Nuclear Meltdown Watch

[cptmarginal]

The Words of 2013

Each year Jiyū Kokumin Sha, publisher of the popular annual reference Gendai yōgo no kiso chishiki (Basic Knowledge on Contemporary Terminology), selects its “most popular word of the year” along with a top-ten list. The terms are those that have captured the popular imagination that year—the words on everyone’s lips. Today the company announced its long list of 50 nominees; the finalists and champion will be announced on Monday, December 2.

Below we walk you through the nominated terms. They provide an interesting window on the events and ideas that impacted the Japanese people over the past year.

[...]

- ダークツーリズム — Dāku tsūrizumu. “Dark tourism” takes travelers to places not on the ordinary circuit of pleasant destinations—Auschwitz, Chernobyl, Ground Zero in New York, and if some Japanese planners have their way, one day the zone around Fukushima Daiichi as well.

http://fukuichikankoproject.jp/project_en.html

The Fukuichi Kanko Project is a plan to turn the disaster site of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into a so-called “tourist destination.”

However, we are not referring to the disaster site as it stands today. This plan supposes the site 25 years after the 2011 disaster, once thorough decontamination has been carried out, and regular citizens are able to safely approach within a few hundred meters of the site without protective clothing. The driving idea of this project is to begin investigating now the ways in which the Fukushima Daiichi disaster site in 2036 should gather individuals, build facilities, and display and convey messages, while also placing the reconstruction of disaster-stricken areas at the core of its vision.

In the fall of 2012, a multidisciplinary team consisting of members sympathetic to this idea, with backgrounds in fields including business, sociology, journalism, architecture, and fine art, gathered and formed in response to a call by Hiroki Azuma, head of Genron Co., Ltd. From here, the team plans to publish and exhibit the project’s results. These results will primarily come from the assembled team, and will come from a variety of angles, public, private, and academic, and will also involve the cooperation of individuals from disaster-stricken areas. Our ultimate goal is for the project to act as a unique, privately-conceived proposal for reconstruction that will be used as an actual plan for reconstruction.

As memories of the disaster and the resulting pollution are still fresh, some may feel that a plan at this point in time for turning the site of the nuclear disaster into a tourist destination would be unthinkable, or improper.

However, the future will inevitably come. And 25 years is not a short amount of time. 1986, exactly 25 years before 2011, was the year that the nuclear disaster befell Chernobyl, and it has now started to gather tourists.

Man is a being of curiosity. Once time passes, decontamination proceeds, and the memories of the tragedy start to fade, the site of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster will too one day invariably become the subject of man’s curiosity. However, we cannot allow ourselves to forget about the scale of this disaster, or about the foolishness of post-war Japanese society that brought us to it. We must teach future generations of this error and build a new Japan upon such an understanding. At some point in the future, “tourists” will come to the disaster site. Our desire to not forget is what makes us think that we ought to consider the kinds of facilities we should build for and how to convey the tragedy of "Fukushima" to these visitors.

In Hiroshima, there is the Atomic Bomb Dome. However, no Japanese person in 1945 could have imagined that the Dome would one day become a World Heritage site. In fact, there was a strong desire among Hiroshima residents that the Dome be demolished, as it brought back the horrible memories of the dropping of the atomic bomb. But now, in 2012, who would say that the Dome in Hiroshima should have been demolished, and that the memories of that tragedy should have been forgotten with it? It is this kind of “future” that we take as our premise as we attempt to create a vision of true recovery from this disaster.

The prefecture of Fukushima, and Japan as a whole, cannot move forward without taking on the responsibility of the error that has commonly come to simply be referred to as “Fukushima.” The Fukuichi Kanko Project is meant to be one proposal of how to do just that.

The administration of present-day Japan is giving no thought to this kind of issue. That is why we ourselves have decided to think about the future of Fukushima.
We hope for your understanding and support.

More from the "Words of 2013" list:

- 汚染水 — Osensui. The contaminated water now being collected in massive tanks outside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Numerous leaks of this irradiated water into the soil and ocean have been reported, adding to the criticism aimed at TEPCO’s handling of the disaster.

- ブラック企業 — Burakku kigyō. These “black corporations” are employers noted for their poor treatment of employees. Lists of the blackest of the black are popular reading material among job-seekers who hope to avoid suffering bad work conditions for the sake of a regular paycheck.

- 限定正社員 — Gentei seishain. The traditional idea of the seishain, or regular full-time employee, was of a person with a guaranteed job. But this new “limited regular employee” concept aims to make it easier for employers to take on workers and let them go when they are no longer needed. Enhanced benefits may make it a step up for irregular employees, but people with stable jobs now worry that the “limitations” will be to their job security.

- 追い出し部屋 — Oidashi-beya. The “room for booting people out” is a division within a corporation—almost certainly a black one—where unwanted workers are transferred and left to do mind-numbing drudgery until they quit of their own accord, thus saving the firm the trouble of firing them (and incurring various payments and legal paperwork).

[Peachtree Pam]

Here is a site that seems to have sober informative articles on Fukushima - Simply Info.

http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/

[hanshan]

...

^^^ - cool tx, seems pretty good

http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?page_id=11724

(parenthetical - if the Fukushima radiation isn't dropping on
the Pacific Northwest, BC, or, Northern California, as the following
seems to indicate ( as least insofar as contaminating the food chain),
Where is it going?)

SimplyInfo » US Food Monitoring
US Food Monitoring

November 19th, 2013 | Add a Comment

There has been a gradual effort to independently test foods from the US and Canada for radiation related to Fukushima.
This page is a compilation of the results we have found. Each food title links to the original source where we found the testing.
Those websites usually have additional information on the testing or item tested.
2013 Testing

Nishiki Rice – California:
Germanium Detector – Test Date Sept. 2013 – Security Tokyo
Iodine 131 – Not Detected
Cesium 134 - Not Detected
Cesium 137 - Not Detected
(via http://www.vancouvermonitoring.blogspot.ca/)

Fior de Frutta Organic Blueberry Jam – Bulgaria – US Stores:
Equipment Used Not Declared – Test Date October 2013 – Tokyo Health Auth & Private Lab
Cesium-137 - 140Bq/kg (Tokyo Health Authority)
Cesium-137 - 164Bq/kg (private lab)
*discrepancy could be variation among samples taken
It is assumed the contamination in this product is from Chernobyl fallout on the region.


Blueberries - Port Coquitlam, BC Canada:
Equipment not specified – Test Date October 2013 – CRMS Setagaya
Cesium 134 – Not Detected (2.52 bq/kg detection limit)
Cesium 137 – Not Detected (2.73 bq/kg detection limit)
(via http://www.vancouvermonitoring.blogspot.ca/)

Spinach – Sold in Vancouver BC Canada
NaI Detector – Test Date June 2013 – Lab not specified
Cesium 137 – 2.83 bq/kg
Cesium 134 – Not Detected (.57 bq/kg detection limit)
(via http://www.vancouvermonitoring.blogspot.ca/)

Potatoes – Sold in Vancouver BC Canada
NaI Detector – Test Date July 2013 – Lab not specified
Cesium 137 – Not detected (0.33 bq/kg detection limit)
Cesium 134 – Not detected (0.39 bq/kg detection limit)
(via http://www.vancouvermonitoring.blogspot.ca/)

Commercial Mushroom – Sold in Vancouver BC Canada*
NaI Detector – Test Date July 2013 – Lab not specified
Cesium 137 – 2.32 bq/kg Cesium 134 – Not detected (0.54 bq/kg detection limit)
*Mushrooms grown indoors usually have much lower contamination that those grown outdoors or on contaminated wood.
(via http://www.vancouvermonitoring.blogspot.ca/)

Pine Mushroom - Terrace BC Canada
Detector not specified – October 2013 – CRMS Setagaya
Cesium 137 – 2.89 bq/kg
Cesium 134 – Not detected (0,24 bq/kg detection limit)
It appears these may be wild picked mushrooms but may only be indicative of this area’s contamination levels.
(via http://www.vancouvermonitoring.blogspot.ca/)

Asa Miso – Canadian made product – Purchased Vancouver BC Canada
Detector not specified – September 2013 – Lab not specified
Cesium 137 – Not detected (0.34 bq/kg detection limit)
Cesium 134 – Not detected (0.32 bq/kg detection limit)
(via http://www.vancouvermonitoring.blogspot.ca/)

Washington State Pacific coast eel weed
Detector not specified – October 2013 - Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Cesium 134: 8.14 Bq/Kg
Cesium 137: 8.88 Bq/Kg
Cobalt 60: 3.7 Bq/Kg
* Seaweed from Maine was tested at the same time and was below the level of certainty for detection with their equipment.
They also tested seaweed purchased in Chiba Japan, results available in the link above.

Chanterelle and Morel Mushrooms Wild – Humbolt County California
Germanium Detector – May 2013 – EMSL
Iodine 131 – Not detected
Cesium 134 – Not detected
Cesium 137 - 23.38bq/kg
(Testing conducted by http://allegedlyapparent.wordpress.com)

Dulse and Rockweed seaweed Pacific Ocean Beach, Trinidad, Humboldt County, California
Germanium Detector – May 2013 – EMSL
Iodine 131 – Not detected
Cesium 134 – Not detected
Cesium 137 - Not detected
(Testing conducted by http://allegedlyapparent.wordpress.com)
Soil Six River National Forest, near Willow Creek, Humboldt County
Germanium Detector – May 2013 – EMSL
Iodine 131 – Not detected
Cesium 134 – 0.962 bq/kg
Cesium 137 - 13.39 bq/kg
(Testing conducted by http://allegedlyapparent.wordpress.com)
*Soil from bottom of small already-dried-out meadow pool/pond

Compost Soil From Humbolt County California (Purchased)
Germanium Detector – May 2013 – EMSL
Iodine 131 – Not detected
Cesium 134 – 1.11 bq/kg
Cesium 137 - 4.10 bq/kg
(Testing conducted by http://allegedlyapparent.wordpress.com)
Salmon – Pacific Northwest harvested – purchased in California

Detector not specified – January 2013 – Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Dept.
Iodine 131 – Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Iodine 132 – Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Cesium 134 - Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Cesium 137 - Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Tellurium 132 - Not detected (see link for detection limits)

Japanese soy sauce – purchased in California
Detector not specified – August 2013 – Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Dept.
Iodine 131 – Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Iodine 132 – Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Cesium 134 - Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Cesium 137 - Not detected (see link for detection limits)
Tellurium 132 - Not detected (see link for detection limits)

[Peachtree Pam]

I don't think this has been posted about Unit 3. If it weren't so mindboggling horrific it would be hilarious in that Tepco is slowly releasing more info about even more damage than had been acknowledged... from Simply Info.

http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=11865


November 29th, 2013
Kyodo News announced yesterday that preparations are underway to remove the debris from the unit 3 spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi. The debris in unit 3′s spent fuel pool is much more excessive and complicated than unit 4. In unit 3′s pool is a tangle of rebar and concrete along with the refueling crane. The refueling crane apparently fell in the pool during the explosion. One end landed on the fuel racks.

Along with the effort to prepare for debris removal workers dropped an underwater camera in the pool after both the main cable and back up cable on the crane failed.

[smoking since 1879]

Along with the effort to prepare for debris removal workers dropped an underwater camera in the pool after both the main cable and back up cable on the crane failed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_radiation#Effects_on_materials

Neutrons also degrade materials; bombardment of materials with neutrons creates collision cascades that can produce point defects and dislocations in the materials. At high neutron fluences this can lead to embrittlement of metals and other materials, and to swelling of some of them. This poses a problem for nuclear reactor vessels, and significantly limits their lifetime (which can be somewhat prolonged by controlled annealing of the vessel, reducing the number of the built-up dislocations). Graphite moderator blocks are especially susceptible to this effect, known as Wigner effect, and have to be annealed periodically; the well-known Windscale fire was caused by a mishap during such an annealing operation.

[seemslikeadream]

Water decontamination system in trouble at Japan's Fukushima
(AFP) – 22 hours ago
Tokyo — A trouble-prone system used to decontaminate radioactive water at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant was switched off Sunday because of a chemical leak, the plant's operator said.
Hydrochloric acid, used to neutralise alkaline water being decontaminated, was found seeping from a pipe joint, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said in a statement.
The joint was wrapped in a vinyl bag to contain the leakage, TEPCO said, adding it was investigating the cause of the trouble.
About one litre of hydrochloric acid has been contained in the bag.
The leak was found at one of three Advanced Liquid Processing System units designed to remove radioactivity from contaminated water at the plant, where a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 sent nuclear reactors into meltdown.
The systems are expected to play a crucial role in treating huge amounts of toxic water accumulating at the plant.
The troubled system was one of two units that had been in trial operation and were scheduled to go into full operation Sunday.
In late September plastic padding clogged up a drain in the same system, causing it to shut down. In October, it was halted due to a programming mistake.
Thousands of tonnes of water, used since the meltdown to cool reactors or polluted by other radioactive material, are being stored in huge tanks at the site on Japan's northeast coast.
A series of setbacks, including radioactive water leaks into the Pacific Ocean, have eroded confidence that Asia's largest utility can tame the world's worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

TEPCO Downplays Huge Risks Involved in Removing Fukushima Fuel Rods
Sunday, 01 December 2013 11:38
By Jessica Desvarieux, The Real News Network | Video Interview


More at The Real News
Arnie Gunderson: Agencies overseeing cleanup like the IAEA are biased towards defending and promoting nuclear power.
TRANSCRIPT:
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
On Monday, November 18, Tokyo Electric began the long-delayed process of removing spent fuel rods from the damaged Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, this process beginning what is said to be a possible decades-long procedure.
With us to discuss the high-stakes operation going on there is Arnie Gunderson. He has over 40 years of experience working in nuclear power engineering, and he was a licensed reactor operator and is a former nuclear industry senior vice president.
Thanks for joining us, Arnie.
ARNIE GUNDERSON, CHIEF ENGINEER, FAIREWINDS: Hi. Thanks for having me.
DESVARIEUX: So, Arnie, you recently released a video explaining how an animated video from Tokyo Electric Power Company misrepresented the highly dangerous and difficult cleanup task ahead of them. At the end of last week, Tokyo Electric reported that they successfully removed nuclear fuel rods from reactor 4. Is this a good sign? Or do you feel like they are overplaying this a bit?
GUNDERSON: I think they've overplayed the video, certainly. You know, it seemed like one of these product promotions from the 1950s where we have to trust Tokyo Electric. These are the same people that let rats eat the wires on their cooling pumps and are releasing huge amounts of radiation into the Pacific. And now we're supposed to trust them on something that's more complex and potentially more dangerous. So it's--I think, had--the work needs to be done. There's no doubt that the fuel has to come out of there. But I just have no faith that Tokyo Electric has the competence and the capacity to do it right.
DESVARIEUX: And how is this more complex and more dangerous?
GUNDERSON: Well, this thing had a huge earthquake. The fuel in the fuel pool was knocked side to side in the earthquake. The waves in the fuel pool were three feet high during the earthquake. So think of your backyard swimming pool suddenly having a three-foot wave and realize how violently the ground was moving.
So, first off, the racks rattled side to side. There was another reactor in Japan at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa on the other coast that experienced an earthquake a couple of years ago, and the racks became distorted. It's like a pack of cigarettes. And if it's a fresh pack, you can pull the cigarettes and it out. But if it's a crushed pack, the cigarettes get stuck. So the first problem is that these things have been beat up by the earthquake, and at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa they jammed some of the fuel.
But then on top of that, here at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, the roof collapsed on top and damaged the racks with the girders falling on it. I built these racks when I was a senior vice president in the industry, and the tolerances are very, very high tolerance. So they have to pull these things out now. And with the roof rubble in it, the friction to try to pull these out is going to be hard. And I'm afraid they might snap one.
DESVARIEUX: And now there's actually a team of 19 expert representatives from the IAEA that will be arriving in Japan to monitor the cleanup. They're arriving on Tuesday, November 26. Does this mean we will get a clearer picture of what is actually going on there?
GUNDERSON: Well, the International Atomic Energy Agency is chartered by the United Nations to promote nuclear power. Yeah, you can go up online and look up--it's Article II of the IAEA's charter, and it's crystal clear that their job is to promote. You know, so what we think of as the guard dog is going to show up and make sure the Japanese do it right, in fact it's the lapdog is going to show up. And they have never, you know, for the 40 years Tokyo Electric was mismanaging this project, they never slapped Tokyo Electric on the wrist and told them they were doing it wrong.
DESVARIEUX: And, Arnie, I want to get your comments on this comment that was made by the chairman of the Fukushima monitoring committee, Dale Klein. He's the former chief nuclear watchdog. He recently told Australian television that Fukushima's radioactive water will be dumped into the Pacific Ocean. Haven't they already been dumping treated radioactive water? And is this something that we should really be concerned about?
GUNDERSON: Well, you know, Dale Klein has a long history of being a nuclear promoter. Your readers might want to go up and look for a story online called "Will Shill for Nukes" that talks about Dale Klein's involvement in being a nuclear promoter.
But, you know, the radiation that's getting out of those tanks now is leaking because the tanks are so poorly constructed. You know, what Dale Klein is now suggesting is that we're just going to take it and pump it into the Pacific. And I don't think that's a very good idea. It's cheap and it's fast, it's the expedient way of doing it, but really there's something called the London dumping convention. And back in 1972, Greenpeace was very active in preventing radiation from being dumped into the ocean and to my way of thinking, this would violate the London Dumping Convention if they did it.
DESVARIEUX: Alright. Arnie Gunderson, thank you so much for joining us.
GUNDERSON: Thanks for having me, and have a happy Thanksgiving from the people at Fairewinds.
DESVARIEUX: And same to you. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

[Peachtree Pam]

I have found another site through enenews, Fukushima Diary, which appears to be written by a Japanese man who left Japan two years ago. He seems to be translating Tepconews on television. You have to be patient with his English.

Posted by Mochizuki on December 1st, 2013

The atmospheric dose of the seaside of Fukushima plant is increasing due to the rising contaminated groundwater, according to Tepco.

Tepco is building the underground wall on the coastal line, but the exposure dose of the workers is going up.

Tepco states as they build the underground wall, highly contaminated groundwater is coming up to the surface of the ground.

In order to keep building walls, the workers are operating on the “stand” to be as far from the ground as possible and also use the lead plate.
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/12/fuku ... ead-plate/
http://www.tepco.co.jp/tepconews/library/movie-01j.html

Posted by Mochizuki on December 1st, 2013

On 11/28/2013, Tepco announced they won’t pump up the contaminated groundwater anymore in the seaside of between reactor2 and 3.

Having the highly contaminated groundwater flowing to the sea, Tepco is building the underground wall on the coastal line.

However the groundwater level rapidly increases due to the wall, Tepco needed to pump up the groundwater on the seaside of reactor2.

On the seaside of reactor3, Tepco is also building the underground wall but because of the shortage of the tanks, Tepco decided not to pump up the rising groundwater.

By not pumping up the groundwater, it may come up to the surface of the ground or overflow the underground wall to the sea.
Tepco states the radioactive density of the water is low enough.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/12/tepc ... -capacity/

[Peachtree Pam]

Norway fund leaves Tepco due to Fukushima

(AFP) – 1 day ago

Oslo — Norwegian investment fund KLP said Monday it had sold its shares in Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, due to its handling of the disaster.

The mutual fund, which manages the pensions and insurance plans of public servants and is worth around 370 billion kroner (44 billion euros, $60 billion), owned about eight million kroner in Tepco shares.

"Tepco has worked intensely to limit the consequences of the accident and has, seemingly, acted correctly, but the consequences of the tsunami could have been lesser, or even avoided, with an increased focus on risk prevention," said Heidi Finskas, KLP adviser for responsible investments.

"After the accident, the company did not manage to regain control of the situation or to prevent further leaks," Finskas added in a statement.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 ravaged the Fukushima plant's cooling system, sparking a reactor meltdown in the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Tepco has struggled since the incident to decontaminate the site.

"The accident alone is not the only reason" behind KLP's capital withdrawal, Finskas told AFP.

"It's been two and a half years and the situation is still not under control."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 41ab913fb0

[Peachtree Pam]

Dec 3, 10:15 AM EST

Japan proposes more steps to store Fukushima water

TOKYO (AP) -- A government panel proposed additional measures to lessen the radioactive water crisis at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant, saying Tuesday that current plans are not enough to prevent the risk of a disaster.

Officials on the Industry Ministry's contaminated water panel also said that the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant could run out of storage space for contaminated water within two years if current plans are not fully workable.

A draft report, made available to reporters after the panel's experts and officials met, proposes covering the ground with asphalt to reduce rain inflow, building giant tanks and other steps. A final report is expected later this month.

The proposal incorporates ideas from some of 780 sets of proposals sent from around the world at the request of the ministry to seek international expertise in tackling the problem of massive amounts of radioactive water, which experts say is hampering the plant's decommissioning process. The first step of the process began last month.

Radioactive water has been leaking from the damaged reactors and mixing with groundwater since an earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the plant's power and cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and damaging a fourth reactor building.

Experts say that the underground water that flows into the reactor and turbine basements is mostly rainwater, which can be reduced by covering most exposed dirt with asphalt in the plant compound. Details, including the extent of asphalt coverage, still need to be discussed, panel official Yoshiyuki Toyoguchi said.

Experts also cautioned that decreasing the amount of groundwater could cause the ground to sink in some areas with soft structure. Such vulnerable locations include the area where hundreds of tanks have been built to contain highly radioactive water, said Hitoshi Tsukamoto, a geologist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. He said measures to increase stability underneath the tanks should be taken.

Recent interviews and an investigation by The Associated Press revealed a weak foundation under the tanks. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has started to improve the design of the tanks and anti-leak measures.

The draft proposals also include building giant tanks with more capacity and installing undersea filters to reduce the radioactivity of water that leaks into the sea. Experts on the panel also proposed establishing a special team to focus on how to deal with massive amounts of tritium, the only isotope that cannot be removed chemically by existing technology.

Experts generally agree that the water eventually will have to be released into the sea, an idea strongly resisted by local fishermen.

Dale Klein, former head of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who now serves as an outside adviser to TEPCO, said the low-energy isotope is less dangerous than other isotopes such as cesium and strontium, and can be safely released into the sea when diluted. He said it is a political decision that Japan has to make.

"The United States had to face that issue when we had the Three Mile Island (nuclear accident). You ultimately have to decide what you are going to do with it," Klein told AP. "That's more of a policy than a technical decision, but it will require TEPCO and the government to explain the ultimate disposition of the filtered water."

U.S. officials evaporated tritium water at the Three Mile Island plant following the 1979 accident, but the method is not recommended for Fukushima, where there is too much and it is likely to come back as tritium rain.

The proposals are part of government efforts to step up leadership and funding of the plant's cleanup, after criticism that dealing with the series of problems is beyond the plant operator's capacity.

The government announced in September that it will provide 47 billion yen ($470 million) for technically difficult projects such as building a 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) ice wall around the four damaged reactors and turbine buildings and developing an upgraded water treatment machine that can remove most radioactive isotopes to below detectable levels.

Officials initially said they were counting on the ice wall, which is currently undergoing a feasibility study, but now say there is no guarantee of its success.

Leaks and other flaws found in several tanks earlier this year have raised concerns about more failures, particularly if another big earthquake, tsunami or typhoon hits. The plant has more than 1,000 tanks and other containers storing 370,000 tons of partially treated but still highly contaminated water.

Current NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane, in South Korea for talks with that country's regulators, said the Fukushima plant's water leakage is "much, much less worse" now than early in the crisis, but there is no instant solution to the problem.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ ... TE=DEFAULT

---

[Iamwhomiam]

The wall is simply a PR move and cannot be effective. It will create a 'bathtub' that will overflow, as it is all but impossible to contain or re-route the groundwater flowing to the ocean from the inland mountains.

The Fukushima situation will not be getting better, only much worse.

Unless the aliens decide to do something about it.

I'm not holding my breath while waiting for the disaster rescue to occur.

[Peachtree Pam]

^^^^ What he said.

[Peachtree Pam]

Japan Govt. Declared Evacuation Too Expensive, IAEA Promotes More Sea Dumping
http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=11899

December 4th, 2013

A government trip to research how the response to the Chernobyl disaster was conducted but the report was never made public. The officials looked at what was done after Chernobyl and declared it to be too expensive and complicated for the Japanese government so they suggested it be ignored. They declared there was little benefit to evacuating people but it was admitted the report ignored more critical evidence of the actual damage done to the public by their exposures. This report was the basis for pushing for far more lax standards in Japan. Chernobyl’s evacuation levels were 5 mSv/year and 1 mSv/year for mandatory and voluntary evacuations. Japan’s current standard being used is around 20 mSv/year and has been widely criticized as being unsafe. Mainichi cited this report as an example of things that would become a state secret under the new law being proposed in Japan. The UN Human Rights Council has denounced Japan’s response to the disaster.

The IAEA has been promoting the idea of allowing TEPCO to dump more contaminated water into the Pacific. The head of the IAEA tried to make it sound better by declaring it to be just tritium they wanted to dump into the sea. Earlier reports show the post treatment water doesn’t just have tritium in it but also iodine 129 and cobalt 60. Iodine 129 has a 15.7 million year half life and is mostly created by nuclear power or atomic bombs. Iodine 129 can cause thyroid damage and cancer. It is harder to detect in the body than other istopes like iodine 131. Cobalt 60 has a shorter half life at 5.27 years. Cobalt 60 is a potent isotope that can cause cancer. What is not known is how much of these two additional isotopes remains in the contaminated water after treatment.

The IAEA made two other rather telling admissions. They admitted that all nuclear power plants release contamination to the environment and that they plan to “dilute” the water to dump it.

“Controlled discharge is a regular practice in all the nuclear facilities in the world”

While those in the know already knew this it is a very public admission that nuclear power is not a “clean” energy source and is polluting the waterways. The efforts to “dilute” the contaminated water at Fukushima to get it under legal dumping limits is just a slight of hand. The volume of water and the contamination level of that water remains the same. Some additional water is simply added as a formality to pass a legal test. Heavily contaminated water will be dumped in the Pacific if this is allowed to take place.

Beyond the carefully chosen words, these sources of political power are purposely exposing the public because it is convenient for them to do so.

[Peachtree Pam]

Here is a frightening account by a worker inside the Fukushima complex posted 13 May 2013, perhaps his comments about Reactor 2 are outdated, since it has been stated that the core of reactor 2 suffered meltdown. This link is via Washington's Blog. It is long and worth reading to the very end. He says the storage tanks are the least of the worries and that Reactor 4 has other problems beside the SFP:

"There is a Device Storage Pit (DSP) on the other side of the reactor well opposite to the spent nuclear fuel pool. The DSP is not used at normal time operations. But when the earthquake hit, reactor #4 was under periodic inspection. Just before the earthquake, upon removing the shroud from the reactor well, it was cut off under water and put into the DSP. So inside the DSP of reactor #4, there are a lot of fragments of highly radioactive shroud.”

(A shroud is a cylindrical stainless steel structure fixed inside of the Reactor Pressure Vessel. It surrounds nuclear fuel assemblies and control rods. It also serves as a divider to secure the cooling water flow in a reactor. It is as large as 7 meters in height, 4.5 meters in diameter and 35 tons in weight. Since the shroud is inside the reactor while fuel rods reach a critical state, it naturally contains a high dose of radiation. It is the shroud inside the DSP which is on the opposite side of the spent fuel pool of reactor #4.)
Worker: The DSP is full of water and, as you know, the shroud and a lot of other devices are in it. The overall seismic resistance of the DSP was estimated for one year. Now that the nuclear reactor building is weakened by the explosion, I’m worried about what is going to be done with the DSP.

When fuel rods from the spent fuel pool were about to be removed, a suggestion was made that materials stored in the DSP be removed as well, but it was rejected because “we don’t have enough budget for that, the issue of concern to the public now is the spent fuel pool”.

–Oh no! I wonder how long the DSP is going to resist…"

snip...

"– Then, what is the most serious problem?

Worker: That is undoubtedly reactor #2.

Professor of Tokyo University: As I thought! Even among researchers, the situation of reactor #2 is beyond imagination.

Workers: About reactor #2, nobody knows exactly what is going on inside or what happened just after the earthquake. The explosion of reactors #1 and #3 could be simulated to a certain degree. From various parameters, we could predict the initial response and what was going to happen next.

But we are clueless about reactor #2. Why was such large amount of radioactive substances emitted without explosion? What is happening with the fuel rods? From various parameters, it is said that there is no melt-through of fuel rods.

Professor of Tokyo University: I agree. It seems like fuel rods did not go through the Reactor Pressure Vessel.

Worker: Then why were such large amounts of radioactive substances emitted outside the building? Nobody knows the answer!

Worker: The condition of reactor #2 just after the earthquake cannot be estimated. At the same time, doses of radioactivity are surprisingly high in the building of reactor #2.

I’ll give you an extreme example. Let’s assume that the situation worsens to the point that it becomes impossible to pour water in order to cool off the reactor. For reactors #1, #3 and #4, a specialized squad prepared to bear the risks of radiation exposure can always enter the building and do the work required.

But in the case of reactor #2, radioactive emissions inside most buildings are extremely high that a prepared squad is likely to perish before it accomplishes its mission.

– I’ve never thought the situation is so severe.

Worker: Now you clearly understand why I can’t help thinking that the work outside the building such as the metal-clad distribution switchboard or the underground water storage tank is trivial. Exposure to radiation cannot be avoided but the work can still be performed in such locations."

(The amount of radioactive substances emitted from reactor #2 is way larger than from reactors #1 and #3!)"

http://no-border.asia/archives/9257/5

[Peachtree Pam]

The political situation in Japan is becoming more frightening by the day. It is rapidly becoming a dictatorship. This article, published today, is from Simply Info. There are many links within the article particularly the one within the last sentence, which details the loss of freedom for individual Japanese resulting from an overhaul of the constitution.

The Plan for Japan


http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=11911

December 6th, 2013 | Add a Comment

Besides the effort to declare arbitrary state secrets there have been a number of other disturbing efforts in the government and private sector.

The government is planning to establish nuclear power as an “important base source of power” in Japan. This would undo all efforts to phase out nuclear power since the Fukushima disaster. The new policy will declare nuclear to be the only solution to the country’s energy needs even though no nuclear has been substantially generated in almost 3 years. An outside group pointed out that nuclear power in Japan could cost double the cost of other sources of energy.

The LDP government also wants to end an export ban on weapons before the legislative session is done for the year.

TEPCO now wants to restart all of the reactors at Kashiwazaki Kariwa, not just units 6 and 7 as was proposed earlier. TEPCO has been in the process of trying to obtain more financing as they continue to hemorrhage money and the government is considering taking over the Fukushima disaster site. TEPCO also announced another “task force” to look at the company’s safety culture. TEPCO previously hired a couple of foreign consultants to help give the illusion that TEPCO wants to rehabilitate themselves. This bit of theater has been ongoing with the existing consultants periodically talking to the press on TEPCO’s behalf insisting they are independent advisors while repeating TEPCO’s corporate talking points to the press.

Only 10% of the evacuees in Fukushima have any intention of returning.

The LDP’s wish list for laws they want to change involve a long list of constitutional changes that would reinstate the ability to make war and dismantle just about every guarantee of human rights and freedom of the press. If you really want to get inside the head of the current political power in Japan this is a must read.

[coffin_dodger]

Highest radiation levels measured outside reactor
NHK World Dec. 6, 2013

Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels are extremely high in an area near a ventilation pipe at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

TEPCO found radiation of 25 sieverts an hour on a duct, which connects reactor buildings and the 120-meter-tall ventilation pipe.

The estimated radiation level is the highest ever detected outside reactor buildings. People exposed to this level of radiation would die within 20 minutes.

The exhaust pipe in question was used to release radioactive gases following the outbreak of the accident 2 years ago.

TEPCO says radioactive substances could remain inside the pipes.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/ ... 07_01.html