"Tokyo Electric Power Co. Saturday halted an operation to clean highly contaminated waste water at a crippled Japanese nuclear plant due to higher-than-expected radiation levels."
More at:
Saturday, June 18, 2011
TEPCO starts to cover unit 1
| TEPCO starts to cover unit 1 |
| 17 June 2011 |
Preparations have begun to fit a temporary cloth cover over the damaged Fukushima Daiichi unit 1 reactor to block rain and wind from the contaminated building.
Image sets planned structure in midst of a 3D model of the site based on optical scanning equipment
The structure, made of steel struts holding coated polyester fibre sheets, will measure 54 m high, 46.9 m wide and 42.3 m long. The cover will be assembled from large components by crawler cranes. To further reduce workers' dose rates, it will be built using remote measuring technology and remote fastenings. A detailed three-dimensional model of the site has been created by radar scanners. Installation will be practiced at the Onahama port and using computer models. Site assembly of crawler cranes began on 12 June; construction work is scheduled to begin on 27 July.
Also, Fukushima Daiichi utility TEPCO has submitted a plan for an alternative cooling system of the unit 3 spent fuel pool, along the lines of the successful unit 2 system, which started work on 31 May. Installation work would start on 18 June, and operation is due to begin on 30 June.
An alternative line for water injection of the unit 4 spent fuel pool was installed on 16 June, injecting 75 tons of fresh water with corrosion inhibitor hydrazine.
Tests of the new water treatment system have enabled engineers to estimate tentative decontamination factors of different parts of the system. The system treats contaminated water in four principal stages: oil separation, cesium adsorption, decontamination and desalination. The cesium adsorption system, supplied by Kurion, achieved a decontamination factor of 100,000 on 15 June, an improvement of 100 times compared with tests using low-level contaminated water the previous day. The Areva-supplied decontamination system has a rate of 17,000 for Cs-134 and 18,000 for Cs-137 after low-level contaminated water tests on 15 June. A fault that stopped processing on 16 June has been fixed.
A borehole sample of soil near a waste treatment building, which had been receiving water pumped from the turbine building, has not found any evidence of leaks. The miscellaneous solid waste volume reduction treatment building (a waste incinerator) received 3660 tons of highly-contaminated water from the unit 3 turbine hall building from 17-25 May. Its water level was noticed to be falling; at the same time a trench 10m beneath ground level was noticed to be filling with water. However, results suggest that neither the building nor the trench is leaking. No substantial change in radiation levels has been detected in a nearby sub-drain. A total of eight samples taken at different heights in a borehole excavated to a depth of 3 m below the bottom of the trench have relatively low levels of radiation, and suggest the absence of leaks, TEPCO said.
Finally, TEPCO has written emergency preparedness plans for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa and Fukushima Daiini sites in the event of a major natural disaster.
Although the report had not been immediately translated into English, a summary was available:
-Main control room environment countermeasures include deployment of electric power supply vehicles and establishment of air filtering equipment operational procedures
-To secure communications, a mobile wireless system and satphone system are to be installed in addition to current paging and house telephone systems
-To manage radiation exposure of emergency workers, shielding jackets are to be provided, and a management framework for emergency radiation work has been strengthened
-To prevent hydrogen explosions, tools to cut vent holes in roofs will be deployed; in addition, a reactor building roof vent system and hydrogen detectors will be installed at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa by June 2012
-To enable access after a natural disaster, heavy moving equipment will be deployed to each site.
Nuclear Engineering
Halted reactors safe to fire up: Kaieda | The Japan Times Online
Will we ever learn.
June 19, 2011
Industry minister Banri Kaieda on Saturday called for restarting nuclear reactors currently suspended to meet summertime electricity demand, saying immediate countermeasures for severe accidents have been taken "appropriately" at the nation's power plants.
But local governments hosting nuclear plants adopted a cautious stance, saying they will need to thoroughly examine safety measures.
According to safety agreements signed with power plant operators, utilities need the consent of local governments before reactors can be restarted.
More in this at The Japan Times:
Nuclear Crisis in Japan - NIRS
UPDATE, Friday, June 17, 2011. There have been increasing reports of radioactive “hotspots” being found around Japan, especially in the area outside but near the evacuation zone of course, but also quite far away. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported today on a hotspot found in Chiba Prefecture 120 miles from Fukushima Daiichi and not too far from Tokyo. There have been reports of elevated readings in Tokyo itself, and across northern Japan.
We found the map below today on DailyKos which gives some indication of the extent of contamination. The areas in blue indicate slightly elevated radiation levels—high enough that a person exposed to these levels likely would receive an annual radiation dose in excess of 1 MilliSievert/year (100 millirems/year), which, until Fukushima was the maximum annual exposure level for the general public in Japan—as it remains the maximum level in the U.S.
More on this at:
Posted by RadiationAlerts.org 's blog
Japanese government too slow - IAEA — RT
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has criticized the government of Japan for its slow reaction to the disaster at Fukushima-1 NPP that broke out in March, following a devastating earthquake and tsunami.
In its report, the agency calls on the Japanese authorities to increase security measures in order to prevent accidents caused by natural disasters in the future, RIA Novosti quoted the NHK channel. IAEA also insists that the authorities were wrong in their assessment of the scale of the tsunami.
System to treat Japan nuke plant’s radioactive water halted hours after full operations begin - The Washington Post
TOKYO — A system to clean massive amounts of contaminated water at the site of Japan’s nuclear disaster was shut down Saturday, just hours after it began full operations, because a component filled with radioactivity much more quickly than expected.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, is investigating the cause and isn’t sure when it will restart the system, company spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.
Nuclear Doom | Dr. Mark's Blog
By Dr. Mark Allan Sircus
After the first week, officials had enough information to call for evacuation of a wide area in Japan and also Hawaii, Alaska and the entire west coast of North America. They really should have evacuated all of northern Japan and also the west coast but that was almost as impossible as evacuating the entire planet or the entire northern hemisphere.
Read the full story at;
Friday, June 17, 2011
Fukushima meltdown is ‘much worse than you think’ - International Business Times
Fukushima meltdown is ‘much worse than you think’
June 16th
The full extent of the damage to the environment and the safety of the Japanese people that the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power caused is only now starting to become avaliable. Even more worrying is that it has not been released by the Japanese government but independent scientists who has scathed the Japanese governments rescue attempts.Wednesday, June 15, 2011
YouTube - *High Alert* - Fire -Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant near Omaha Nebraska- Flooding Missouri River
Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant near Omaha Nebraska
second report on Nebraska.
"Five O'Clock Shadow" with Robert Knight and Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds Associates
Fire knocks out spent fuel cooling pool at nuclear plant near Omaha — Operating under heightened alert level because of nearby flooding on Missouri River.
On June 6, 2011, the Fort Calhoun pressurized water nuclear reactor 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska entered emergency status due to imminent flooding from the Missouri River. A day later, there was an electrical fire requiring plant evacuation. Then, on June 8th, NRC event reports confirmed the fire resulted in the loss of cooling for the reactor's spent fuel pool.
Fire knocks out spent fuel cooling pool at nuclear plant near Omaha — Operating under heightened alert level because of nearby flooding on Missouri River.
On June 6, 2011, the Fort Calhoun pressurized water nuclear reactor 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska entered emergency status due to imminent flooding from the Missouri River. A day later, there was an electrical fire requiring plant evacuation. Then, on June 8th, NRC event reports confirmed the fire resulted in the loss of cooling for the reactor's spent fuel pool.
YouTube - Thom Hartmann & Greg Palast: Is Tokyo Power going to build reactors in TX?
The no BS info on Japan's disastrous nuclear operators with Greg Palast, independent investigative journalist (BBC Newsnight).
YouTube - EGYPT Nuclear Reactor Leaking ( Nebraska Nuke Plant Flooding) 06 June 2011
The Anshas nuclear reactor, located on the outskirts of Cairo, has leaked ten cubic meters of radioactive water for the second time in a year, according to Samer Mekheimar, the former director of the Nuclear Research Center's atomic reactions department. Mekheimar submitted a note to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, saying the leakage took place on 25 May as a result of operating the reactor without taking into account safety precautions. He also said the Atomic Energy Agency kept the incident secret and threatened to fire the staff if they talked about it. "The fact that the reactor was by mere chance not operated the next day saved the area from environmental disaster," he wrote. "All ministries were changed after the revolution, except the Ministry of Electricity and Energy," he added. "It still kept the same minister and his deputies from the dissolved ruling party." Meanwhile, sources at the Nuclear Safety Authority said they were denied entry to the reactor to conduct an inspection. Director of the Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed al-Kolaly, said that levels of radiation inside the reactor are normal, and that the International Atomic Energy Agency has praised the reactor
YouTube - Arnie Gundersen - Nebraska Nuclear Plant: Emergency Level 4 & About to Get Worse - June 14, 2011
Nebraska Nuclear Plant: Emergency Level 4 & About to Get Worse - June 14, 2011
Arnie Gundersen -
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