may contain more radiation than is known to have been released into the atmosphere in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
The amount of contaminated water rose to about 105 million liters (28 million gallons) from 100 million liters on May 18, and may start overflowing after June 20, the company known as Tepco said in a statement today. Radiation in the water is estimated at 720,000 terabecquerels, general manager Junichi Matsumoto said at a media briefing in Tokyo…
A water de-contamination unit being built at the plant will start operating after June 15 and an underground tank capable of holding 10 million liters will be ready by the middle of August, Tepco said in today's statement…."
And a good news story at NHK today, although we don't know yet if humidity was lowered.
TEPCO cools storage pool in No.2 reactor building
"The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has succeeded in lowering the temperature in a storage pool for used nuclear fuel at the No.2 reactor after it started operating a cooling system there.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says the temperature in the pool dropped to 38 degrees Celsius on Thursday from about 70 degrees previously.
TEPCO had anticipated that it would take about one month to lower the temperature to about 40 degrees.
In the No. 2 reactor building, steam released by the storage pool has been pushing up the humidity level to 99.9 percent. Such excessive humidity has prevented recovery efforts so far. The company installed a circulatory cooling system to lower the pool temperature in order to reduce humidity and began operating the system on Tuesday.
Since the temperature has sharply decreased TEPCO plans to inspect the interior of the building as it suspects humidity has also declined. If the situation has improved, it will install systems to remove radioactive substances.
The company plans to start operating similar cooling systems at the storage pools in the No.1 and 3 reactor buildings in June, and in the No.4 reactor building in July."
Friday, June 03, 2011 05:11 +0900 (JST) http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/03_03.html