
More here - http://m.focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201503240038.aspx
The Japan Nuclear Crisis and its potential effect on the country
"Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan to manage radioactive water at its wrecked Fukushima plant may include a controlled discharge into the ocean once its toxicity is brought within legal limits, Japan’s nuclear regulator said.Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said today the ocean dump could be necessary as the country’s government prepares to present its plan for handling tainted water at the site that’s increasing by 400 tons a day. Managing the water used to cool melted fuel at the Fukushima plant’s reactors has become a fundamental challenge for the utility known as Tepco, which has struggled to contain a series of leaks including the loss of about 300 tons of contaminated water it reported two weeks ago. “It is important for us to understand the need to make difficult judgments in order to avoid larger problems in the future,” Tanaka said of the possible ocean discharge during a speech to reporters in Tokyo. Contaminant levels must be brought below accepted limits through filtration or other treatments before the water is discharged, he said."
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Keep in mind that 100 on the chart (100 bq/kg of cesium 134 and 137) is the legal safe limit for the consumption of fish in Japan. |
Scientists at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant are preparing for their toughest clean-up operation yet – two and a half years after three of the plant’s reactors suffered a meltdown in Japan’s worst-ever nuclear power disaster.
The operation, to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel beneath the plant’s damaged Reactor No. 4, could set off a catastrophe greater than any we have ever seen, independent experts warn. An operation of this scale, says plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, has never been attempted before, and is wrought with danger.
An uncontrolled leak of nuclear fuel could cause more radiation than the March 2011 disaster or the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, say consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt. "Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date," the scientists say in their World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013.
The operation has been tried before – but only with the aid of computers. This time it will be a painstaking manual process.
If it is from the mist generator, radioactive water may now have infiltrated (what is assumed to be) clean water sources within the plant. More speculation from NHK:When they left the plant premises at 00:40 PM on 12 August, 10 employees were found to be contaminated mainly on their face and head. The highest contamination was 19 Bq/cm², which is 5 times Tepco's internal standard. The cause is being investigated. The mist generators installed as a countermeasure against heat strokes in the surroundings of the earthquake-isolated building are suspected. The contaminated employees were working indoors, but they took the bus in front of the earthquake-isolated building which is used as a base. Also, an air radiation alarm rang in this area in front of the earthquake-isolated building.
Another possibility is that radioactive dust is getting kicked in the air, making contact with the mist and settling on the workers, but that would also mean the airborne isotopes are subject to inhalation as well.The contaminations are between 4 and 19 Bq/cm², which is 5 times Tepco's internal standard but less than the legal limit requiring decontamination. Tepco said [such contamination] "does not bear consequences on health". In order to investigate the cause, Tepco will check the mist generator's sprinklers, check each contaminated employee's movements, and examine the possibility that the bus could have projected contaminants upwards.
8/3/13 http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/genpatsu-fukushima/20130803/index.html
"After solifidying the ground in the area along the sea, the ground water level started rising and it is feared that it has started overflowing and pouring into the sea. Tepco was planning to start pumping up that ground water at the end of this month, but after receiving instructions from the NRA to start as soon as possible, it is starting this week to dig small wells and to pump up water. The water will be temporarily stored in an underground facility, and later it will be stored in the storage tanks within the plant premises. Between July 31 and August 5, in the measurement wells on the side of unit 2, cesium concentration rose 14-fold, and all beta (including strontium) rose 46-fold. Tepco doesn't know the reason for the rise and is researching the details of the cause. Now, two years and 4 months after the accident, the concrete situation and the spreading of consequences of contaminated water outflows are still unknown, and responses are following each other like searching one's way in the dark with one's hand."
"The NRA has set up a new working group dedicated to the contaminated water outflow into the sea. It had its first meeting on 2 August 2013. It admitted that it is feared that the ground water has already overflowed over the solidified ground layer, as the water level rose. As a countermeasure, they announced a plan to install new equipments called "catch basins", and to start pumping up water at the end of this month. Opinions were voiced such as the opinion that the countermeasures must be taken more quickly than planned and the opinion that the ground water flow must be analysed in detail. The NRA has set up another working group whose task is to analyse the spreading of radioactive substances that poured into the sea and to assess the consequences on the environment. Tepco estimates the tritium released into the sea from May 2011 to July 2013 to be between 20,000,000,000,000 and 40,000,000,000,000 Bq. This is about the same amount as the yearly release that is allowed under the regulations for the plant under normal operation. As regards cesium and strontium, it will take more time to produce an estimate because this requires analysing the underground migrations."
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Click to see a University of Washington presentation on ground freezing |
HONOLULU, Dec. 11, 2011 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The earthquake and tsunami that destroyed parts of eastern Japan in March 2011 washed vast amounts of debris into the Pacific Ocean. The buoyant portion of that debris is making its way toward the US. Based on models, first landfall of the debris could occur in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) — designated as Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument by President George W. Bush — as early as January/February 2012.
A free 90-minute webinar this Monday, Dec. 12, will examine how US and Hawaiian resource managers and partners are preparing for impacts of the tsunami debris on the NWHI ecosystem, which includes Midway Atoll. A webinar is a Web-based seminar that allows the public to interact directly with panelists via computer or phone.
The webinar "Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris: Anticipating and Mitigating Its Impacts on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands" starts at 10 am Hawaii time (noon Pacific; 3 pm Eastern), and is open to the media and public. To register, go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/864409841
The NWHI are home to 23 endangered or threatened species including the Hawaiian monk seal and several sea turtle species. The ecosystem also provides habitat for 14 million sea birds.
Lessons from the NWHI tsunami debris response, including on the nature and quantity of debris encountered, will inform responses when the debris eventually reaches the US West Coast, expected in 2013.
Tokyo Electric Power, (Tepco) the utility operating Fukushima's Daiichi plant, hit by a powerful tsunami in March that caused the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years, said it was running out of space to store some of the water it treated at the plant, due to an inflow of groundwater.
"We would like to increase the number of tanks to accommodate the water but it will be difficult to do so indefinitely," Tepco spokesman Junichi Matsumoto told reporters.
He said the plant was likely to reach its storage capacity of about 155,000 tons around March.
Tepco plans to come up with possible ways to handle radioactive waste and present its proposals to the government's nuclear regulatory body for approval.
"The government should not, and must not, approve a plan allowing Tepco to dispose treated water in the ocean," said Kenji Sumita, an emeritus professor at Osaka University who specializes in nuclear engineering.
"The reality is that semipermanent storage is the only solution available under current technological constraints. Tepco may have to find the storage space and look for a technological breakthrough in the coming years that allows it to condense and greatly reduce the volume of tainted water."
"Tokyo - An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck early on Thursday in Japan's Fukushima province.
There were no immediate reports of damage from the 4.24am (local time) earthquake, which had an epicentre 30km under the seafloor off Fukushima. Authorities said there was no tsunami threat.
Fukushima was struck on March 11 by a magnitude-9 quake, which caused major damage across the region and set off a tsunami that devastated coastal communities. The twin disasters damaged a powerplant, leading to a nuclear meltdown.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, reported no immediate problems on Thursday at the crippled facility, broadcaster NHK said.
The latest earthquake was strong enough to set skyscrapers swaying in Tokyo, 260km away."
Japanese dealers selling 'radioactive cars'
Unscrupulous used-car dealers in Japan are selling vehicles exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation to unsuspecting buyers
"The vehicles appear to be outwardly sound but were owned by people living close to the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant when it was destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Others come from second-hand dealers in the north-east of Japan, with a report in the Asahi newspaper suggesting that a minivan that was originally registered in the town of Iwaki, on the edge of the 18-mile exclusion zone around the plant, tested positive for 110 microsieverts of radiation per hour. The Japanese government initially set a level of 5 microsieverts as the limit for cars to be exported to other countries, but in August tightened the rules to 0.3 microsieverts.
Dealers have long had a lucrative trade in buying up second-hand vehicles in Japan and exporting them to Russia and south-east Asia. But with those markets no closed to them because of radioactivity tests at docks, they have little choice but to dump them on the domestic market.
So far, more 660 cars have been refused export documents from Japan.
The dealer who purchased the notoriously contaminated vehicle from Iwaki did so in good faith at an auction for Y1.43 million (£11,737), he told the Asahi. Intending to transport it from Osaka to south-east Asia, authorities informed him that the minivan was more than 20 times the permissible radiation level for exports."