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Japanese Nuclear Plant May Have Been Leaking for Two Years
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: July 10, 2013

TOKYO — The stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima has probably been leaking contaminated water into the ocean for two years, ever since an earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant, Japan’s chief nuclear regulator said on Wednesday.
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Masao Yoshida, Nuclear Engineer and Chief at Fukushima Plant, Dies at 58 (July 10, 2013)

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In unusually candid comments, Shunichi Tanaka, the head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, also said that neither his staff nor the plant’s operator knew exactly where the leaks were coming from, or how to stop them.

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power, has reported spikes in the amounts of radioactive cesium, tritium and strontium detected in groundwater at the plant, adding urgency to the task of sealing any leaks. Radioactive cesium and strontium, especially, are known to raise risks of cancer in humans.

Mr. Tanaka’s comments bring into sharp relief the precariousness of the cleanup at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where core meltdowns occurred at three of the six reactors. A critical problem has been the groundwater that has been pouring into the basements of the damaged reactor buildings and becoming contaminated. Workers have been pumping the water out to be stored in dozens of tanks at the plant, but have not stopped the inflow.

Until recently, Tokyo Electric, known as Tepco, flatly denied that any of that water was leaking into the ocean, even though various independent studies of radiation levels in the nearby ocean have suggested otherwise. In recent days, Tepco has retreated to saying that it was not sure whether there was a leak into the ocean.

Mr. Tanaka said that the evidence was overwhelming.

“We’ve seen for a fact that levels of radioactivity in the seawater remain high, and contamination continues — I don’t think anyone can deny that,” he said Wednesday at a briefing after a meeting of the authority’s top regulators. “We must take action as soon as possible.

“That said, considering the state of the plant, it’s difficult to find a solution today or tomorrow,” he added. “That’s probably not satisfactory to many of you. But that’s the reality we face after an accident like this.”

By acknowledging that the Fukushima Daiichi plant is not watertight, Mr. Tanaka confirmed suspicions held by experts that the plant has continued to leak radiation into the ocean long after the huge initial releases seen in the disaster’s early days.

A study released earlier this year by Jota Kanda, an oceanographer at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, examined Tepco’s own readings of radiation levels in the waters near the plant’s oceanfront site. The study concluded that it was highly likely the plant was leaking.

“If there was no leak, we would see far lower levels of radioactive cesium in waters off the plant,” Professor Kanda said last month. He said that natural tidal flushing of the water in the plant’s harbor should have dispersed the initially released radioactivity by now, with a far more rapid drop in radiation levels than had been detected.

“This suggests that water might be leaking out from the plant through damaged pipes or drains, or other routes Tepco doesn’t know about,” he said. “We need to find out where exactly these leaks are, and plug them.”

Unexplained spikes since May in cesium levels detected in groundwater, coupled with higher strontium and tritium readings off shore, have added to the urgency.

Tepco said Wednesday that it was not sure that any contaminated water was reaching the ocean. It has said in the past that the stricken plant was now having “no significant impact” on the marine environment.

“We can’t say anything for sure,” Noriyuki Imaizumi, a Tepco spokesman, said Wednesday at a news conference in Tokyo. “But we aren’t just sitting back. We are first analyzing why there have been high radiation measurements in recent weeks.”

The struggle to seal the plant has raised questions about the government’s push to restart Japan’s other nuclear power stations, which were shut down in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Some critics have said that the work of certifying and reopening other plants will distract from the cleanup at Fukushima. To allay public fears, the government has promised that restarts will be authorized only for reactors that pass rigid new standards that took effect this month.

Four utilities across Japan have applied to restart a total of 10 reactors, applications that must now be assessed by the nuclear regulator with a staff of just 80 people. Tokyo Electric has said that it intends to apply to restart two of the seven reactors at a power plant on the coast of the Sea of Japan. That workload may leave the agency with few resources to devote to monitoring the messy cleanup at Fukushima.

Tepco has taken some measures in the hope of keeping contaminated groundwater away from the sea, including fortifying an underwater wall that runs along much of the shoreline at the plant site. Mr. Tanaka said it was doubtful whether those measures would be effective.

“We don’t truly know whether that will work,” Mr. Tanaka said. “Of course, we’d hope to eliminate all leaks, but in this situation, all we can hope for is to minimize the impact on the environment. If you have any better ideas, we’d like to know.”

Japan Warns of Ocean Contamination
Regulator say groundwater is likely leaking from the plant into ocean waters

By MARI IWATA and ALEXANDER MARTIN
TOKYO—Highly radioactive groundwater recently discovered in test wells at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is likely spreading at the site and leaking into adjoining ocean waters, Japan's nuclear regulator said, raising more worries about the plant operator's efforts to clean up the disaster site.

The tests by Tokyo Electric Power Co. 9501.TO +1.21% have found a recent increase in radiation levels in wells meant to monitor water safety, with some radioactive levels around 200 times the allowed limits. Experts said the findings raise concerns of widening environmental damage but that the increased levels pose no immediate threat to public health given the location of the plant on the oceanfront and the lack of any residents living nearby.


Associated Press
A February photo shows the Fukushima Daiichi plant with some of the tanks built to store polluted water.

Tepco said that samples taken from a test well on Tuesday showed the highest levels they have recorded so far of cesium 134 and cesium 137. Both are considered health risks if consumed since they can accumulate in muscles and contribute to higher rates of cancer.

The irradiated water is believed to be leaking from the heavily damaged cores at the three reactors that were operating when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the plant in March 2011, causing Japan's worst-ever nuclear-plant accident.

In addition, runoff rainwater entering the plant site is flowing into heavily contaminated areas, picking up nuclear debris.

Tepco said it hadn't seen any evidence that the problem was spreading beyond the plant, with no significant increase in radioactive levels at the 16 sampling points it has in waters located just off the plant.

But the Nuclear Regulation Authority, created in September 2012 in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident, said it believed the contamination was spreading.

"We strongly suspect that high concentrations of contaminated water are leaking to the ground, and spreading to the sea," the agency said on Wednesday.

Commenting on the report, agency Chairman Shunichi Tanaka also expressed concerns about the reliability of Tepco's data. "We need to consider whether we should be relying only on data provided by Tepco, and check for ourselves the level of contamination in seawater," he said at a meeting releasing the report.

A Tepco spokesman said the company had no specific response to the NRA statement or to Mr. Tanaka's remarks.

It wasn't the first time that the Nuclear Regulation Authority has criticized Tepco's cleanup operation. In April, the agency cited eight specific incidents at the plant, including two power outages and the malfunctioning of two radiation monitors. It said at the time that it would strengthen its oversight of the cleanup operation.

The new leaks are especially problematic for Tepco since it is trying to show that it has learned lessons from the Fukushima accident and is seeking approval to resume operations at part of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in northwestern Japan, the world's largest in terms of capacity.

Health experts said it was difficult to gauge the potential broader health impact from the leaks, and stressed the importance of long-term monitoring.

"Underground water moves through layers and eventually goes to the sea. The process sometimes takes a thousand years. During the time, it will be necessary to keep monitoring," said Manabu Fukumoto, professor of Tohoku University's Medical School who is leading a study on the health effects in the nuclear accident-hit area.

"There won't be immediate impacts unless you go near the reactors. But for the longer term, radiation could cause higher rates of cancer," said Minoru Takata, director of the Radiation Biology Center at Kyoto University.

The waters around the plant have been off-limits to any fishing since the accident and any cesium discharged would in any event be diluted. A research group study released last fall found that some types of fish caught offshore had elevated levels of radiation, although Japanese government data have shown that most fish caught nearby have relatively low levels of contamination.

Tepco said that the contamination level at the test well, about 25 meters from the ocean waters that adjoin the plant, was more than 100 times higher than detected four days earlier. The company was unable to explain the reasons for the sudden sharp rise, a spokesman said.

According to Tepco, the level of cesium 134 was 11,000 becquerels per liter. The measurement, based on the amount of radioactive energy that is being released, compared with an environmental limit of just 60 becquerels per liter. Cesium 134 has a half-life of two years, meaning it will lose half of its radioactivity in that period. The level of cesium 137, with a half-life of 30 years, was 22,000 becquerels per liter, more than 240 times higher than the safety standard.

Those figures may not fully reflect what is going on at the plant, a former nuclear plant designer said Wednesday.

Enlarge Image

"In order to collect sufficient data to assess where exactly the contaminated water is coming from, digging a couple of test wells won't do. We need to grasp the situation in its entirety," said Masashi Goto, a retired Toshiba nuclear power employee who took part in a news conference by antinuclear activists.

Contaminated water has long been a major stumbling block for the decommissioning work, which Tepco and the government say will go on for an estimated 20-30 years. A steady flow of water is needed to keep the damaged reactor cores cool enough.

To cope with it, Tepco has built a virtual city of storage tanks and now has a total capacity of 350,000 tons. But even at that level, room is running out fast, with 310,000 tons of contaminated water now stored at the site.

Tepco and government officials agree the situation isn't sustainable but have no longer-term solution to the problem.

Three months ago, the company found that at least a few dozen liters of contaminated water leaked from two underground storage pools, prompting a switch to above-ground tanks that now dot the landscape of the 3.5-square kilometer (865 acre) site.

Tepco has taken a number of measures to stop the contaminated water from entering the adjacent ocean waters. It now plans to inject chemicals designed to harden up the soil near the oceanfront to stop water from seeping out.

One partial solution is pioneering water-cleansing equipment, called an advanced liquid processing system, which has been on a test run in the site since March. In full operation, ALPS can process 750 tons a day of contaminated water. That would greatly reduce the toxicity of the water that Tepco must keep in the tanks.

The system, the first of its kind, has so far worked well, the government and Tepco have said, removing all radioactive materials from the contaminated water to undetectable levels, except for tritium, which is considered nearly impossible to separate from regular water.

Fortunately for Tepco, tritium isn't considered as harmful to health as other radioactive elements such as cesium or strontium. Tepco has said it hopes eventually to be able to discharge the cleansed water into the sea despite the presence of the tritium.

Tepco also wants to reduce the amount of water it has to process in the first place by capturing runoff from nearby areas before it can become contaminated. Currently around 400 tons a day of groundwater flows into the plant site.

But any water discharge has met with strong local opposition, especially from fishermen who say they are worried about customer perceptions if large amounts of water are dumped into water near their fishing grounds.

The recent disclosures have done little to help Tepco's reputation as it attempts to show that it has taken on a new culture of safety and can safely restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, located in northwestern Japan.

Tepco said last week it would seek restarts of the two reactors at the plant, but it angered local officials by making the announcement without any advance consultation. Hirohiko Izumida, the governor of Niigata prefecture, where the plant is located, quickly demanded further explanations from Tepco.

Mr. Izumida, who has been skeptical of the plant's safety, hasn't said if he would approve a restart to operations there.

A Tepco spokesman said on Monday that no date had been set for submitting a restart application.

Fukushima radiation leaks spike, officials baffled as to why
William Boardman

Posted on Thu Jul 11, 2013 16:15 pm . Tags: Fukushima, nuclear power
radioaktivitaet-fukushima-ia

The Fukushima situation is normal, in the SNAFU sense of “normal.” Perhaps you’ve heard that radiation levels of the water leaving the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power plane and flowing into the Pacific Ocean have risen by roughly 9,000 per cent. Turns out, that’s probably putting a good face on it.

By official measurement, the water coming out of Fukushima is currently 90,000 times more radioactive than officially “safe” drinking water.

These are the highest radiation levels measured at Fukushima since March 2011, when an earthquake-triggered tsunami destroyed the plant’s four nuclear reactors, three of which melted down.

As with all nuclear reporting, precise and reliable details are hard to come by, but the current picture as of July 10 seems to be something like this:

• On July 5, radiation levels at Fukushima were what passes for “normal,” which means elevated and dangerous, but stable, according to measurements by the owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
• On July 8, radiation levels had jumped about 90 times higher, as typically reported. TEPCO had no explanation for the increase.
• On July 9, radiation levels were up again from the previous day, but at a slower rate, about 22 per cent. TEPCO still had no explanation.
• On July 10, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) issued a statement saying that the NRA strongly suspects the radioactive water is coming from Fukushima’s Reactor #1 and is going into the Pacific.

We Must Do Something About This Thing With No Impact

“We must find the cause of the contamination . . . and put the highest priority on implementing countermeasures,” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka told an NRA meeting, according to Japan Times.

As for TEPCO, the paper reported, “The utility has claimed it has detected ‘no significant impact’ on the environment.”

“in the SNAFU sense of ‘Normal’”

Neither the NRA nor TEPCO has determined why the level of radioactivity has been increasing. Both characterize the increase as a “spike,” but so far this is a “spike” that has not yet started to come down.

Here’s another perspective on the same situation:

• 10 becquerels per liter — The officially “safe” level for radioactivity in drinking water, as set by the NRA.

A becquerel is a standard scientific measure of radioactivity, similar in some ways to a rad or a rem or a roentgen or a sievert or a curie, but not equivalent to any of them. But you don’t have to understand the nuances of nuclear physics to get a reasonable idea of what’s going on in Fukushima. Just keep the measure of that safe drinking water in mind, that liter of water, less than a quart, with 10 becquerels of radioactivity.

• 60 becquerels per liter — For nuclear power plants, the safety limit for drinking water is 60 becquerels, as set by the NRA, with less concern for nuclear plant workers than ordinary civilians.

• 60-90 becquerels per liter — For waste water at nuclear power plants, the NRA sets a maximum standard of 90 becquerels per liter for Cesium-137 and 60 becquerels per liter of Cesium-134.

At some of Fukushima’s monitoring wells, radiation levels were in fractions of a becquerel on July 8 and 9. At the well (or wells) that are proving problematical, TEPCO has provided no baseline readings.

• 9,000 becquerels per liter — On July 8, according to TEPCO, the company measured radioactive Cesium-134 at 9,000 becquerels per liter. Since TEPCO characterized this as 90 times higher than on July 5, the implication is that the earlier reading (about 100) was less than twice as toxic as the allowable limit and only 10 times more toxic than drinking water for civilians.

• 11,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of Cesium-134 on July 9.

• 18,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO measurement of Cesium-137 on July 8.

• 22,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of Cesium-137 on July 9.

• 900,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of the total radioactivity in the water leaking from Reactor #1. This radiation load includes both Cesium isotopes, as well as Tritium, Strontium and other beta emitters. There are more that 60 radioactive substances that have been identified at the Fukushima site.

A becquerel is a measure of the radioactivity a substance is emitting, a measure of the potential danger. There is no real danger from radiation unless you get too close to it – or it gets too close to you, especially from inhalation or ingestion.

Nobody Knows If It Will Get Worse, Get Better, or Just Stay Bad
The water flow through the Fukushima accident site is substantial and constant, both from groundwater and from water pumped into the reactors and fuel pools to prevent further meltdowns.

In an effort to prevent the water from reaching the ocean, TEPCO is building what amounts to a huge, underground dike – “a deeply sunken coastal containment wall.” The NRA is calling on TEPCO to finish the project before its scheduled 2015 completion date.

Meanwhile, radiation levels remain high and no one knows for sure how to bring them down, or even if they can be brought down by any means other than waiting however long it takes.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

- See more at: http://polizeros.com/2013/07/11/fukushi ... GGtI5.dpuf

Calif. utility to retire troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant
June 7, 2013, 10:02 AM

The troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday.

Operator Southern California Edison said in a statement it will retire the twin reactors because of uncertainty about the future of the plant, which faced a tangle of regulatory hurdles, investigations and mounting political opposition. With the reactors idle, the company has spent more than $500 million on repairs and replacement power.

[...]

Fukushima Spiking
Fukushima Radiation Leaks Rise Sharply, Officials Are Baffled As to Why
by William Boardman / July 13th, 2013

Fukushima Situation Normal, in The SNAFU Sense of “Normal”

Bad as the situation is at Fukushima, it’s gotten worse.

Perhaps you’ve heard that radiation levels of the water leaving the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power plane and flowing into the Pacific Ocean have risen by roughly 9,000 per cent. Turns out, that’s probably putting a good face on it.

By official measurement, the water coming out of Fukushima is currently 90,000 times more radioactive than officially “safe” drinking water.

These are the highest radiation levels measured at Fukusmima since March 2011, when an earthquake-triggered tsunami destroyed the plant’s four nuclear reactors, three of which melted down.

As with all nuclear reporting, precise and reliable details are hard to come by, but the current picture as of July 10 seems to be something like this:

• On July 5, radiation levels at Fukushima were what passes for “normal,” which means elevated and dangerous, but stable, according to measurements by the owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

• On July 8, radiation levels had jumped about 90 times higher, as typically reported. TEPCO had no explanation for the increase.

• On July 9, radiation levels were up again from the previous day, but at a slower rate, about 22 per cent. TEPCO still had no explanation.

• On July 10, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) issued a statement saying that the NRA strongly suspects the radioactive water is coming from Fukushima’s Reactor #1 and is going into the Pacific.

We Must Do Something About This Thing With No Impact

“We must find the cause of the contamination … and put the highest priority on implementing countermeasures,” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka told an NRA meeting, according to Japan Times.

As for TEPCO, the paper reported, “The utility has claimed it has detected ‘no significant impact’ on the environment.”
“in the SNAFU sense of ‘Normal.’”

Neither the NRA nor TEPCO has determined why the level of radioactivity has been increasing. Both characterize the increase as a “spike,” but so far this is a “spike” that has not yet started to come down.

Here’s another perspective on the same situation:

• 10 becquerels per liter — The officially “safe” level for radioactivity in drinking water, as set by the NRA.

A becquerel is a standard scientific measure of radioactivity, similar in some ways to a rad or a rem or a roentgen or a sievert or a curie, but not equivalent to any of them. But you don’t have to understand the nuances of nuclear physics to get a reasonable idea of what’s going on in Fukushima. Just keep the measure of that safe drinking water in mind, that liter of water, less than a quart, with 10 becquerels of radioactivity.

• 60 becquerels per liter — For nuclear power plants, the safety limit for drinking water is 60 becquerels, as set by the NRA, with less concern for nuclear plant workers than ordinary civilians.

• 60-90 becquerels per liter — For waste water at nuclear power plants, the NRA sets a maximum standard of 90 becquerels per liter for Cesium-137 and 60 becquerels per liter of Cesium-134.

At some of Fukushima’s monitoring wells, radiation levels were in fractions of a becquerel on July 8 and 9. At the well (or wells) that are proving problematical, TEPCO has provided no baseline readings.

• 9,000 becquerels per liter — On July 8, according to TEPCO, the company measured radioactive Cesium-134 at 9,000 becquerels per liter. Since TEPCO characterized this as 90 times higher than on July 5, the implication is that the earlier reading (about 100) was less than twice as toxic as the allowable limit and only 10 times more toxic than drinking water for civilians.

• 11,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of Cesium-134 on July 9.

• 18,000 becquerels per liter — TEPCO measurement of Cesium-137 on July 8.

• 22,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of Cesium-137 on July 9.

• 900,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of the total radioactivity in the water leaking from Reactor #1. This radiation load includes both Cesium isotopes, as well as Tritium, Strontium and other beta emitters. There are more that 60 radioactive substances that have been identified at the Fukushima site.

A becquerel is a measure of the radioactivity a substance is emitting, a measure of the potential danger. There is no real danger from radiation unless you get too close to it – or it gets too close to you, especially from inhalation or ingestion.

Nobody Knows If It Will Get Worse, Get Better, or Just Stay Bad

The water flow through the Fukushima accident site is substantial and constant, both from groundwater and from water pumped into the reactors and fuel pools to prevent further meltdowns.

In an effort to prevent the water from reaching the ocean, TEPCO is building what amounts to a huge, underground dike – “a deeply sunken coastal containment wall.” The NRA is calling on TEPCO to finish the project before its scheduled 2015 completion date.

Meanwhile, radiation levels remain high and no one knows for sure how to bring them down, or even if they can be brought down by any means other than waiting however long it takes.

07.18.13 - 11:31 AM
Fruits of Fukushima
by Abby Zimet


A "steam-like gas" has been seen rising from the No. 3 reactor building at Japan's devastated Fukushima nuclear plant, where contaminated waste water remains. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) says there is as yet no "emergency situation" and they will "continue to monitor the status closely." This is the latest in a string of problems including water leaks, power failures and last week's report of a sharp increase in radioactive cesium in groundwater. Now pictures have surfaced of grotesquely deformed fruits, vegetables and flowers near the plant. Some argue there's no definitive proof they're the result of radioactive contamination because haven't you ever heard of coincidence? We report, you decide.

Fukushima Continues to Spew Its Darkness
by Harvey Wasserman

An aerial view of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. (Image: Greenpeace)
Radiation leaks, steam releases, disease and death continue to spew from Fukushima and a disaster which is far from over. Its most profound threat to the global ecology—a spent fuel fire—is still very much with us.

The latest steam leak has raised fears around the planet. A worst-case scenario of an on-going out-of-control fission reaction was dismissed by the owners, Tokyo Electric, because they didn’t find xenon in the plume. The company says the steam likely came from rain water being vaporized by residual heat in one of plant’s stricken reactors.

But independent experts tend to disbelieve anything Tepco says, for good reason. Reactor Units One, Two and Three have exploded at Fukushima despite decades of official assurances that commercial atomic power plants could not explode at all. The company has been unable to clear out enough radioactive debris to allow it to put a cover over the site that might contain further airborne emissions.

Tepco has also been forced to admit that it has been leaking radioactive water into the ocean ever since the disaster began on March 11, 2011. In one instance it admitted to a 90-fold increase of Cesium in a nearby test well over a period of just 3 days.

Earlier this year a rat ate through critical electrical cables, shorting out a critical cooling system. When Tepco workers were dispatched to install metal guards to protect the cabling, they managed to short out the system yet again.

Early this month Fukushima’s former chief operator, Masao Yoshida, died of esophogeal cancer at the age of 58. Masao became a hero during the worst of the disaster by standing firm at his on-site command post as multiple explosions rocked the reactor complex. Tepco claimed his ensuing cancer and death were “unlikely” to have been caused by Fukushima’s radiation.

The impact of work in and near the reactors has become a rising concern. Critics have warned that there are not enough skilled technicians willing to sacrifice themselves at the plant. Tepco has worsened the situation by applying to open a number of its shut reactors elsewhere in Japan, straining its already depleted skilled workforce even further.

Meanwhile, a staggering 40% rise in thyroid irregularities among young children in the area has caused a deepening concern about widespread health impacts from Fukushima’s fallout within the general public. Because these numbers have come in just two years after the disaster, the percentage of affected children is expected to continue to rise.

And the worst fear of all remains unabated. At Unit Four, which apparently did not actually explode, the building’s structural integrity has been seriously undermined. Debate continues to rage over exactly how this happened.

But there’s no doubt that a pool containing many tons of highly radioactive used fuel is suspended 100 feet in the air, with little left to support the structure. Should an earthquake or other trauma knock the pool to the ground, there’s a high likelihood the fuel rods could catch fire.

In such an event, the radioactive emissions could be catastrophic. Intensely lethal emissions could spew for a very long time, eventually circling the globe many times, wrecking untold havoc.

The Japanese have removed two apparently unused rods from the fuel pool so far. But intense international pressure to clear out the rest of them has thus far been unsuccessful.

So while a depleted, discredited and disorganized nuclear utility moves to restart its other reactors, its stricken units at Fukushima continue to hold the rest of us at the brink of apocalyptic terror

Nuke experts blast Fukushima operator over toxic leaks
Jul 26, 2013

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials inspect radioactive underground reservoirs at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, on April 13, 2013. Foreign nuclear experts on Friday blasted the operator of Fukushima nuclear …more
Foreign nuclear experts on Friday blasted the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, with one saying its lack of transparency over toxic water leaks showed "you don't know what you're doing".

The blunt criticism comes after a litany of problems at the reactor site, which was swamped by a quake-sparked tsunami two years ago. The disaster sent reactors into meltdown and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents in the worst atomic accident in a generation.
Earlier this week, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) admitted for the first time that radioactive groundwater had leaked outside the plant, confirming long-held suspicions of ocean contamination from the shattered reactors.
"This action regarding the water contamination demonstrates a lack of conservative decision-making process," Dale Klein, former head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), told a panel in Tokyo.
"It also appears that you are not keeping the people of Japan informed. These actions indicate that you don't know what you are doing...you do not have a plan and that you are not doing all you can to protect the environment and the people."
Klein was invited to attend the TEPCO-sponsored nuclear reform monitoring panel composed of two foreign experts and four Japanese including the company's chairman.

View of the unit 3 reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, on March 15, 2011. Foreign nuclear experts on Friday blasted the operator of Fukushima plant, with one saying its lack of transparency over toxic water leaks showed "you don't know what you're doing".
The utility had previously reported rising levels of cancer-causing materials in groundwater samples from underneath the plant, but maintained it had contained toxic water from leaking beyond its borders.
But the embattled company has now conceded it delayed the release of test results confirming the leaks as Japan's nuclear watchdog heaped doubt on its claims.
"We would like to express our frustrations in your recent activities regarding the water contamination," Klein said.
"We believe that these events detract from the progress that you have made on your clean up and reform for the Fukushima (plant)."
Barbara Judge, chairman emeritus of Britain's Atomic Energy Authority, said she was "disappointed and distressed" over the company's lack of disclosure.
"I hope that there will be lessons learned from the mishandling of this issue and the next time an issue arises—which inevitably it will because decommissioning is a complicated and difficult process—that the public will be immediately informed about the situation and what TEPCO is planning to do in order to remedy it," she said.
Decommissioning the site is expected to take decades and many area residents will likely never be able to return home, experts say.

The Wall Street Journal notes that radiation levels outside the plant are likely higher than inside the reactor:

NRA [Nuclear Regulation Authority] officials said highly contaminated water may be leaking into the soil from a number of trenches, allowing the water to seep into the site’s groundwater and eventually into the ocean.
…
Both radioactive substances are considered harmful to health. An NRA official said Monday that the very high levels were likely to be even higher than those within the reactor units themselves.
…
It was by far the highest concentration of radioactivity detected since soon after Japan’s March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
…

Asahi writes:

[Tepco's] appallingly shoddy handling of radioactive water that is leaking from the crippled plant into the sea.
…
At the No. 3 reactor, highly radioactive “mystery steam” has been spotted.

The fact that radioactive substances are still being released into the ground, the sea and the air is irrefutable proof that the nuclear disaster of March 2011 is not over. The responsible parties must take this situation gravely ….

The utility’s glaring ineptitude with crisis management was noted right from the start of the Fukushima disaster.
…
We have zero faith in the utility’s reliability as an operator of any nuclear power plant. In fact, allowing the company to handle nuclear energy is simply out of the question.

The entire company now needs to be focused on preventing radioactive substances from escaping into the environment.

…

Exclusive: Japan nuclear body says radioactive water at Fukushima an 'emergency'

TOKYO - Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country's nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force, told Reuters.

Countermeasures planned by Tokyo Electric Power Co are only a temporary solution, he said.

Tepco's "sense of crisis is weak," Kinjo said. "This is why you can't just leave it up to Tepco alone" to grapple with the ongoing disaster.

"Right now, we have an emergency," he said.

Japan ponders freezing Fukushima ground to stop leaks
By Matt Smith, CNN
updated 4:43 AM EDT, Thu August 8, 2013

Concerns of water contamination in Japan
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Prime minister orders "multiple, speedy and sure" plans to stop Fukushima leaks
"We have to deal with this at a national level," Abe says
Plant operator TEPCO has proposed freezing the ground around the site
The plant was the site of the worst nuclear accident since 1986

(CNN) -- Japan's prime minister Thursday ordered his government to find "multiple, speedy and sure" ways to stop the spread of radioactive groundwater around the meltdown-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, including freezing the surrounding ground.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's directive comes two weeks after the Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that contaminated water was leaching into the Pacific Ocean from the plant, the site of the worst nuclear accident in a quarter-century.
"This is not an issue where we can let TEPCO take complete responsibility," Abe said at a meeting at the government's nuclear disaster response headquarters. "We have to deal with this at a national level."
Abe said he has told Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry to "provide multiple, speedy and sure solutions to this issue."
TEPCO has proposed setting up a subterranean barrier around the plant by freezing the ground around it, preventing groundwater from leaking into the damaged plant and carrying radioactive particles with it as it seeps out.
Photos: Industrial disasters through history
Fukushima two years later Nuclear fallout leads to 'ghost town'
"The public has a strong concern over the contaminated water problem, and this is an urgent issue to solve," Abe said. "We will not leave it only to TEPCO, but will lay out firm measures."
That will mean a still-undetermined amount of direct government spending to aid the ailing utility, Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, told reporters. Building a frozen wall around the plant is "unprecedented," he said.
"To build such a wall, the government should take the lead to promote this kind of project," Suga said. "We have to provide the support to do so."
The plan to freeze the ground presents significant technical challenges. It could involve plunging thousands of tubes carrying a powerful coolant liquid deep into the ground surrounding the stricken reactor buildings.
The technology has been used before in the construction of tunnels, but never on the massive scale that the Fukushima plant would require.
TEPCO, the country's largest utility, has been grappling with water issues ever since the Fukushima Daiichi plant was hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated eastern Japan. Scientists who monitor radiation levels offshore have pointed to persistent high readings as evidence of an ongoing leak for more than a year, but the utility did not publicly admit the problem until late July.
Vast stands of storage tanks have grown up around the plant as TEPCO tries to manage the hundreds of tons of water involved every day, and the company has built an underground barrier to prevent contaminated groundwater from reaching the sea. But it remains a difficult problem, Masayuki Ono, TEPCO's acting nuclear power chief, said earlier this week.
"It's a present reality that the contaminated water is seeping out to the bay without us being able to control it," Ono said.
Man who battled Japan's nuclear meltdown dies
TEPCO is also pumping hundreds of tons of water a day into the plant to cool the crippled reactors two and a half years later, though most of that fluid is recycled.
The 2011 tsunami swamped the plant, located 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, and knocked out power to cooling systems for the three reactors that were operating at the time. The result was the second-worst nuclear accident in history, trailing only the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, in the former Soviet Union.
Meltdowns and hydrogen explosions spewed radioactive particles across many of the surrounding towns, complicating an already historic disaster. Though no deaths have been directly attributed to the accident, tens of thousands of people from towns as far as 25 miles away have been displaced by the disaster.
Google maps show Fukushima nuclear ghost town
In July, TEPCO disclosed that water from test wells around the reactor buildings showed concentrations of radioactive tritium in one well as high as 500,000 bequerels -- a unit of radioactive intensity -- per liter of water. By comparison, Japan's maximum safe level of radioactivity in drinking water for adults is 300 bequerels per liter.
Another reactor byproduct, strontium-90, has been showing up in increasing concentrations as well, said Ken Buesseler, a marine radiochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the United States. Strontium-90 mimics calcium in the body, seeking out bone in animal life.
Fukushima tuna study finds miniscule health risks
Buesseler said the amount of radioactive material leaking from the plant now is a small fraction -- about one ten-thousandth -- of what poured out of the plant in the weeks following the meltdowns. But while TEPCO's admission was not news to scientists, "What's less clear to me is how much this has changed in the last month," he said. "And I think that's part of the urgency."
Michael Friedlander, a former nuclear plant operator and engineer, told CNN on Tuesday that the current problem may leave TEPCO and the Japanese government with two choices sure to stoke further public anger: "You can either dump it in the ocean, or you can evaporate it."
"At the end of the day, collecting 400 tons of water every single day is not a sustainable solution," he said.
Federal officials allowed the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst American nuclear accident, to let contaminated water evaporate, Friedlander said -- but TMI was nowhere near the scale of the Fukushima disaster.
"We're in uncharted territory here," he said.

UPDATE 6-Japan says Fukushima leak worse than thought, govt joins clean-up

By Mari Saito and Antoni Slodkowski

TOKYO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is pouring out at a rate of 300 tonnes a day, officials said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.

The revelation amounted to an acknowledgement that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) has yet to come to grips with the scale of the catastrophe, 2 1/2 years after the plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami. Tepco only recently admitted water had leaked at all.

Calling water containment at the Fukushima Daiichi station an "urgent issue," Abe ordered the government for the first time to get involved to help struggling Tepco handle the crisis.

The leak from the plant 220 km (130 miles) northeast of Tokyo is enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool in a week. The water is spilling into the Pacific Ocean, but it was not immediately clear how much of a threat it poses.

As early as January this year, Tepco found fish contaminated with high levels of radiation inside a port at the plant. Local fishermen and independent researchers had already suspected a leak of radioactive water, but Tepco denied the claims.

Tetsu Nozaki, the chairman of the Fukushima fisheries federation said he had only heard of the latest estimates of the magnitude of the seepage from media reports.

Environmental group Greenpeace said Tepco had "anxiously hid the leaks" and urged Japan to seek international expertise.

"Greenpeace calls for the Japanese authorities to do all in their power to solve this situation, and that includes increased transparancy...and getting international expertise in to help find solutions," Dr. Rianne Teule of Greenpeace International said in an e-mailed statement.

Fukushima is on Japan's northeastern coast and faces the Pacific. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not believe the seepage will have any effect on the West Coast.

"Even 300 tonnes - that's still going to be diluted to an almost undetectable level before it would get to any U.S. territory," said Scott Burnell, public information officer for the commission. "The scale of what's occurring at Fukushima is nowhere near the scale of the releases we saw during the actual accident."

In the weeks after the disaster, the government allowed Tepco to dump tens of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water into the Pacific in an emergency move.

But the escalation of the crisis raises the risk of an even longer and more expensive clean-up, already forecast to take more than 40 years and cost $11 billion.

The admission further dents the credibility of Tepco, criticised for its failure to prepare for the tsunami and earthquake, for a confused response to the disaster and for covering up shortcomings.

"We think that the volume of water (leaking into the Pacific) is about 300 tonnes a day," said Yushi Yoneyama, an official with the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, which oversees energy policy.

Tatsuya Shinkawa, a director in METI's Nuclear Accident Response Office, told reporters the government believed water had been leaking for two years, but Yoneyama told Reuters it was unclear how long the water had been leaking at the current rate.

Shinkawa described the water as "highly" contaminated.

The water is from the area between the crippled reactors and the ocean, where Tepco has sought to block the flow of contaminated water by chemically hardening the soil.

Tetsu Nozaki, head of the Fukushima fisheries federation called for action to end the spillage.

"If the water was indeed leaking out at 300 tonnes a day for more than two years, the radiation readings should be far worse," Nozaki told Reuters. "Either way, we have asked Tepco to stop leaking contaminated water into the ocean."

ABE STEPS IN

Abe ordered his government into action. The contaminated water was "an urgent issue to deal with", he told reporters after a meeting of a government task force on the disaster.

"Rather than relying on Tokyo Electric, the government will take measures," he said after instructing METI Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to ensure Tepco takes appropriate action.

The prime minister stopped short of pledging funds to address the issue, but the ministry has requested a budget allocation, an official told Reuters.

The Nikkei newspaper said the funds would be used to freeze the soil to keep groundwater out of reactor buildings - a project estimated to cost up to 40 billion yen ($410 million).

Tepco's handling of the clean-up has complicated Japan's efforts to restart its 50 nuclear power plants. All but two remain shut since the disaster because of safety concerns.

That has made Japan dependent on expensive imported fuels.

An official from the newly created nuclear watchdog told Reuters on Monday that the highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Fukushima was creating an "emergency" that Tepco was not containing on its own.

Abe on Wednesday asked the regulator's head to "do his best to find out the cause and come up with effective measures".

Tepco pumps out some 400 tonnes a day of groundwater flowing from the hills above the nuclear plant into the basements of the destroyed buildings, which mixes with highly irradiated water used to cool the fuel that melted down in three reactors.

Tepco is trying to prevent groundwater from reaching the plant by building a "bypass", but recent spikes of radioactive elements in sea water prompted the utility to reverse denials and acknowledge that tainted water is reaching the sea.

Tepco and the industry ministry have been working since May on a proposal to freeze the soil to prevent groundwater from leaking into the reactor buildings.

Similar technology is used in subway construction, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the vast scale of Tepco's attempt was "unprecedented in the world."

The technology was proposed by Kajima Corp,, a construction company already heavily involved in the clean-up.

Experts say maintaining the ground temperatures for months or years would be costly. The plan is to freeze a 1.4 km (nearly one mile) perimeter around the four damaged reactors by drilling shafts into the ground and pumping coolant through them.

"Right now there are no details (of the project yet). There's no blueprint, no nothing yet, so there's no way we can scrutinise it," said Shinji Kinjo, head of the task force set up by the nuclear regulator to deal with the water issue.

Tetsu Nozaki, head of the Fukushima fisheries federation called for action to end the spillage.

"If the water was indeed leaking out at 300 tonnes a day for more than two years, the radiation readings should be far worse," Nozaki told Reuters. "Either way, we have asked Tepco to stop leaking contaminated water into the ocean."

SEOUL, South Korea — Like Japan, resource-poor South Korea has long relied on nuclear power to provide the cheap electricity that helped build its miracle economy. For years, it met one-third of its electricity needs with nuclear power, similar to Japan’s level of dependence before the 2011 disaster at its Fukushima plant.

Now, a snowballing scandal in South Korea about bribery and faked safety tests for critical plant equipment has highlighted yet another similarity: experts say both countries’ nuclear programs suffer from a culture of collusion that has undermined their safety. Weeks of revelations about the close ties between South Korea’s nuclear power companies, their suppliers and testing companies have led the prime minister to liken the industry to a mafia.

The scandal started after an anonymous tip in April prompted an official investigation. Prosecutors have indicted some officials at a testing company on charges of faking safety tests on parts for the plants. Some officials at the state-financed company that designs nuclear power plants were also indicted on charges of taking bribes from testing company officials in return for accepting those substandard parts.

Worse yet, investigators discovered that the questionable components are installed in 14 of South Korea’s 23 nuclear power plants. The country has already shuttered three of those reactors temporarily because the questionable parts used there were important, and more closings could follow as investigators wade through more than 120,000 test certificates filed over the past decade to see if more may have been falsified.

In a further indication of the possible breadth of the problems, prosecutors recently raided the offices of 30 more suppliers suspected of also providing parts with faked quality certificates and said they would investigate other testing companies.

“What has been revealed so far may be the tip of an iceberg,” said Kune Y. Suh, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University.

With each new revelation, South Koreans — who, like the Japanese, had grown to believe their leaders’ soothing claims about nuclear safety — have become more jittery. Safety is the biggest concern, but the scandals have also caused economic worries. At a time of slowing growth, the government had loudly promoted its plans to become a major builder of nuclear power plants abroad.

The scandal, Professor Suh said, “makes it difficult to continue claiming to build reliable nuclear power plants cheaply.”

South Koreans say they are already suffering for the industry’s sins. The closing of the three reactors, in addition to another three offline for scheduled maintenance, has led the country’s leaders to order a nationwide energy-saving campaign in the middle of a particularly muggy summer. At university campuses, students have deserted the libraries for cooler Internet cafes, and major corporations have turned down air-conditioning.

President Park Geun-hye has kept off her own air-conditioning even when she hosted foreign guests, including Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook. And some entrepreneurs have capitalized on the troubles, selling “cool scarves” made of a special fabric that, after being dipped in water, keeps wearers cool for hours. But the modeling and creativity have not stopped the grousing, or alleviated anger at the industry.

Critics of South Korea’s nuclear industry say there were plenty of warning signs.

Last year, the government was forced to shut down two reactors temporarily after it learned that parts suppliers — some of whom were later convicted — had fabricated the safety-test certificates for more than 10,000 components over 10 years. But the government emphasized at the time that those parts were “nonessential” items and that the industry was otherwise sound.

As it turned out, the problems went much deeper.

The investigation that began this spring suggested that the oversight within the supply chain may also be more deeply compromised. A company that was supposed to test reactor parts skipped portions of the exams, doctored test data or even issued safety certificates for parts that failed its tests, according to government investigators. And this time the parts involved included more important items. Among the parts that failed the tests were cables used to send signals to activate emergency measures in an accident.

“This is not a simple negligence or mistake; this is a deliberate fabrication by those who were supposed to safeguard the reliability of parts,” said Kim Yong-soo, a professor of nuclear engineering at Hanyang University in Seoul. “It raises serious questions about the immune system of our nuclear power industry.”

Although much remains unclear with the investigations under way, experts say they know enough to pinpoint the underlying cause of the scandal: an industry that is even more highly centralized than Japan’s, with poor oversight on the relations among the major players.

While Japan has a small number of utilities that provide nuclear power, South Korea has just one: the state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation, or Kepco. One of its subsidiaries, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, runs all the plants. Another, Kepco Engineering & Construction, designs them and is tasked with inspecting parts from suppliers and vetting the safety certificates they include from testing companies.

Over the years, senior retirees from the two subsidiaries have found jobs with parts suppliers and testing companies or invested in them, according to industry data submitted to the National Assembly.

In a culture where honoring personal ties is often considered more important than following regulations, the porous borders among the members of the supply chain resulted in what government officials and industry experts call an “entrenched chain of corruption.” Important school and hometown connections among the groups further cemented the collusive links, they said. And then there is the lure of bribery, which has often lubricated relationships between South Korean parts suppliers and their buyers in various industries.

“In the past 30 years, our nuclear energy industry has become an increasingly closed community that emphasized its specialty in dealing with nuclear materials and yet allowed little oversight and intervention,” the government’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a recent report to lawmakers. “It spawned a litany of corruption, an opaque system and a business practice replete with complacency.”

In the current scandal, Korea Hydro officials are accused of ordering Kepco E & C to ignore faked certificates from the testing firm Saehan Total Engineering Provider Company. The testing company’s top officials and investors included current and former employees from Kepco E & C or their family members. (Although the company was called for comment several times in recent days, no one picked up the main line.)

But the problems appear to go beyond testing. At the home of one of the Korea Hydro officials, investigators found boxes of cash amounting to several hundred thousand dollars. Investigators tracing the origin of the money recently arrested officials of Hyundai Heavy Industries, a major parts supplier, on bribery charges. Prosecutors said the money was meant to ensure contracts for Hyundai Heavy and appeared not to be part of the scandal over testing certificates.

In a statement jointly issued in June, Korea Hydro, Kepco E & C and two other state-financed nuclear industry companies promised “self-purification measures.” To “root out corruption arising from collusive ties,” they said they would make it mandatory for senior officials to make public their personal assets, ban all employees from buying stocks in suppliers or getting jobs there after retirement, and reduce the retirement package benefits for those fired for corruption.

Amid a public uproar, the government fired the heads of both the Kepco subsidiaries. It also promised to enact new laws and tighten regulations to ban retirees from the two subsidiaries from getting jobs at suppliers and test agencies.

Political opposition parties, which control some seats on the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission — the top nuclear watchdog, which has long been criticized as being too cozy with the industry — recently added two critics of nuclear power to the regulatory group. But many worry the changes, and promised changes, will not be enough.

After last year’s scandal, the government had vowed to keep parts suppliers found to have falsified documents from bidding again for 10 years. But in February, Korea Hydro imposed only a six-month penalty for such suppliers. And nuclear opponents say that more fundamental changes are needed in the regulatory system, pointing out that one of the government’s main regulating arms, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, gets 60 percent of its annual budget from Korea Hydro.

Some go further, saying ordinary South Koreans will have to change their own expectations before real change can occur.

The nuclear industry, they say, was built around the notion that South Korea’s industries needed inexpensive power, leading Kepco to build plants quickly and operate them cheaply.

“South Koreans have guzzled cheap electricity while turning a blind eye to the safety concerns of their nuclear power plants,” said Yang Lee Won-young, a leader at the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement. “They may end up paying dearly.”

Damaged Fukushima Nuclear Plant Workers Allege TEPCO Operator’s Been Lying on True State of Japan Meltdown Crisis

By Esther Tanquintic-Misa | August 12, 2013 1:30 PM EST

Workers of the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have alleged its operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have been lying about the true state of meltdown crisis in the facility.

Japan FINALLY Admits: Consumers of Sea Produce Warned as Damaged Fukushima Nuclear Reactor INDEED Poured Contaminated Radioactive Water Into Ocean Waters

Apparently, the stricken facility continues to give off manifestations of its crippled state.

"Steam came out of the Reactor 3 building the other day," Fujimoto-san, a 56-year-old decontamination worker at the Fukushima nuclear plant, told ABC News.

What's more worse, TEPCO continues to hide things and information under the blanket. "When it came out, TEPCO didn't even tell us. I found out about it on the TV news after I got home from work," Mr Fujimoto-san said.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been forced to step into the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown crisis after it has been confirmed that the facility had been leaking 300 tonnes of radioactive water per day into the ocean since it got destroyed by a tsunami in March 2011.


Still, with its alleged lies, the reported 300 tonnes of radicoactive water per day could still be underestimated, the Examiner said. "As a consequence, the entire Pacific Ocean will become uninhabitable for marine life in a few years."

TEPCO, it seemed, had known the leakage all along since that fateful day in March two and a half years ago but refused to tell the truth and continued to hold the world hanging for information.

"I believe it's been leaking into the ocean from the start of the crisis two-and-a-half years ago," Suzuki-san, a former Fukushima site foreman who had worked for TEPCO for 12 years, told ABC.

"TEPCO probably knew this but did nothing because they didn't want to cause an outcry," he said.

Meantime, Mr Fujimoto-san said that apparently, not all reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have been tested for safety and efficiency after the incident.

"There are still reactor buildings we haven't gotten into yet," he said.

"So there's always the possibility of another explosion, and if that were to happen, we - the workers - would be the first victims. I fear that a lot," he added.