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| Tweet Topic Started: April 11 2011, 02:28 PM (7,653 Views) | |
| Audi-Tek | April 11 2011, 02:28 PM Post #1 |
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Prince
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Landscape of loss, Photos. Good link for photos following Earthquake, tsunami in Japan. http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Landscape+of+loss/A8685 |
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| Mark (IWO) | April 26 2011, 02:47 PM Post #2 |
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Search For Japanese Tsunami Victims Continues The US military has joined Japanese police and other search and rescue groups in fresh attempts to locate up to 12,000 people, still missing since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11 March 2011. The two-day operation is the biggest military search since the disaster. However, up to Monday night only 38 bodies had been recovered . Members of the 25,000-strong search team are concentrating on the areas hardest hit, around Iwati, Miyagi and Fukushima districts. The search also includes the 30-kilometre exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant. Fifty boats and 100 navy divers have searched waters up to 12 miles offshore for those swept out to sea. http://www.irishweatheronline.com/news/search-for-japanese-tsunami-victims-continues/12801.html |
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| Audi-Tek | April 28 2011, 12:54 AM Post #3 |
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Prince
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Experts: Quakes increased before March 11 disaster Experts say increased seismic activities in the Pacific Ocean in recent years may have been a sign of the massive quake of March 11th. The Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction, which consists of experts from universities and research institutes, met on Tuesday to discuss last month's quake and tsunami. A Tohoku University research group said seismic activities started to increase off eastern prefectures from Miyagi to Ibaraki about 3 years before the massive quake. Nagoya University Professor Koshun Yamaoka said research by a national institute shows that the focuses of small quakes in the 2 days before March 11th gradually moved closer to the focus of the massive earthquake. Professor Yamaoka said these seismic activities may have been an indicator of the mega-quake that followed. The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan said coastal areas of Miyagi and Chiba prefectures sank during the huge quake, but some rose 5 to 8 centimeters afterwards. The authority said tectonic plates have continued to shift since the massive quake. CCEP Vice Deputy Chairman and Tohoku University Graduate School Professor Toru Matsuzawa told reporters that relatively big earthquakes struck off Japan's northeast during a short period in the past, but the huge quake was beyond prediction. He said his group will closely monitor seismic activities and tectonic movements. Wednesday, April 27, 2011 06:29 +0900 (JST) |
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| Mark (IWO) | May 5 2011, 05:10 PM Post #4 |
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Earthquake of magnitude 6.1 strikes off Japan -U.S. Geological survey |
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| Audi-Tek | May 5 2011, 10:01 PM Post #5 |
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Prince
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http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/read/index.php?pageid=seism_read&rid=197134 |
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| Audi-Tek | May 10 2011, 06:07 PM Post #6 |
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Nuclear collapse looms? Fukushima No. 4 reactor 'leaning' From: RussiaToday | May 10, 2011 A small group of evacuees have briefly been allowed inside the exclusion zone around Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. For the first time, the government gave permission for short visits so people could gather belongings and check on their properties. Meanwhile, a recent map of contamination released by Japan shows high levels of radiation well outside the evacuation zone. Dr Robert Jacobs can help shed more light on this. He's a Research Associate Professor of Nuclear History and Culture at the Hiroshima Peace Institute. Link http://youtu.be/Dxbm7iJTT8U |
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| Audi-Tek | May 10 2011, 06:10 PM Post #7 |
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Prince
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Live cam for 4 reactors. Link http://youtu.be/FptmoVcgpqg Edited by Audi-Tek, May 10 2011, 06:13 PM.
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| Audi-Tek | May 12 2011, 04:32 PM Post #8 |
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Fukushima reactor water leak risks delaying crisis plan. Workers wearing protective suits stand after water stopped flowing at the pit near the water intake canal of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station No.3 reactor, May 11, 2011. Reuters) - Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is leaking water from the center of the reactor seen as the closest to stabilizing, its operator said on Thursday, risking a delay in its plan to resolve the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The discovery of the leak, through a hole in the container that houses the reactor core, provides new insight into the sequence of events that triggered a partial meltdown of the uranium fuel in the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima after the plant was struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, officials said. The battle to bring Fukushima under control has been complicated by repeated leaks of radioactive water, threatening both the nearby Pacific Ocean and nearby groundwater. Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been pumping water into four of the six reactors on the site to bring their nuclear fuel rods to a "cold shutdown" state by January. But after repairing a gauge in the No. 1 reactor earlier this week, Tokyo Electric Power Co discovered that the water level in the pressure vessel that contains its uranium fuel rods had dropped about 5 meters (16 ft) below the targeted level to cover the fuel under normal operating conditions. "There must be a large leak," Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility also known as TEPCO, told a news conference. "The fuel pellets likely melted and fell, and in the process may have damaged ... the pressure vessel itself and created a hole," he added. Since the surface temperature of the pressure vessel has been holding steady between 100 and 120 degrees Celsius, Matsumoto said the effort to cool the melted uranium fuel by pumping in water was working and would continue. Based on the amount of water that is remaining around the partially melted and collapsed fuel, Matsumoto estimated that the pressure vessel had developed a hole of several centimeters in diameter. The finding makes it likely that at one point in the immediate wake of the disaster the 4-meter-high stack of uranium-rich rods at the core of the reactor had been entirely exposed to the air, he said. Boiling water reactors like those at Fukushima rely on water as both a coolant and a barrier to radiation. Matsumoto said the utility would study whether to increase the amount of water it was injecting to overcome the leak and raise the level of water covering the fuel, at the risk of allowing more radioactive water to leak out of the facility. Nearly 10,400 metric tons of water has been pumped into the reactor so far, but it is unclear where the leaked water has been going. The high radiation levels makes it difficult for workers to check the site, Matsumoto said. TEPCO announced a timetable last month for addressing the crisis, saying it aimed to cool reactors to a stable level and reduce the leakage of radiation within the first three months, then bring the reactors to a cold shutdown in another three to six months. TEPCO is set to review its timetable for stabilizing Fukushima on May 17 and officials indicated that the initial progress targets could slip. Officials had planned to use the same set of steps to stabilize reactors No. 2 and No. 3 that are under way at No. 1, which workers re-entered last week for the first time since the earthquake. But Matsumoto said it was likely that the pressure vessels in the other two reactors could be leaking as well if fuel rods had collapsed and melted after the earthquake and tsunami. "It is necessary to make a reassessment of the condition of the nuclear reactor," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference. On Wednesday, TEPCO sealed a fresh leak of contaminated water found near the No. 3 reactor that may have seeped into the Pacific Ocean from the coastal plant. A previous ocean leak sparked international concern about the impact of the disaster on the environment. Traces of radioactive cesium were detected in sewage treatment centers in Ibaraki and Kanagawa prefectures, both to the south of Fukushima, Japanese media reported on Thursday. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 12 2011, 04:42 PM Post #9 |
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Greenpeace says high radiation in Japan seaweed.![]() TOKYO, JAPAN - Environmental activist group Greenpeace said Thursday it had detected radiation far above legal limits in seaweed samples taken from the ocean off Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. Greenpeace, which sent its Rainbow Warrior flagship to take samples of marine life and water, called on Japan's government to undertake comprehensive radiation testing of seaweed along the Fukushima coast. Initial tests of 22 seaweed samples collected at distances up to 65 kilometres (40 miles) out to sea from the plant "registered significantly high levels of radioactive contamination," the group said. Ten seaweed samples showed levels of over 10,000 Bequerel per kilogramme, the group said. It did not specify if the contamination was from iodine-131 or caesium-137, the official safety limits for which are 2,000 Bequerel per kilogramme and 500 Bequerel per kilogramme respectively. "From May 20, fishermen along the coast will begin harvesting seaweed for public consumption," said Ike Teuling, a radiation expert with the international environmental and anti-nuclear activist group. "Our research indicates a significant risk that this seaweed will be highly contaminated," he said according to a statement. Teuling warned that "radioactive contamination is accumulating in the marine ecosystem that provides Japan with a quarter of its seafood, yet the authorities are still doing the very little to protect public health". Greenpeace said it and independent laboratories were conducting detailed analysis of seawater, fish, shellfish and seaweed collected either from the ocean or coast and expected to release the full results next week. The group earlier complained it had not been granted permission by Japan to conduct marine testing within the country's 20 kilometre (12-mile) territorial waters. Greenpeace Japan executive director Junichi Sato said earlier this week that "as the government has limited our research to the area outside of territorial waters, we could not achieve what we originally set out to do". |
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 12:07 AM Post #10 |
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More-than-expected damage found at Japan reactor By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press. One of the reactors at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant has been damaged more severely than originally thought, officials said Thursday - a serious setback for efforts to stabilize the radiation-leaking complex. Repairs to monitoring equipment revealed the new data, which also showed that the water level in the core of Unit 1 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is much lower than previously thought, leaving the portion of the fuel rods still intact fully exposed. Other fuel has slumped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is thought to be covered in water. The findings also indicate a greater-than-expected leak in that vessel. Radioactive water pouring from troubled reactors has pooled around the complex, hindering work to bring the plant under control. However, temperatures in the unit are still far below dangerous levels because the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., continues to inject new water to keep the rods cool. That radioactive water is apparently then leaking into and through the larger, beaker-shaped drywell, or containment vessel. "The situation (in the core) hasn't changed since (early in the crisis), and the fuel rods are being cooled by water continuously being injected into the core," nuclear official Takashi Sakurai said. Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency officials said the new data indicates that it is likely that partially melted fuel had fallen to the bottom of the pressurized vessel that holds the reactor core together and possibly leached down into the drywell soon after the March 11 quake and tsunami that struck Japan's northeastern coast. While officials said it was unlikely that the chunks of fuel were still dangerously hot or that they could melt through the concrete base of containment vessel, they acknowledged that the level of damage could complicate plans detailed in April to bring the plant to a cold shutdown within nine months. Further examination was needed to ascertain the full extent of damage, they said. TEPCO had adopted an unorthodox method of trying to cool Unit 1's reactor by trying to fill the drywell with water leaking from the core, but the possibility that chunks of melted fuel had fallen and damaged part the containment vessel raised questions about how successful this method would be. It also called into question the utility's timeline for stabilizing the reactor. "We have to revise the flooding method, as we need to re-examine the way we carry it out," Matsumoto said. Recent temperatures inside Unit 1's core were at the most 237 degrees Fahrenheit (114 Celsius), well below the normal operating temperature of about 570 Fahrenheit (300 Celsius). Zirconium fuel rod casing begin to break down at 2,200 Fahrenheit (1,200 Celsius) and melt at 3,900 Fahrenheit (2,200 Celsius). The new findings became available as workers fixed a water meter Tuesday after entering the building for the first time since a March 12 hydrogen explosion at the unit. The gauge showed that the water was at least three feet (one meter) below the 13-foot-long (four-meter-long) fuel rods, which are suspended in the pressure vessel. Some of the rods has melted away, however, and the chunks of damaged fuel are presumed to be sitting at the bottom of the vessel, covered in water. The low level of water indicates that the core of Unit 1 had a bigger breach than expected, said TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto. Cooling water has been leaking from the reactor cores of Units 2 and 3 as well, allowing an estimated 70,000 tons of contaminated water to pool inside the complex, which TEPCO has been struggling to bring under control for two months. To prevent contaminated water from leaking into the ocean, workers in April began pumping it into a waste processing building while a system to decontaminate the water is set up. The plant, 140 miles (220 kilometers) north of Tokyo, has a total of six reactors. Units 5 and 6 have already reached cold shutdown. Unit 4 contained no fuel rods at the time of the earthquake, but workers have needed to spray water into its spent fuel pool where still-hot rods are stored and structural damage and leakage are suspected. The government on Thursday also delayed the announcement of a plan to ensure that TEPCO fulfills its obligation to compensate tens of thousands of people affected by the crisis. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said further discussion was needed. Under the plan, a new fund would be created with mandatory contributions from electric utilities, including TEPCO, in case TEPCO's total compensation exceeds its financial capacity. The government could also add public money if needed. TEPCO would be required to repay any money it uses from the fund. The utility has agreed to drastic restructuring, cost-cutting and other conditions in exchange for government support in the compensation scheme. Posted on Thu, May. 12, 2011 09:52 AM |
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:21 PM Post #11 |
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Prince
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Quake shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide ISHINOMAKI, Japan (AP) — When water begins to trickle down the streets of her coastal neighborhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry home. Twice a day, the flow steadily increases until it is knee-deep, carrying fish and debris by her front door and trapping people in their homes. Those still on the streets slosh through the sea water in rubber boots or on bicycle. "I look out the window, and it's like our houses are in the middle of the ocean," says Takahashi, who moved in three years ago. The March 11 earthquake that hit eastern Japan was so powerful it pulled the entire country out and down into the sea. The mostly devastated coastal communities now face regular flooding, because of their lower elevation and damage to sea walls from the massive tsunamis triggered by the quake. In port cities such as Onagawa and Kesennuma, the tide flows in and out among crumpled homes and warehouses along now uninhabited streets. A cluster of neighborhoods in Ishinomaki city is rare in that it escaped tsunami damage through fortuitous geography. So, many residents still live in their homes, and they now face a daily trial: The area floods at high tide, and the normally sleepy streets turn frantic as residents rush home before the water rises too high. "I just try to get all my shopping and chores done by 3 p.m.," says Takuya Kondo, 32, who lives with his family in his childhood home. Most houses sit above the water's reach, but travel by car becomes impossible and the sewage system swamps, rendering toilets unusable. Scientists say the new conditions are permanent. Japan's northern half sits on the North American tectonic plate. The Pacific plate, which is mostly undersea, normally slides under this plate, slowly nudging the country west. But in the earthquake, the fault line between the two plates ruptured, and the North American plate slid up and out along the Pacific plate. The rising edge of plate caused the sea floor off Japan's eastern coast to bulge up — one measuring station run by Tohoku University reported an underwater rise of 16 feet (5 meters) — creating the tsunami that devastated the coast. The portion of the plate under Japan was pulled lower as it slid toward the ocean, which caused a corresponding plunge in elevation under the country. Some areas in Ishinomaki moved southeast 17 feet (5.3 meters) and sank 4 feet (1.2 meters) lower. "We thought this slippage would happen gradually, bit by bit. We didn't expect it to happen all at once," says Testuro Imakiire, a researcher at Japan's Geospatial Information Authority, the government body in charge of mapping and surveys. Imakiire says the quake was powerful enough to move the entire country, the first time this has been recorded since measurements began in the late 19th century. In Tokyo, 210 miles (340 kilometers) from Ishinomaki, parts of the city moved 9 inches (24 centimeters) seaward. The drop lower was most pronounced around Ishinomaki, the area closest to the epicenter. The effects are apparent: Manholes, supported by underground piping, jut out of streets that fell around them. Telephone poles sank even farther, leaving wires at head height. As surrounding areas clear rubble and make plans to rebuild, residents in this section of Ishinomaki are stuck in limbo — their homes are mostly undamaged and ineligible for major insurance claims or government compensation, but twice a day the tide swamps their streets. "We can't really complain, because other people lost so much," says Yuichiro Mogi, 43, as his daughters examine a dead blowfish floating near his curb. The earthquake and tsunami left more than 25,000 people either dead or missing, and many more lost their homes and possessions. Mogi noticed that the daily floods were slowly carrying away the dirt foundation of his house, and built a small embankment of sandbags to keep the water at bay. The shipping company worker moved here 10 years ago, because he got a good deal on enough land to build a home with a spacious front lawn, where he lives with his four children and wife. Most of the residences in the area are relatively new. "Everyone here still has housing loans they have to pay, and you can't give away this land, let alone sell it," says Seietsu Sasaki, 57, who also has to pay off loans on two cars ruined in the flooding. Sasaki, who moved in 12 years ago with his extended family, says he hopes the government can build flood walls to protect the neighborhood. He never paid much attention to the tides in the past, but now checks the newspaper for peak times each morning. Officials have begun work on some embankments, but with much of the city devastated, resources are tight. Major construction projects to raise the roads were completed before the tsunami, but much of that work was negated when the ground below them sank. The constant flooding means that construction crews can only work in short bursts, and electricity and running water were restored only about two weeks ago. The area still doesn't have gas for hot water, and residents go to evacuee shelters to bathe. "We get a lot of requests to build up these areas, but we don't really have the budget right now," says Kiyoshi Koizumi, a manager in Ishinomaki's roads and infrastructure division. Sasaki says he hopes they work something out soon: Japan's heavy summer rains begin in about a month, and the higher tides in autumn will rise well above the floor of his house. n this may 3, 2011 photo, Itsuki Mogi, 11, left, and and Umi Mogi, 12, watch the moving sea water in a street in front of their house in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The area in this part of the city sunk nearly 2 feet 7 inches (0.8 meter) following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa) In this May 3, 2011 photo, a woman watches moving sea water outside her house in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The area in this part of the city sunk nearly 2 feet 7 inches (0.8 meter) following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa) Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. Edited by Audi-Tek, May 13 2011, 06:25 PM.
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:32 PM Post #12 |
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Prince
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Radiation found in seaweed near crippled Japan plant. TOKYO | Fri May 13, 2011 11:21am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Seaweed collected from the coast near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant and sewage in Tokyo have shown elevated levels of radiation, according to data released by an environmental group and government officials on Friday. The findings, released separately by Greenpeace and Tokyo government officials, underline the difficulty of containing the water-borne spread of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was seriously damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami, triggering a still-unfolding crisis. Operator Tokyo Electric Power has poured massive amounts of water on four of the reactors at the plant to cool the fuel they contain, but struggled to keep the radioactive water from leaking out to the sea. Environmental critics have also raised worries about contaminated water seeping into the water table. Greenpeace said that 10 of the 22 seaweed samples it had collected at sea near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had shown radiation levels as much as five times the standard set by Japan for food. "Radioactive contamination is accumulating in the marine ecosystem that provides Japan with a quarter of its seafood, yet the authorities are still doing very little to protect public health," Ike Teuling, Greenpeace radiation expert, said in a statement. On Wednesday, Tepco sealed a leak of contaminated water found near the No. 3 reactor that may have seeped into the Pacific Ocean from the coastal plant. A previous ocean leak sparked international concern about the impact of the disaster on the environment. Radiation in food and other substances is measured in Becquerel. The limit set for food by Japan is 2,000 Becquerel (Bq) per kg for radioactive Iodine-131 and 500 Bq/kg for radioactive cesium. Greenpeace said 10 of its seaweed samples had shown radiation levels over 10,000 Bq/kg. Some types of seaweed are a staple of the Japanese diet. Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the nuclear crisis, said the government would look into the finding by Greenpeace. "I don't want to ignore this and the government will do its own follow-up study as needed," Hosono told reporters. Separately, government officials in Tokyo said radiation levels in sewage had spiked in late March. The data was released this week in conjunction with a new government standard intended to contain the spread of radiation in sewage. Combined radiation levels of cesium and others in waste burned at the sewage treatment plant in Tokyo spiked to 170,000 Bq/kg in the immediate wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, officials said on Friday. The radiation level was measured on March 25, just over two weeks after the earthquake. Akiko Matsumoto, spokeswoman for the Tokyo Bureau of Sewage said the radiation figure is a composite of cesium and iodine levels. The Japanese government did not set a guideline for radioactive material in sewage until Thursday, when they announced that any solid waste with a cesium level of 100,000 Bq/kg or above should be incinerated and then sealed in a container. Matsumoto said the bureau did not know the reason behind the sudden jump in radiation levels. "One theory is that the radiation from Fukushima was carried by rain," she said. The overall radiation level in Tokyo sewage had dropped to 16,000 Bq/kg by April 28. Edited by Audi-Tek, May 13 2011, 06:34 PM.
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:39 PM Post #13 |
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Prince
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TEPCO searching for 'missing' radioactive water The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is trying to locate thousands of tons of radioactive water that has leaked from one of the damaged reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says contaminated water is apparently leaking from the No.1 reactor, which is in a state of meltdown. TEPCO has injected more than 10,000 tons of water into the reactor since the March 11th disaster damaged the plant. But, less than half that amount is believed to remain in the reactor or its container vessel. The utility says the leaked water is likely in the basement of the reactor building -- still a no-go zone due to concerns over high radiation levels. TEPCO is considering using remote-controlled robots to check the situation, but says the wireless links needed to control them may not reach the basement and that it has to explore other options as well. Injected water is continuing to stabilize the reactor, but any radioactive water that has leaked could hamper the effort. TEPCO says it hopes to come up with ways to retrieve and purify contaminated water to use it to cool the reactor again. Friday, May 13, 2011 21:27 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:40 PM Post #14 |
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Prince
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Radioactive cesium detected in tea leaves Radioactive material above designated safety limits has been detected in tea leaves harvested in 5 municipalities in Kanagawa Prefecture, neighboring Tokyo. The prefectural government checked samples of leaves harvested in 15 municipalities in the region. Officials say that samples from 5 of those were found to contain unsafe levels of radioactive cesium. They say 780 becquerels of cesium were detected in tea leaves in Odawara City, 740 becquerels in Kiyokawa Village, 680 becquerels in Yugawara Town, 670 becquerels in Aikawa Town and 530 becquerels in Manazuru Town. The Kanagawa prefectural government has asked the affected municipalities and the local farmers' cooperative to voluntarily halt shipments for the time being. It says it will repeat the tests in these towns and villages when tea leaves are harvested next month. The survey comes after 570 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram -- exceeding the provisional state limit of 500 -- were detected in products from Minami Ashigara City on May 9th. Friday, May 13, 2011 21:27 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:42 PM Post #15 |
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Prince
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Radioactive element detected in grass, vegetables A radioactive substance exceeding the state limit has been detected in pasture grass and vegetables in Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures, neighboring Fukushima Prefecture. 3,480 becquerels of radioactive cesium were detected in one kilogram of pasture grass collected on May 5th in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture. The figure exceeds the state limit of 300 becquerels. Also, at two different locations in Nasushiobara City, 3,600 becquerels and 860 becquerels of radioactive cesium respectively were detected in one kilogram of pasture grass collected on May 3rd. Tochigi Prefecture requested farmers in the area where the radioactive substance was detected not to feed pasture grass to livestock. 1,110 becquerels of radioactive cesium were detected in one kilogram of parsley harvested in Ibaraki Prefecture. The figure is more than double the state limit. The parsley had been shipped to a fresh food market in Niigata Prefecture, west of Fukushima. Niigata prefectural government instructed wholesale distributers to stop selling the parsley. Friday, May 13, 2011 05:21 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:43 PM Post #16 |
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Prince
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Death toll from earthquake tops 15,000 The death toll from the March 11th earthquake and tsunami and major aftershocks in northeastern Japan has surpassed 15,000. The National Police Agency said on Friday that the number of confirmed deaths including those from 2 major aftershocks on April 7th and 11th stands at 15,019. The agency said 8,975 people have been confirmed dead in Miyagi Prefecture, 4,421 in Iwate Prefecture and 1,559 in Fukushima Prefecture. 64 deaths were reported in 9 other prefectures including Tokyo. The agency also says 9,500 people have been reported to police as missing. Meanwhile, the police say 115,500 people are still in shelters, mostly in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. In Iwate, 36,500 people are in shelters, in Miyagi 32,800 and in Fukushima 24,400. Elsewhere, a total of 21,000 people are in evacuation centers set up by municipalities in 15 prefectures including Tokyo. Friday, May 13, 2011 19:53 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:45 PM Post #17 |
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Prince
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After-quake deaths top 500 NHK has learned that at least 524 survivors of the March 11th disaster have died -- many of them due to stress and fatigue. NHK contacted 241 hospitals in the 3 disaster-stricken prefectures in northeastern Japan. It found the number of survivors who have died due to wide-ranging effects of the disaster reached 347 in Miyagi, 123 in Fukushima and 54 in Iwate. 41 percent of the deaths occurred during the first 2 weeks after March 11th. 26 people have died since the start of May, and the figure continues to rise. Nearly 90 percent of the victims were aged 65 or older. But children as young as 2 have also succumbed to hypothermia and infectious diseases. 62 percent of the deaths involved cardiac and respiratory failures, including heart infarction and pneumonia. Most deaths in the first 2 weeks following the disaster were related to shock, or due to the loss of power to medical equipment. But the causes of deaths during the most recent 2 weeks were more preventable. They include fatigue and stress caused by extended stays at public shelters, which led to declines in immunity and high blood pressure. Jichi Medical University Professor Kazuomi Kario has treated patients in disaster areas. He says deaths can be prevented by improving food, sleep and living conditions. He says it is a great shame to lose people who have survived the quake and tsunami. Friday, May 13, 2011 19:53 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 13 2011, 06:55 PM Post #18 |
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Prince
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Fukushima - One Step Forward and Four Steps Back as Each Unit Challenged by New Problems Link....... Fukushima Edited by Audi-Tek, May 13 2011, 07:00 PM.
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| Audi-Tek | May 14 2011, 12:29 AM Post #19 |
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Prince
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Japans devastating earthquake in pictures. Link...... http://mdn.mainichi.jp/photospecials/graph/earthquake/1.html |
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| Audi-Tek | May 14 2011, 10:56 PM Post #20 |
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Prince
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Q+A: What's going on at Japan's damaged nuclear power plant? (Reuters) - Japanese engineers are struggling to gain control of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, which was seriously damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Two of the six reactors at the plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), are considered stable but the other four are volatile. Following are some questions and answers about efforts to end the world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl accident: WHAT IS HAPPENING? Workers are trying to fill the reactors with enough water to bring the nuclear fuel rods inside to a "cold shutdown," in which the water cooling them is below 100 degrees Celsius and the reactors are considered stable. TEPCO has been pouring water into the reactor vessels containing the rods since the disaster to cool them as an emergency measure. In a further step toward a cold shutdown, TEPCO is filling the containment vessel -- an outer shell of steel and concrete that houses the reactor vessel -- with water in a procedure called water entombment. It has started by increasing the amount of water being poured into the No.1 reactor. At the same time, it will work to restore the reactors' cooling system, which functions like a radiator on a car. For the No.1 reactor, TEPCO is trying to install a separate cooling system. On May 5, workers entered the No.1 reactor building for the first time since a hydrogen explosion ripped off its roof a day after the natural disaster. They installed duct pipes to connect to ventilators that will filter out 95 percent of the radioactive material in the air. Once the radiation level drops in a few days, TEPCO plans to start installing the cooling system. For reactors like No.2, which is suspected of having a damaged containment vessel, TEPCO said it hopes to seal the damaged sections with cement to prevent the water being pumped in from leaking out. WHAT IS HAMPERING OPERATIONS? The large amounts of runoff from the water TEPCO has been pumping in to prevent overheating of fuel rods and a nuclear meltdown. The operator has estimated the amount of contaminated water at the Daiichi plant at about 87,500 tonnes. TEPCO plans to start operating in June a system to treat this contaminated water. The system, developed by Toshiba, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Areva and U.S. firm Kurion, would adsorb and isolate radioactive elements, then the treated water would be re-used to cool down the reactors. The isolated radioactive materials would remain in the nuclear plant for now. For the time being, TEPCO has been transferring radioactive water that has accumulated at the reactor buildings into tanks and storage areas at the plant. Many storage tanks on site were damaged by the tsunami and authorities made a decision in April to pump contaminated water with lower levels of radiation back into the ocean to secure storage space. That has since stopped but could resume if they run out of storage space again. In the meantime, radiation continues to seep out of TEPCO's nuclear complex into the sea and into the air, although at far lower levels than at the peak of the crisis in mid-March. Soil containing radioactivity 10,000 times the normal level was recently found at the bottom of the sea. To contain contamination, workers have tried pouring liquid glass to stop a leak and spraying the ground with sticky resin to capture radiated dust. They are also injecting nitrogen into reactors to prevent new hydrogen explosions which would spread highly radioactive material into the air. HOW LONG MIGHT THIS TAKE? On April 17, TEPCO announced a timetable for its operations. Within the first three months it plans to cool the reactors and the spent fuel stored in some of them to a stable level and reduce the leakage of radiation. TEPCO then hopes to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown in another three to six months. But some experts said the process could take longer. TEPCO said constant aftershocks, power outages, high levels of radiation and the threat of hydrogen explosions were factors that could hamper its work. Weather conditions, such as the approaching rainy season and typhoons and lightning during the summer, could also pose problems. WHAT ARE THE RISKS? The main risk is radiation continuing to seep, or burst, out each time a pipe leaks or rising pressure forces workers to vent steam. Leaking water from within the nuclear pressure vessels could find its way into soil and the ocean, while spikes in radiation could contaminate crops over a wide area. The risk that the spent fuel pools could go into a chain reaction is low, as long as temperature indicators are accurate. But some more of the contaminated runoff may have to be dumped into the sea, if workers run out of space to store the water. There is also a small risk of a corium steam explosion, particularly in the No.1 reactor, which is the plant's oldest and which is believed to have a weak spot. If workers are unable to continue hosing operations, and if the nuclear fuel manages to melt through the bottom of the reactor and fall into a water pool below, this would result in a burst of heat and a sudden release of a huge amount of hydrogen that could breach the containment vessel. Should either worst-case scenario happen, high levels of radiation could be dispersed up to 20 km (12 miles) around the site could be dispersed, making it impossible to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown without great sacrifice. WILL THE SITE BECOME A NO-MAN'S LAND? Most likely, yes. Even after a cold shutdown there are tonnes of nuclear waste sitting at the site. Entombing the reactors in concrete would make them safe to work and live a few kilometers away, but is not a long-term solution for the disposal of spent fuel, which will decay and emit radiation over several thousand years. The spent nuclear fuel in Fukushima has been damaged by sea water, so recycling it is probably not an option, while transporting it elsewhere is unlikely because of the opposition that would bring. Experts say the clean-up will take decades. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 15 2011, 12:53 AM Post #21 |
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Prince
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Fukushima nuke plant worker tells of heat exhaustion, slipping safety standards. Safety rules and procedures at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant are being gradually relaxed, spreading anxiety and confusion amongst workers, according to a worker at the plant.Furthermore, according to the worker, the lax safety attitude together with the extreme working environment, human error and workers being made to do jobs outside of their fields are creating a dangerous environment. The worker, a veteran at a subcontractor company, says that last month he headed to the plant to help install a hose for removing radioactively contaminated water from a turbine building. After receiving his protective suit and full-face mask at the J Village sports center located around 20 kilometers south of the plant, he was driven by a company vehicle to the base of operations on the plant grounds. There he was given a radiation-measuring device, and he headed in to begin the work. He says now that the weather has grown warmer, wearing the full set of protective equipment, mask and all, is "like wearing a sauna suit." After a while, sweat a few centimeters deep collects in the mask, and "many people have collapsed from heat exhaustion." "We were told that if we start feeling like we can't take the heat anymore, we should 'squat, calm down and breathe deeply.' Really, though, the limit is only about two to three hours. Once summer comes, things will be even tougher," he said. He was joined by around 10 people in the hose installation. The inside of the turbine buildings was humid, which made it feel even hotter. The hose he and the others had to install was around 10 centimeters thick and 20 meters long. They had to lay the hose and attach it to an extension so it could reach the tank of a radioactive waste processor to cleanse the contaminated water. Hose-laying was, in fact, outside of the man's job training. "I think the original contractor asked us to do the job because they thought it was simple work that anyone could do. None of the around 10 people with me had ever done hose-laying before. We did the work according to the instructions of a supervisor from the original contractor," he said. The floor of the turbine building was wet. The worker says he didn't know whether it was water left from the tsunami or water that had been sprayed to cool the reactors, but he felt sure that it was contaminated with radioactive substances. He and the other workers were put in pairs to carry in the hose, but he says that because the hose was heavy, they started rolling it along the floor instead, getting it wet. He recalls muttering to himself, "Isn't this dangerous?" When it came time to install the hose, he and the others had to carry it once again. He says the wet hose came in contact with the back of his neck and head. The protective clothing he wore was not water-resistant, and water on the hose soaked through. "The person in charge of radiation safety from the original contracting company hadn't done a proper survey of the worksite beforehand. The rule at any nuclear power plant is supposed to be 'Do not touch water,'" the worker said. Later, after the work was finished, the man was told that radioactive substances had stuck to his body. The others with him had also been contaminated. The man says that of those, three could not be completely decontaminated through showers. It was suspected that radioactive materials had entered their bodies through the pores of their skin, which would have been open in the heat. Nevertheless, he says, the men returned to work after being given documents from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. that recorded where on their bodies they had been contaminated. "Right now anything goes, because what's considered most important is to stop the situation at the plant from getting worse, even if that means some smaller things get overlooked," said the worker. He added, however, "It's frightening. I wonder how much radiation I'll be exposed to from here on." |
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| Audi-Tek | May 15 2011, 04:13 PM Post #22 |
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Prince
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Radioactivity at No.3 reactor leaking into ocean The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant announced that radioactive materials continue to leak into the ocean near the plant. The Tokyo Electric Power Company said 140 becquerels of cesium-134 per cubic centimeter, was measured on Saturday morning near the water intake of the plant's Number 3 reactor. That represents 2,300 times the legal limit. It also detected 150 becquerels of cesium-137, which is 1,700 times the legal limit. On Wednesday of this week, the utility found that highly radioactive water was continuing to flow into the ocean from a pit located near the water intake of the Number 3 reactor. On Friday, TEPCO detected 6,200 times the legal limit of cesium-134. The company says it will continue to monitor radioactivity levels near the plant. Sunday, May 15, 2011 08:57 +0900 (JST) TEPCO confirms water in No.1 reactor The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says the amount of highly radioactive water in the basement of the Number one reactor is increasing. The water is leaking from a hole or cracks in the containment vessel. On Friday, Tokyo Electric Power Company workers found that the water in the basement is 4.2 meters deep. The company intends to measure radiation levels of the water as it tries to find ways to deal with the leakage. Also on Friday, a robot detected a maximum of 2,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour on the first floor of the reactor building. The radiation level is the highest since the March 12th accident. The company says the water is leaking from the pipes leading to the reactor, which were probably damaged as a result of a meltdown. The utility has been forced to revise its original plan before submitting it to the government on Tuesday. Sunday, May 15, 2011 08:57 +0900 (JST) TEPCO to inject more water into No.1 reactor The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it will increase the amount of water being injected into the Number One reactor in a study of how to stabilize the reactor, whose fuel rods are believed to have melted down. Tokyo Electric Power Company says the water level in the reactor is now extremely low and that the pressure vessel protecting the reactor core has a hole and cracks as a result of the meltdown. It says the containment vessel was also damaged, and has been leaking a large amount of highly radioactive water into the reactor building. TEPCO is now reviewing its effort to cool the reactor by filling the containment vessel with water. It says it decided to increase the amount of water being injected into the reactor from 8 tons per hour to 10 tons per hour. The company says it will monitor the water level, temperature, and pressure inside the containment vessel for 2 days. The utility says if a certain water level is maintained inside the containment vessel, it is possible to set up a cooling system that circulates water from the containment vessel to a heat exchanger and back to the reactor. The company says after studying data obtained from the operation, it will come up with a specific cooling method on Tuesday when it reviews the roadmap. Sunday, May 15, 2011 14:48 +0900 (JST) TEPCO: Years needed to remove damaged nuclear fuel The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it may take a number of years to remove damaged nuclear fuel rods from the Number 1 reactor. The Tokyo Electric Power Company announced on Saturday, that most of the fuel rods in the Number 1 reactor have melted and fallen to the bottom of the reactor where they are submerged in water. TEPCO announced in April that it was aiming to get the reactor stabilized and cooled down in 6 to 9 months. However, no timeline has yet been proposed for the removal of the nuclear fuel. The company plans to study measures taken at the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the US, where a meltdown of nuclear fuel rods also occurred. There it took almost 10 years to remove melted fuel at the bottom of the reactor, which resembled hardened lava. Sunday, May 15, 2011 08:57 +0900 (JST) Evacuation begins in Fukushima Evacuation of some people who live outside the 20 kilometer radius from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun. Families with babies and children up to kindergarten age and pregnant women are the first of the 7,700 residents of two towns to evacuate. Municipal officials say they have secured temporary housing for almost all of the residents who want it. One evacuee says he and his family have to move out for the sake of his children, but it is very discouraging to leave. He says they will do what they can until the day they are able to return to their home. Some farmers cannot evacuate soon as they have not been able to find places to move their cattle or have them put down. Some families cannot move together to designated temporary housing or cannot decide on the place to go as they would be far from work or school. The Japanese government expanded the evacuation zone around the plant to areas where cumulative radiation levels are 20 millisieverts or higher per year. Sunday, May 15, 2011 13:00 +0900 (JST) TEPCO to review cooling operation Tokyo Electric Power Company will have to review its plan for stabilizing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility after a large amount of radioactive water was found in the basement of one of its reactor buildings. The utility says it discovered an estimated 3,000 tons of contaminated water in the basement of the damaged Number 1 reactor building. TEPCO says fuel rods in the Number 1 reactor melted down and created a hole in the bottom of the pressure vessel. It says the containment vessel also appears to be damaged and highly radioactive water has leaked into the basement of the building. The company had planned to fill the containment vessel with water and set up a cooling system. But it now says that it will study a plan to circulate water directly from the basement, through a decontamination filter and heat exchanger, and then back into the reactor. On Tuesday, TEPCO is expected to submit a revised operation schedule to the government. However, a series of problems facing the company is likely to delay its efforts to bring all the reactors at the facility under control. Sunday, May 15, 2011 08:57 +0900 (JST) Almost 24,500 dead or missing from March disaster As of Friday, the number of dead or missing in the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami stands at 24,524. The National Police Agency says a total of 15,037 people have been confirmed dead. The figure includes those who died in aftershocks on April 7 and 11. Miyagi Prefecture has the most deaths at 8,984, followed by Iwate with 4,427 and Fukushima with 1,562. About 86% of the dead, or 12,874 people, have been identified. Police also say 9,487 people have been reported missing by relatives. Meanwhile, the number of people still living in evacuation centers stands at about 116,500 -- mostly in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures. Sunday, May 15, 2011 08:57 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 16 2011, 01:13 AM Post #23 |
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Prince
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Radioactivity at intake of No.3 reactor rises Radioactive materials in the ocean near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant rose to 3,300 times the legal limit on Sunday. Tokyo Electric Power Company says it measured 200 becquerels of cesium-134 per cubic centimeter on Sunday morning near the water intake of the No. 3 reactor. The level was higher than on the previous day, when it was 2,300 times the legal limit. 220 becquerels of cesium-137 per cubic centimeter was also detected. At 2,400 times the legal limit, the level exceeded the one found the day before. On Wednesday, highly radioactive water was found leaking into the ocean from a pit located near the water intake of the No. 3 reactor. 32,000 times the legal limit of cesium-134 was detected there. TEPCO also reported 2,100 times the legal limit of radioactive iodine was found in seawater near the water intake of the No. 2 reactor. Three points among four research areas along the shoreline also exceeded the legal limit. And 1.7 times the legal limit of Cesium was found close to drainage gates near the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors. TEPCO says the changes in readings are within a margin of day-to-day volatility. The company will continue to monitor radioactivity levels near the plant. Monday, May 16, 2011 05:31 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 16 2011, 01:15 AM Post #24 |
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Prince
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Discovery channel Nucear Nightmare on YouTube Part 1 of 3 http://youtu.be/PTQ-Jky_fr8 Part 2 of 3 http://youtu.be/r3VOAHIGFt0 Part 3 of 3 http://youtu.be/yhecIarNqBA Edited by Audi-Tek, May 16 2011, 01:18 AM.
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| Audi-Tek | May 16 2011, 02:00 AM Post #25 |
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Prince
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Monday, May 16, 2011 SENTAKU MAGAZINE The new enervated Tepco Sentaku With the onset of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crisis following the March 11 Tohoku-Pacific earthquake, radioactive substances continue to seep into the sea, air and soil. Residents within a designated proximity of the plant will likely have to live away from their homes a long time. The prospect of the situation returning to normal is nowhere in sight. Although the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), the operator of the ill-fated plant, have worked out plans to pay compensation to victims of the crisis, it appears they are interested less in protecting people from radiation than in preserving the existing semi-monopolistic system of the power industry and in enabling the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan to survive. Japan has 10 electric power companies, each of which is given a monopoly of generating and distributing power within a designated region. Some observers say the government and Tepco have sought to "trivialize" the effect of the Fukushima accidents by working out a scenario in which the power company, which should bear the total responsibility, survives with "public funding." The public at large ultimately picks up the whole bill. Under that scenario, a new organization would be established to help Tepco oversee compensation payments to nuclear accident victims. The new body would guarantee the survival of Tepco. Not only would the government fund the new body but also the other regional power companies with nuclear plants — by chipping in their share as insurance premiums for future accidents. Even by selling its assets and cutting executive and employee remuneration, Tepco would not be able to pay all compensation claims resulting from the Fukushima plant accidents. The eventual financial burden would be borne by people in the form of taxes and higher electricity rates. One factor that has given rise to this haphazard scenario is the need to prevent feared chaos in the financial market if Tepco were to go under. Tepco's share plummeted from the pre-accident price of around Ą2,100 to a mere Ą292 at one point after March 11. Although it recovered to nearly Ą500 after the government's support program and Tepco's road map for bringing the Fukushima nuclear crisis under control were announced, further damage to the reactors or serious radioactive leaks could very well make Tepco shares worthless. Tepco's interest-bearing liabilities, including corporate bonds, total more than Ą7.3 trillion, most of which is owed to insurance companies and financial institutions, both private and government-owned. The biggest lender is the Development Bank of Japan, which is 100 percent state-owned. It has lent more than Ą300 billion to Tepco. Shortly after the Fukushima plant accidents, major banks committed another Ą2 trillion in credit lines to Tepco, including Ą600 billion from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Should Tepco go bankrupt, not only would the Japanese financial market be thrown into an utter chaos, but international markets would lose their trust in Japanese banking institutions to the extent that the institutions would have to pay higher interest rates to secure funds. If worse comes to worst, Tepco share certificates would become worthless sheets of paper for 600,000 shareholders as well as for many corporate pension funds that have included Tepco stock in their portfolios. The steep drop in Tepco's stock price has already dealt a blow to investment funds in the United States. Nearly 20 percent of its stock is held by non-Japanese investors. This has reportedly led the Obama administration to urge the Kan government to take steps to prevent a further decline in Tepco stock. Tepco is now attempting to divert public opinion away from its responsibility for the nuclear crisis to the need to secure a stable supply of electricity. Shortly after its Fukushima power station was damaged, the company announced that it would have to impose "planned rolling power outages" to make up for reduced power generation. By emphasizing that abandoning nuclear power generation would lead to prolonged outages, Tepco sought to convince the public that it is better to rely on nuclear power generation than endure power outages and that it is time to help Tepco with public funds. This is an ultimate form of defiance by Tepco. Industrial circles, especially manufacturing, were thrown into a panic by the government's plan to make it mandatory for major electric power users to reduce consumption by 25 percent this summer. This could be a matter of life and death for manufacturers whose activities are already hindered by the disruption of production at component suppliers located in areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. This fear has served to change the attitude of the business community from one of criticizing Tepco to seeking stable power supply. It is clear that Tepco President Masataka Shimizu, who for health reasons failed to make a public appearance for some time after the Fukushima No. 1 crisis developed, is not fulfilling his job. Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata parried questions at a recent news conference to explain Tepco's road map for action to end the Fukushima crisis. Tepco's top management appears dysfunctional and in need of leadership. There is the strong view that this dysfunction led to errors early on that exacerbated the crisis. Katsumata said at the news conference that he was not hesitant about pouring seawater onto the nuclear reactors to cool them after the quake-tsunami. But other sources point out that if he is telling the truth, the seawater would have been used a half day or more earlier. Tepco's corporate structural problem, which led to the Fukushima accidents, surfaced in the spring of 2002 when a whistle-blower revealed that Tepco managers had covered up troubles found at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and falsified reports to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Subsequently, similar irregularities were reported at the Fukushima No. 2 plant and the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture. These incidents created so much anger among municipalities and citizens that Tepco was forced to suspend the operation of all its nuclear plants. Katsumata and Shimizu are able executives in normal times but are not of the caliber to exercise crisis leadership. Questions have been raised in many quarters, notably business leaders abroad, as to why Shimizu or Katsumata does not take command at the Fukushima No. 1 plant site, where hundreds of people — firefighters, Self-Defense Force personnel as well as employees of Tepco and Tepco subcontractors — are braving radiation risks to do repair work. Without the presence of Katsumata or Shimizu, how are workers suppose to lift their morale? As Tepco's top executives appear unable to judge which is more important — the frontline (Fukushima No. 1), the Tepco headquarters or the prime minister's headquarters, they are snuggling up to the government. The people in Tepco's top management today have forgotten to pay attention to electricity users and local residents living near power stations. Tepco, which has survived until now through collusion with the government, has lost the honorable face as the leader of the power industry. It is wandering about. This is an abridged translation of an article from the May issue of Sentaku, a monthly magazine covering Japanese political, social and economic issues. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 16 2011, 10:26 PM Post #26 |
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Prince
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Tepco "Compensation" For Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Is A Political Fraud By Yoichi Shimatsu 13 May, 2011 Global Research The just-approved compensation deal between the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and the Japanese government is being rushed out before the May 30 evacuation order for residents in radiation-threatened areas of Fukushima is more of a bailout for Tepco than its pretense of being a relief package for evacuees. The more important deadline for both sides falls on May 20, when Tepco must issue its annual report to shareholders. The deal Tepco is being given 30 years to pay back the government for this bailout with borrowed money. The "compensation" package doesn't cover medical benefits for radiation-caused cancers that are not expected to surface in victims for at least two years from now. The government is going along with this publicity stunt, mainly because most politicians owe Tepco under the reigning system of money politics. The plan is a fraud from its inception. To settle compensation claims for the nuclear disaster, the official plan is to issue bonds backed not by the financial markets or banks but by printing new money. The 5 trillion yen ($62 billion) rescue scheme is sure to put the debt-ridden nation into deeper fiscal risk, since Tepco is unlikely to make full repayment. Cry Poverty Confronted with the fallout from its Fukushima 1 nuclear plant, Tepco's strategy has been to claim a net loss in 2010 of more than 700 billion yen ($84 billion). The loss should be puzzling because Tepco charges one of the world's highest retail rates for electricity, far more than other regional utility companies, and controls 44 percent of Japan's energy market. The power company has not reinvested heavily in new equipment or upgrades, as the Japanese public was shocked to discover with the absence of maintenance robots inside the damaged Fukushima plant. Even more shocking is the disclosure that Tepco was not carrying any casualty insurance. Around the world, most nuclear operators go uninsured due to the high cost of coverage following the meltdowns at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Nuclear is probably the only industry that can get away without risk coverage, due to its cozy connections with politicians, bureaucrats and military forces. Maximizing one’s debt makes financial sense for large Japanese corporations for purposes of tax evasion. By arranging permanent indebtedness, Tepco does not pay corporate taxes on profits, while its customers bear the tariff on electricity rates. Profits From Debt Borrowing beyond any legitimate limit is standard practice for transnational corporations. Money is available to large corporate entities practically for free due to the Bank of Japan's near-zero interest rates. Abetted by a stronger yen, these funds are invested overseas in both direct investments and into money markets. Tepco has a 10-year plan to invest 1 trillion yen offshore before 2020, and the actual investment could well be much larger. So where did all of Tepco's hidden profits go? From what can be gathered from its less-than-transparent financial records, Tepco management routinely issued bonds to finance massive investments in uranium mines in Canada and Australia. Its Canadian affiliate Tepco Resources owns a 5 percent share in Cigar Lake in Sasketchewan, one of world's largest uranium mines in a consortium with CAMECO, France's COGIMA and Idemitsu Kosan. Tepco's Perth-based office has a web of holdings in Australian uranium projects, including the gigantic Ranger open-pit mine run by Rio Tinto in the environmentally and culturally sensitive Kakadu region. Tepco has quietly strategized to build nuclear power plants abroad by taking shares in a utility firm in Thailand and opening an office in China. A veil of secrecy surrounds these foreign nuclear projects, with its technology partners Toshiba and Hitachi, which planning to more than 30 plants each at undisclosed sites. Hidden Connections Its long-term business relationship with Toshiba and Hitachi are hidden in Japan's opaque system of cross-holdings of shares between related companies. Mutual share holdings are a risk strategy, as recently indicated by a sharp reversal in its decline in its stock price. A steep fall in Tepco share prices to 40 percent from the peak along with a ratings downgrade from Wall Street should have led to the financial collapse of Tepco. Instead, its share prices began to soar despite the deepening crisis at Fukushima. The Black Hole The price-keeping operation, or PKO as it’s called in Tokyo, was probably aided by an injection from a hedge fund run by Tepco's New York or London offices. These secret overseas funds are difficult to track down since funds can be routed through any of Tepco's 258 affiliated companies. The exportation of borrowed money is surefire guarantee of the export of Japanese-style corruption. Mining ventures in Canada and Australia are synonymous with speculation, ramping up of share prices and bribes-for-licenses schemes. Since farmers and local residents obviously do not want a uranium mine in their backyards, bribery to local politicians must be rampant though well-disguised. Japanese journalists and Diet members have described to me how Tepco controls politicians and bureaucrats. Since corporate donations to political parties must be reported, funds are channeled through the executives of the company or its many affiliates. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the main sponsor of the nuclear industry during its four-decade tenure, receives the lion's share of bribes. The 35,000-member company union, which has never organized a picket line for workers' rights, is a donation-distribution network to the ruling Democratic Party and the opposition Clean Government Party and even the leftwing Social Democrats. Dentsu, Asia's largest advertising company, is another agent of influence on public opinion. The corruption of publishers, news producers and senior editors is done through lucrative television commercials and special supplements inside newspapers. Recently, several newspaper editors have been threatened - and some demoted - due to their honest coverage of the Fukushima disaster. Organized Crime The threats against crusading editors are real due to Tepco's long-standing ties with the yakuza, which recruits homeless men and alcoholic derelicts for short-term and uninsured jobs as "jumpers", who do the clean-up duty inside nuclear reactors. After becoming irradiated, these unfortunates are driven back into squalid urban ghettoes with a fistful of cash for their next bottle of cheap alcohol or a syringe of heroin. That’s labor relations, Tepco-style, which the in-house union has failed to protest. Despite weeks of deliberation, the details of the compensation package are still unclear as to how the fund will be allocated for relocation costs, property losses and medical care for residents versus reimbursement to government agencies and institutions involved in the nuclear disaster relief. Chances are that much of the money, to be handed over to construction companies to build temporary housing for evacuees, will find its way back into the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats. Beasts of Burden One thing is certain: The burden for Tepco's malfeasance will fall on taxpayers and consumers. Despite official claims that the bailout will not trigger higher taxes or electricity prices, Tepco has already raised household power rates in May, stealthily by lower discounts for households, and the government is preparing to raise the consumer sales tax to 8 percent from the current 3.5 percent. Insiders are predicting a 16 percent electricity rate hike spread over the next decade. The only really effective solution that the paid-off politicians are avoiding is the break-up of Tepco. Its hydropower units need to be reorganized as a basic utility company. The nuclear division should be converted into a bad-debt company in charge of decommissioning all three nuclear plants not just Fukushima 1. A public trusteeship has to take over its offshore holdings in uranium mines and hedge funds on behalf of a genuine compensation fund for victims. State prosecutors must begin a sweeping investigation into the web of corruption, with all recipients of unreported donations required to hand over the ill-gotten funds with interest - or the equivalent in property - to the victims’ trusteeship. The list of all recipients should be available to the public, and the worst offenders banned from government jobs and elected office. As radioactive fallout spreads across the Tohoku and Kanto regions, the Japanese public has a stark choice: protect nuclear power or save democracy. Over two decades of economic decline, attempts at superficial reform have failed miserably. A democratic revolution - broader and deeper than the Meiji upheaval of 1868 - must be initiated at whatever the cost or Japan faces destruction as a nation of radiation victims or hibakusha. The decision confronts us here and now: die or fight. Yoichi Shimatsu is a Hong Kong-based journalist and Editor-at-large at The 4th Media. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 16 2011, 10:38 PM Post #27 |
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Prince
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EPCO to move radioactive water from No.3 reactor The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it will start transferring highly radioactive water from the No.3 reactor building to a temporary storage facility as early as Tuesday. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, estimates that there is about 22,000 tons of highly radioactive water in the reactor's turbine building and in a connecting tunnel. The utility says the water in the basement of the turbine building was about 1.4 meters high as of Monday morning, a rise of more than 20 centimeters over the past 2 weeks. Part of the water leaked into the sea last week. TEPCO says it will move about 4,000 tons of the contaminated water to the waste processing facility. The pace of the transfer will be 10 tons per hour. The company says it took steps to make the waste facility more watertight, and received approval from the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Monday, May 16, 2011 19:49 +0900 (JST) TEPCO to change reactor cool down method The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it will change the method being used to cool 3 reactors now that it's been found the fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor have melted down. Tokyo Electric Power Company says the meltdown is believed to have created holes in the pressure vessel protecting the reactor core and damaged the containment vessel. As a result, highly radioactive water may be leaking from the containment vessel to the basement of the No. 1 reactor building. TEPCO also says the gauges at the No.2 and 3 reactors might not be showing the actual water levels and that both reactors are likely to have undergone meltdowns. The utility says the situation makes it difficult to fill the containment vessels of the reactors with water as planned, and that an alternate cooling method will have to be found. It says it is now considering pumping water out of the containment vessels and circulating it back into the reactors after chilling it with heat exchangers. Another method under study is pumping water from the basement and sending it back to the reactors after radioactive substances have been removed. Despite these developments, TEPCO says it will keep to its timetable of achieving cold shutdown in 6 to 9 months. The utility is to announce on Tuesday an updated plan for bringing the crisis under control. Monday, May 16, 2011 21:53 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 16 2011, 11:06 PM Post #28 |
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Prince
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More Evacuations From Japan Nuclear Zone 5/16/2011 11:47:12 AM Additional nuclear evacuations begin outside a 30 kilometer exclusion zone on fears of high levels of accumulated radiation. Video courtesy of Reuters and photo courtesy of Getty Images. More Evacuations From Japan Nuclear Zone |
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| Audi-Tek | May 16 2011, 11:54 PM Post #29 |
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Prince
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TEPCO Hiring Homeless People In The Fukushima Death Zone Swedish newspaper Expressen reports that TEPCO is hiring the homeless to work in the Fukushima death zone. The people who work day and night in the Fukushima nuclear power plant to prevent a catastrophe from happening has been hailed as the nation's heroes, But there is a much darker picture of the fight, according to the välansedde German foreign correspondent Robert Hetkämper. He claims there is evidence that Tepco exploiting society's most vulnerable individuals and that there are people who can not get any other job that is now sent into the radiation fields. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 17 2011, 06:05 PM Post #30 |
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Prince
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TEPCO revises plan to stabilize reactors The operator of the damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has revised its plan to bring it under control. Tokyo Electric Power Company announced the changes on Tuesday, one month after it released its original plan. The original plan called for filling up Number 1, 2 and 3 reactors with water, but TEPCO says injected water may leak out under present conditions. This is due to the recent discovery that fuel rods for the Number 1 reactor had melted, apparently damaging the vessel containing the reactor, and a large amount of water has been found to have leaked out of the vessel. The utility suspects that the Number 2 and 3 reactors are in a similar situation due to apparent meltdowns. The company now says it will reduce the amount of radioactive materials in the water accumulated in the reactor and turbine buildings. Then it will circulate that water as coolant between the reactors and the turbine buildings. It also plans to install heat exchangers to cool spent-fuel storage pools at Number 1, 3 and 4 reactors by about July. TEPCO also plans to set up a facility in the plant's compound probably, next month, to deal with contaminated water accumulated in the course of water injection into the reactors. Such water is estimated to total 200,000 tons within the year. TEPCO says the facility is designed to lower the radioactive density of contaminated water so it can be reused to cool the reactors, or be stored as relatively low-level radioactive water. The utility also plans to build makeshift seawalls in the compound. It plans to consider engineering work to block radioactive materials from contaminating ground water. The revised plan also calls for better conditions for workers at the plant, including more relaxation and sleeping rooms and improved meals. Despite the revised plan, TEPCO is sticking to its schedule of achieving stable cooling by July and bringing about a cold shutdown of the reactors sometime between October and January. Tuesday, May 17, 2011 22:05 +0900 (JST) Tea growers in Ibaraki halt shipments Tea growers in Ibaraki Prefecture have voluntarily halted shipments of tea leaves, after radioactive contamination was detected in their products. On Monday, the prefectural government asked two municipalities and their cooperatives to halt all shipments of tea. Daigo town is about 100 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and Sakai Town is 180 kilometers away. Daigo Town is home to some 300 tea growers and 37 tea processing plants. This is the most important season for them, as the harvesting of tea leaves usually begins in May. The leader of the cooperative, Toshimitsu Yoshinari, said the Japanese government should first investigate the situation and find ways to remove any radioactive materials. He said he will request compensation from the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company. Tuesday, May 17, 2011 16:08 +0900 (JST) Quake debris disposal to take 3 years Japan's Environment Ministry says it will take 3 years to dispose of massive amounts of debris left in northeastern Japan by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. The ministry has asked local governments that have not been affected by the disaster to accept some of the debris because the volume is so huge that municipalities in affected areas cannot handle it. 346 municipal governments across the country have so far accepted the request. Under a roadmap drawn up by the ministry, debris left in residential areas will be moved to temporary disposal sites by the end of August, and will be either burned or buried by the end of March next year. Debris in non-residential areas will be moved to the temporary dumping sites by the end of next March and disposed of by the end of March 2014. Tuesday, May 17, 2011 09:59 +0900 (JST) Generator trucks proved useless at Fukushima plant The operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says dozens of power-generating trucks brought to the plant just after the March 11th disaster mostly proved to be useless. About 70 generator trucks from the Self-Defense Forces and other entities headed to the plant after the quake knocked out external power and the tsunami disabled the facility's backup generators. But plant operator TEPCO says debris strewn across the compound and flooded switchboards hampered the trucks' set up. The utility says a switchboard for the No.2 reactor was finally wired to one of the generator trucks about 24 hours after the disaster. But moments later, a hydrogen explosion at the neighboring No.1 reactor fried the wiring and cut off the power supply from the truck. Another hydrogen explosion 2 days later at the No.3 reactor damaged generator vehicles with chunks of flying concrete. Electricity was finally restored to the plant through the regular power grid on March 21st --- 10 days after the quake and tsunami. Tuesday, May 17, 2011 09:59 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 17 2011, 07:10 PM Post #31 |
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Prince
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Nearly 3,000 taken to hospitals by ambulances from quake shelters. Tuesday 17th May, 11:00 AM TOKYO — Nearly 3,000 evacuees living in shelters in three of the northeastern Japan prefectures worst affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have been taken to hospital by ambulance, according to a Kyodo News survey released Tuesday. At least 2,816 evacuees suffering from stress and poor hygienic conditions were rushed to hospitals from shelters in coastal parts of the Pacific prefectures Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi, the survey of 15 local fire departments showed. A total of 871 were taken to hospitals from cities and towns of Ishinomaki, Higashi-Matsuyama and Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture while 299 were taken to hospitals from Sendai, with another 248 taken to hospitals from the Shiogama area. In Iwate Prefecture, 298 were taken to hospitals from the Miyako area, while 149 were taken to hospitals from Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, the poll showed. Japanese Red Cross Ishinomaki Hospital said the number of people taken urgently to the hospital in April was 4,084, compared with the monthly average of around 1,800. Masaaki Abe, chief of the hospital’s planning and coordination department, said, the number shot up ‘‘because the period of living in the stressful conditions of shelters has been prolonged and many victims have continued to live in damaged homes where hygienic conditions are poor.’‘ National Police Agency statistics show some 110,000 evacuees are now living in more than 2,000 shelters in 18 prefectures. Of the total, more than 90,000 have taken refuge in 890 shelters in the three prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 18 2011, 08:25 PM Post #32 |
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Prince
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Japan's Dumping of Radioactive Water Based on U.S. Request: Cabinet Adviser Tokyo, May 18 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese special cabinet adviser has said in public that low-level radioactive water was dumped into the sea from the crippled nuclear power plant at the request of the U.S. government, informed sources said Wednesday. Oriza Hirata said in a speech in Seoul Tuesday that released water was low in radioactivity and small in amount and that the water was released at the strong request of the United States, according to the sources with expertise on Japanese-South Korean affairs. Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> began the dumping of low-level radioactive water from its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on April 4 in order to secure space to store highly radioactive liquid found at the plant. The Japanese government failed to issue prior notices on the action to the international community properly, drawing criticism from neighboring nations such as South Korea and Russia. At a news conference Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said he does not know Hirata made such remarks. He said he has not heard that the United States received a prior notice on the dumping from Japan. (2011/05/18-13:35 Tepco Misleading Public Over Nuclear Crisis Tokyo Electric Power Co. has made misleading statements about when it will stabilize its nuclear reactors crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, said Tetsuo Ito, head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan. The company, known as Tepco, yesterday reiterated the schedule on its so-called road map announced a month ago to achieve cold shutdown of the three radiation-leaking reactors as early as October. Setting a timetable without knowing the condition of the reactor cores doesn’t make sense, Ito said in a phone interview from Osaka. “Only after understanding what’s going on inside the buildings and reactors, will it be clear what parts of the timetable are achievable,” Ito said. “Devising a road map without that will give the public a false sense of security.” On May 15, or more than two months after the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, Tepco said conditions were worse than expected in reactor No. 1 when it found all uranium fuel rods had melted. Today it sent four workers into reactor No. 2 for the first time since March 14 to measure radiation levels and assess whether work can be done to fix gauges that will show the condition of the core. “It’s highly likely No. 2 and No. 3 reactors are worse than thought,” Ito said. “Tepco devised the first (road map) before fully grasping the situation inside the reactor buildings; a scientist wouldn’t do such a thing.” Ito has headed the institute, which started running Japan’s first university-based nuclear reactor in 1961, for more than five years. He has spent 35 years in nuclear engineering research. Targets Achievable Tepco officials believe the targets remain achievable, spokeswoman Ryoko Sakai said by phone today. She declined to comment on Ito’s other remarks. When asked whether Tepco has sought the advice of nuclear engineering academics, Vice President Sakae Muto said yesterday the company has talked to experts, nuclear companies and government bodies around the world. Tepco has also been criticized by government officials for responding too slowly to the crisis that unfolded at Fukushima after the tsunami washed ashore. The utility plans to build self-circulating cooling systems in reactor buildings damaged by explosions after the earthquake and tsunami knocked out power and pumping equipment to cool fuel rods and spent pools. This is to achieve a cold shutdown, where the core temperature in the three damaged reactors falls to below 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit). Forced Evacuations Beside radiation leaks into the atmosphere forcing about 50,000 families near the plant to evacuate, more than 10 million liters (2.6 million gallons) of contaminated water have leaked or been released into the sea. Millions of liters of radiated water have also filled basements and trenches at the station from leaking reactor vessels and piping. Since the accident, Tepco shares have lost 82 percent of their value. They traded at 392 yen at 2:32 p.m. in Tokyo today compared with 2,153 yen on March 10. Japan’s government in April raised the severity rating of the Fukushima crisis to the highest on an international scale, the same level as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The station, which has withstood hundreds of aftershocks, may release more contamination than Chernobyl before the crisis is contained, Tepco officials have said. Venting failed twice at Fukushima plant, possibly damaging reactor TOKYO, May 18, Kyodo The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant failed twice to vent steam out of the containment vessel of the No. 2 reactor, most likely resulting in damage done to part of it, a plant operator source said Wednesday. The failure in the immediate aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and subsequent trouble at the plant, such as the release of massive amounts of radioactive material into the air and the discharge of contaminated water, call into question Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s crisis management, observers say. The world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster has yet to be contained, with the government and the utility struggling to restart key cooling functions at most of the six reactors there. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 18 2011, 08:50 PM Post #33 |
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Prince
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Japan's workers have been asked to wear light clothing, to cut down on power used by air conditioners post-Fukushima * From: The Times * May 18, 2011 . ![]() Japanese businessmen stroll by a securities firm in Tokyo, showing the preference for formal business suits in the financial district and government sector. Source: Supplied ![]() Businessmen take a rest in a park in Tokyo, Japan yesterday. Source: AP WITH their poorly cut suits and drab ties Japan's salarymen have never been fashion leaders. But now the country's corporate warriors are being asked to swap their conservative attire in favour of lurid Hawaiian shirts, flimsy cotton trousers and trainers to help to contain the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In an effort to cut energy consumption caused by use of air conditioners in the humid Japanese summer, the Government and many companies are implementing a radical dress code. Known as Super Cool Biz, it could bring about the biggest sartorial transformation since the samurai cast off their kimonos and top knots in the late 19th century. For the past five years Japanese office workers have been encouraged to remove their ties and jackets in the hottest months of the summer - June to September - to help the country to reach its targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases. Now Ryu Matsumoto, the Environment Minister, has announced a more ambitious policy to relieve the pressure on the electricity grid after the multiple reactor meltdowns at Fukushima and the closure of another power station built on a seismic fault line. Bureaucrats will set an example by wearing polo shirts, plain T-shirts and even Aloha shirts, along with jeans, trainers and sandals. Sportswear, shorts and beach shoes will be forbidden, however, according to guidelines leaked to the Japanese media. Electricity companies have so far coped with temperature increases by scheduling power cuts in parts of northern Japan and bringing back coal and oil-fired power stations that had been closed. Super Cool Biz is intended to allow businesses and government departments to set the thermostats on air conditioners at 28C - a little more than the average temperature in Tokyo in August. The policy is part of an attempt to reduce electricity consumption by 15 per cent. Companies are also replacing incandescent lights with low-energy bulbs and coating windows with heat-reducing film. Department stores have reported increased sales of straw mats that can be used to block out sunlight, while other shops claimed increased sales of suteteko, the old-fashioned cotton long johns in which Japanese fathers traditionally lounged around. Energy-efficient electric fans are also selling well, as are goya, or bitter melons, which are being pushed as an energy-saving solution. The fast-growing plants, trained on to trellises, create a natural green screen that is thought to be psychologically, as well as physically, cooling. The Environment Ministry will organise a fashion show highlighting Super Cool Biz styles. The biggest obstacle it faces is the strict hierarchy in many offices. For most salarymen it is unthinkable to indulge any innovation that has not previously been adopted by his boss. When the new policy was announced by Naoto Kan, the Prime Minister, and his Cabinet this month all |
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| Audi-Tek | May 18 2011, 09:03 PM Post #34 |
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Prince
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* BUSINESS * MAY 18, 2011 Fresh Tales of Chaos Emerge From Early in Nuclear Crisis ![]() This DigitalGlobe handout image shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on March 14, three days after the quake and tsunami. FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, Japan—The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant deteriorated in the crucial first 24 hours far more rapidly than previously understood, a Wall Street Journal reconstruction of the disaster shows. So helpless were the plant's engineers that, as dusk fell after Japan's devastating March 11 quake and tsunami, they were forced to scavenge flashlights from nearby homes. They pulled batteries from cars not washed away by the tsunami in a desperate effort to revive reactor gauges that weren't working properly. The plant's complete power loss contributed to a failure of relief vents on a dangerously overheating reactor, forcing workers to open valves by hand. And in a significant miscalculation: At first, engineers weren't aware that the plant's emergency batteries were barely working, the investigation found—giving them a false impression that they had more time to make repairs. As a result, nuclear fuel began melting down hours earlier than previously assumed. This week Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, confirmed that one of the plant's six reactors suffered a substantial meltdown early in Day 1. Late Monday in Japan, Tepco released more than 2,000 pages of documents, dubbed reactor "diaries," which also provide new glimpses of the early hours. Soon after the quake, but before the tsunami struck, workers at one reactor actually shut down valves in a backup cooling system—one that, critically, didn't rely on electrical power to keep functioning—thinking it wasn't essential. That decision likely contributed to the rapid meltdown of nuclear fuel, experts say. The Journal's reconstruction is based on examination of Tepco and government documents, along with dozens of interviews with administration officials, corporate executives, lawmakers and regulators. It uncovered new details on how Tepco executives delayed for seven hours before formally deciding to vent a dangerous pressure buildup in one reactor, despite an unusual face-to-face clash between Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Tepco top brass. Tepco executives have acknowledged they weren't aware for hours of the severity of the crisis. By the time Tepco decided to vent its reactor, radiation levels were so high that the man who volunteered to hand-crank the relief valve open was exposed, in a few minutes, to 100 times the radiation an average person gets in a year. The government itself, despite Mr. Kan's hands-on involvement, failed to come up with a unified early response of its own. Not only were officials tripped up by overly optimistic assessments of the situation, but their own emergency-response building was without electricity and phones. "There was a lack of unity," said Goshi Hosono, the cabinet official overseeing the Fukushima disaster. When a magnitude-9 quake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, many of Fukushima Daiichi's managers were in a conference room at the plant for a meeting with regulators. They were just wrapping up when the ground shook, says Kazuma Yokota of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, or NISA, Japan's nuclear regulator. Files toppled over. Walls and the ceiling cracked, sprinkling a fine, white dust. The electricity died. Mr. Yokota, a thin man with a quick, nervous laugh, recalls someone saying: "Wow, that was bad." But the emergency appeared under control. Fukushima Daiichi's three active reactors went into automatic shutdown, called a "scram." And the backup diesel generators kicked in, powering emergency lights and a cacophony of alarms. Then, almost exactly one hour later, a tsunami roughly 50 feet high struck, killing the emergency generators. At 3:37 p.m., Teruaki Kobayashi, a Tepco nuclear-facilities chief in the company's Tokyo war room, remembers Fukushima Daiichi calling in a "station blackout." One of Japan's largest nuclear plants had just gone dark. "Why would this be happening?" Mr. Kobayashi recalls thinking. A full blackout is something only the worst-case disaster protocols envision. His next thought was that the plant still had an eight-hour window to restore power before things really turned bad. That's how long the plant's backup batteries, its final line of defense, were supposed to last, cooling the reactor fuel rods and powering key instruments. Tepco engineers now believe the tsunami knocked out most, if not all, of the batteries, according to documents from Tepco on Monday. But they didn't know that then. They thought the batteries were still working, giving them the eight-hour cushion. Word of the station blackout reached Mr. Kan quickly, at 3:42 p.m. in the prime minister's Tokyo "war room" working on quake emergency response. According to two people present, when Mr. Kan heard about Fukushima Daiichi, he said, "The real trouble is at the nuclear plant." Officials started dispatching military and medical personnel, as well as emergency generators. As dusk approached at Fukushima Daiichi, engineers used the scavenged car batteries to power makeshift gear to try to understand what was going on inside the reactors. At 9:21 p.m., they took an alarming reading: The water level in Reactor 1 had dropped so sharply that its fuel rods were about to be exposed. Without a cooling system, the water boils off, building up dangerous pressure inside the reactor. If enough water boils off, nuclear rods can melt and react with the air, releasing radioactive elements and producing explosive hydrogen gas. Around 11:00 p.m., the first power-supply trucks arrived, prompting cheers in Mr. Kan's Tokyo office. The celebration was premature. Tepco workers couldn't hook the generators to the plant's damaged main switches. Some cables were too short to reach other parts of the facility. Tsunami warnings forced workers to retreat to higher ground. During the first 24 hours, only one generator was successfully hooked up, Tepco documents show. Around midnight, pressure within the vessel containing Reactor No. 1 had already exceeded its design maximum by 50%. Radiation levels were so high that Tepco president Masataka Shimizu ordered workers to stay away from the building. It was becoming clear both to Tepco and the government that a dramatic step had to be taken: Vent the gas in the reactor before the containment vessel cracked under pressure, according to administration officials. Venting has risks. The gases are likely to be radioactive and could endanger nearby communities. But without venting, the risk of catastrophic destruction of the vessel seemed too great. Mr. Kan and Banri Kaieda, the minister in charge of the power industry, gave their official blessing to vent around 1:30 a.m. What followed were hours of miscommunication and confusion. By 2:45 a.m. March 12, Tepco had told NISA that pressure in the vessel containing Reactor 1 was already likely double the design maximum. Still, its vent remained closed. From the prime minister's office, Mr. Kaieda called Tepco executives hourly to check on progress. At 6:50 a.m., he formally ordered Tepco to vent, still without result. Tepco disclosed this week that it now believes that, by this time on the morning of March 12, the nuclear fuel in Reactor 1 had already melted into a heap at the bottom of the reactor vessel. Government officials now say it took Tepco so long to decide to vent because the radiation release would sharply elevate the accident's severity. They say Tepco still hoped the accident could be contained without venting, given that release of radioactivity in the atmosphere would instantly rank Fukushima among the world's worst accidents, along with Chernobyl. In subsequent press conferences and parliamentary testimony, Mr. Shimizu, Tepco's president, attributed delays to concern about evacuating residents and technical problems. Tepco declined to make Mr. Shimizu available for comment. As daybreak approached on March 12, Mr. Kan flew to Daiichi to prod Tepco officials in person. Around 7 a.m., a 10-seat Super Puma military helicopter carrying Mr. Kan and several aides landed at the plant. Once the group entered the emergency bunker there, a Tepco staffer tested their radiation levels with a Geiger counter. A plant worker entering at the same time registered a reading so steep it prompted the tester to exclaim, "Wow! It's really high where you were," an aide recalls. In a small room with two rows of gray conference tables, Mr. Kan sat across from Sakae Muto, Tepco's nuclear chief, and Masao Yoshida, the plant manager. Mr. Kan clashed with Mr. Muto, a tall nuclear engineer with a mane of white hair, according to people present. Mr. Muto said the plant's power problems meant venting couldn't start for at least another four hours. Tepco was considering sending in workers to open vent valves by hand, Mr. Muto said, but radiation levels near the reactor were already so high that executives weren't sure they wanted to do that. They would decide in an hour, Mr. Muto said. "It's tough to line up enough people to do the job" of venting, Mr. Muto said, according to a Kan aide. "This is no time to dilly-dally. Do it fast, whatever way you can!" Mr. Kan yelled at Mr. Muto, according to people present. A Tepco spokesman declined to make Mr. Yoshida or Mr. Muto available for comment, and said he wasn't able to confirm Mr. Muto's remarks. He said the company has always been eager to use help from the government and others to contain the accident. Mr. Kan left Daiichi shortly after the meeting. At 8:18 a.m.—seven hours after the plant's engineers had first told Mr. Kan and other officials that they wanted to vent Reactor 1—Tepco informed the prime minister's office it would start opening the valves in just under another hour's time. Despite the extreme delay, the relief valves could still be opened. The problem: Normally they would be operated the safety of the control room, either by electric motors, or by compressed air. But those systems weren't working. As a result, they would have to be opened by workers braving high radiation levels inside the reactor building itself. The staff battled four hours to open the pneumatic valve, succeeding only after carrying in a portable air compressor in shifts. For the motor-driven valve, there was only one option: Crank it open by hand. Fukushima Daiichi's shift manager decided it was his responsibility to take the first crack at that, Fukushima prefectural officials recall. "Let me be the one," he said, according to the officials. He went in wearing full protective gear, including a mask and an oxygen tank. Even so, by the time he returned, he'd gotten a 106.3 millisievert dose of radiation, these people say. That's more than twice what Japan normally permits for workers in radioactive environments in one year, and more than one hundred times normal annual exposure. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 18 2011, 09:33 PM Post #35 |
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Radiation tests lacking / Nuclear plant workers unsure of internal exposure levels The Yomiuri Shimbun Nearly two months after the start of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, only 10 percent of workers there had been tested for internal radiation exposure caused by inhalation or ingestion of radioactive substances, due to a shortage of testing equipment available for them. Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled nuclear compound, is finding it impossible to use testing apparatus set up inside the facility because of high radiation levels recorded near the equipment. A number of personnel working to overcome the nuclear crisis at the facility are increasingly alarmed by their lack of internal exposure testing. Some have said they may have to continue to work at the facility without knowing whether their radiation exposure levels have exceeded the upper limit set by the government. On Tuesday, the government revealed a timetable for ending the nuclear crisis. The road map called for increased surveillance of the workers' radiation levels, including a measure requiring TEPCO to periodically report such data to the government. Internal exposure is caused by taking radioactive substances into the body via eating, drinking or breathing. Its unit, counts per minute (cpm), indicates the amount of radiation emitted per minute. Regulations on preventing health problems caused by ionizing radiation require operators of power plants to conduct internal exposure tests every three months on plant employees who enter areas designated by laws and regulations on radiation-related health problems. "My measured value [of radioactive exposure] exceeded the standard value by a double-digit factor. That's never happened before," said a plant worker in his 20s, recalling the time he saw the results of a test he took outside Fukushima Prefecture in early May. The man, an employee of a company that works with TEPCO, installed power cables near a reactor building at the plant for a month beginning at the end of March. The test is conducted by a device called a "whole-body counter." While a normal internal radiation level would range from several hundred cpm to 1,000 cpm, he was told his level was 30,000 cpm. High levels of radiation emitted by debris were measured in his work area. Although the masks worn by workers are supposed to be changed every three hours, he was told by a management company that he did not have to change his if there was no radioactive contamination. He therefore used a single mask for five to six hours. He ate in a building that houses an emergency headquarters and accommodates plant workers. At the end of April, he was notified that the building was also radiation-contaminated. "I've probably taken in radioactivity while eating," he said. After the crisis at the plant began, the central government increased the maximum limit of radiation exposure from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts exclusively for workers at the Fukushima plant. However, the amount is a total of internal and external exposure doses. Workers can learn only their external doses via the measurement equipment they carry with them, and it is necessary to also measure their internal exposure level to verify whether their total exposure doses exceed the limit. According to TEPCO, there are only three whole-body counters available near the plant. Some workers had to be tested as far away as the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture. As of May 8, 630 workers, or just 10 percent of all workers at the plant, had taken the test. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's Industrial Health Division has advised TEPCO to provide more tests. TEPCO has said it will increase the amount of test equipment on hand to 14 whole-body counters and will also raise the frequency of the test to more than once in three months. (May. 19, 2011) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 18 2011, 10:37 PM Post #36 |
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Prince
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“Situation at Fukushima out of control”. The situation at the Fukushima plant is currently out of control, says Professor Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risks, who gave RT his insight into the recent developments in Japan. The situation at the Fukushima plant is currently out of control, says Professor Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risks, who gave RT his insight into the recent developments in Japan. “Of course, it’s time for the Japanese government to take control. But having said that, it’s very hard to know how you could take control of the situation. The situation is essentially out of control,” Busby stressed. “I believe personally that it’s a global problem – and not the Japanese government’s problem only,” he added. Earlier on Tuesday, Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that his government was determined to "take responsibility" for Japan's crippled nuclear plant "right to the end" as the operator of the plant said a revised roadmap to resolve the crisis would stick with the existing timeline. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Vice President Sakae Muto said the operator would maintain the revised plan but will add new tasks, such as boosting preparedness for tsunamis and improving conditions for workers. Reports say there are signs that two further reactors, Nos. 2 and 3, at Japan's troubled Fukushima plant may have gone into meltdown. Earlier it was confirmed that similar problems had occurred at the number one reactor during the first 16 hours following the plant’s being hit by the earthquake and tsunami. Video link...... http://rt.com/news/situation-fukushima-no-control/ |
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| Audi-Tek | May 20 2011, 12:26 AM Post #37 |
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Prince
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Workers enter No.3 reactor Workers have entered the Number 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for the first time since a hydrogen explosion 3 days after the March 11th quake and tsunami. Tokyo Electric Power Company says 2 workers in protective suits and carrying air tanks went inside for about 10 minutes from 4:30 PM Wednesday to check radiation levels. TEPCO says the workers measured radiation of 160 to 170 millisieverts per hour around the door of the containment vessel. The utility says it would be difficult to start work on injecting nitrogen gas needed to prevent a hydrogen blast into the containment vessel under such high radiation levels. The utility said the 2 workers were exposed to radiation of 2 to 3 millisieverts. TEPCO has now been able to send workers into all 3 reactors that were operating at the time of the quake and tsunami. Workers entered the Number 1 reactor building on May 5th and the Number 2 reactor on Wednesday morning. TEPCO is rushing to make the reactor buildings safe enough for workers to go inside and proceed with the plans outlined in its roadmap to stabilize the reactors. This includes installing new cooling systems to circulate water leaked from containment vessels back into the reactors and the nitrogen injections. Thursday, May 19, 2011 12:47 +0900 (JST) . Humidity, heat, radiation in reactor buildings At the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, high radiation levels and humidity in the reactor buildings are hampering efforts to stabilize the reactors. The utility urgently needs to improve conditions so that people can work in the buildings. On Wednesday, staff entered reactor buildings No. 2 and 3 to survey radiation levels for the first time since the explosions at the plant. This followed a survey at the No.1 reactor. At the No.2 reactor they found peak radiation levels of 50 millisieverts per hour. They also experienced high humidity and intense heat, which limited the work there only to 15 minutes. At the No.3 building the team detected 160 to 170 millisieverts of radiation per hour near a pipe connected to the reactor. The pipe was to be used to inject nitrogen to prevent a hydrogen explosion. To improve the working conditions at the No.2 building, Tokyo Electric Power Company is planning to set up a cooling system to lower the temperature of a spent fuel pool which is causing the humidity. But the company says the system will become operational at the end of May at the earliest, and that work inside will not be possible for the time being. As for the No. 3 reactor building, the utility says they may have to find another way to inject nitrogen and also shield staff from the radiation in order to work inside. These difficulties may affect the company's road map to stabilize the reactors. Friday, May 20, 2011 06:25 +0900 (JST) Radiation limits activities in school fields More than 90 percent of elementary and junior high schools in Fukushima City disallow or limit outdoor activities for students in their athletic fields due to radiation-contaminated topsoil. In Fukushima Prefecture at the grounds of some elementary and junior high schools in April radiation levels exceeded the government limit of 3.8 microsieverts per hour. The level dropped to below the limit at all of the schools last week. But NHK research has found that 69 out of 72 public elementary and junior high schools in the area were disallowing or limiting outdoor activities in the athletic fields as of Thursday. The schools say that they cannot judge whether radiation levels are safe enough even though they have dropped. They also refer to the request by parents that students not be allowed to play outside. These schools let students use gyms or play cards during the breaks. Fukushima City is planning to start removing the contaminated topsoil at some schools as early as this month. But schools are still worried about radiation as the troubled nuclear plant remains unstable. Friday, May 20, 2011 02:27 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 20 2011, 09:02 PM Post #38 |
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Prince
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An investigative report from the Daily Yomuri reveals that TEPCO is going to great lengths to cover up the amount of nuclear radiation that workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant are being exposed to. Radiation tests lacking / Nuclear plant workers unsure of internal exposure levels The Yomiuri Shimbun Nearly two months after the start of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, only 10 percent of workers there had been tested for internal radiation exposure caused by inhalation or ingestion of radioactive substances, due to a shortage of testing equipment available for them. Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled nuclear compound, is finding it impossible to use testing apparatus set up inside the facility because of high radiation levels recorded near the equipment. A number of personnel working to overcome the nuclear crisis at the facility are increasingly alarmed by their lack of internal exposure testing. Some have said they may have to continue to work at the facility without knowing whether their radiation exposure levels have exceeded the upper limit set by the government. [...] Internal exposure is caused by taking radioactive substances into the body via eating, drinking or breathing. Its unit, counts per minute (cpm), indicates the amount of radiation emitted per minute. Regulations on preventing health problems caused by ionizing radiation require operators of power plants to conduct internal exposure tests every three months on plant employees who enter areas designated by laws and regulations on radiation-related health problems. “My measured value [of radioactive exposure] exceeded the standard value by a double-digit factor. That’s never happened before,” said a plant worker in his 20s, recalling the time he saw the results of a test he took outside Fukushima Prefecture in early May. The man, an employee of a company that works with TEPCO, installed power cables near a reactor building at the plant for a month beginning at the end of March. The test is conducted by a device called a “whole-body counter.” While a normal internal radiation level would range from several hundred cpm to 1,000 cpm, he was told his level was 30,000 cpm. High levels of radiation emitted by debris were measured in his work area. Although the masks worn by workers are supposed to be changed every three hours, he was told by a management company that he did not have to change his if there was no radioactive contamination. He therefore used a single mask for five to six hours. He ate in a building that houses an emergency headquarters and accommodates plant workers. At the end of April, he was notified that the building was also radiation-contaminated. “I’ve probably taken in radioactivity while eating,” he said. After the crisis at the plant began, the central government increased the maximum limit of radiation exposure from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts exclusively for workers at the Fukushima plant. However, the amount is a total of internal and external exposure doses. Workers can learn only their external doses via the measurement equipment they carry with them, and it is necessary to also measure their internal exposure level to verify whether their total exposure doses exceed the limit. According to TEPCO, there are only three whole-body counters available near the plant. Some workers had to be tested as far away as the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture. As of May 8, 630 workers, or just 10 percent of all workers at the plant, had taken the test. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s Industrial Health Division has advised TEPCO to provide more tests. TEPCO has said it will increase the amount of test equipment on hand to 14 whole-body counters and will also raise the frequency of the test to more than once in three months. (May. 19, 2011) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 20 2011, 09:08 PM Post #39 |
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Prince
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# # Quake survivors struggle to secure housing Takeshi Ishikawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi--Many of the people whose houses were destroyed in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami--more than 110,000 remain in evacuation shelters--cannot find rental housing, and many are building their own prefabricated houses in desperation. "I can't wait for the government's temporary housing any longer," said one survivor. An estimated 120,000 houses were either destroyed or damaged in the disaster and the government put together a plan to build about 68,000 temporary housing units, with some already completed and occupied by families. Others are moving back to what remains of their homes, some of which are in dangerous condition. Such is the case for 24-year-old automobile mechanic Kazuya Doi of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, who after the March 11 disaster evacuated with his family to a middle school, where they stayed until April 6. The family moved back home but about two weeks later woke abruptly one night to find the first floor of the house had flooded with about 20 centimeters of water. The March 11 temblor had caused the ground to sink and high and spring tides were happening at the same time. The family had to move. Although Doi's father found an apartment for rent in Misatomachi, it took Doi an hour by car to commute to work in Ishinomaki. He often worked overtime because many quake victims whose cars were destroyed wanted to buy replacement vehicles. Doi decided to move back to Ishinomaki and tried to find somewhere he could rent and live alone. After visiting more than a dozen real estate agents, Doi finally found an agency who had a place for rent. But the property's water supply was cut off and the heating system was broken. After searching for other apartments, Doi was pessimistic. "I don't think I'll be able to find anything," he said. When real estate agent Sozo Sato, 59, reopened his office in Ishinomaki four days after the disaster, he was surprised to see people waiting for him to reopen at the time. More than half of the rental properties he managed were damaged by the disaster. About 300 remaining properties were in rentable condition and these found occupants within a week. Sato himself stayed in a shelter for about two weeks. "I can well-understand the hardship people [who lost their houses] are feeling. I wish I could help them more," he said. Although the construction of temporary housing for about 30,000 households has started in Miyagi Prefecture, work will not be completed until September. === Luck of the draw Hiroko Fuse, a 50-year-old Ishinomaki company employee, was unsuccessful in a lottery for temporary housing held in late April. "I can't find a house for rent," she said. "Unfortunately the odds for the temporary housing lottery are no different from normal lotteries." Elsewhere in the prefecture, fisherman Kuniyuki Okuda, from Miyatojima island, Higashi-matsushima, built a prefabricated house for himself and two other family members in a field rented from a relative. Other fishermen are living in similar houses nearby. The house was built using walls, doors and other items carried from the ruins of the family's original house in Murohama. At least 48 of about 60 houses in the area were engulfed by the tsunami. An abundance of laver seaweed in Murohama once allowed many fishermen to prosper, but debris and wreckage strewn by the tsunami remains and the fisherman are unable to work. "I can't wait for temporary housing," said Okuda. "I need to do whatever I can now--no matter how small it is," emphasizing his intention to rebuild his life from scratch. (May. 20, 2011) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 21 2011, 01:21 AM Post #40 |
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Prince
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New photographs released of tsunami hitting the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Japan. Tepco power station's sea defences seen crumbling as wall of seawater overwhelms facility. Link ........ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/may/20/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-japan?CMP=twt_gu#/?picture=374829220&index=0 |
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Safety rules and procedures at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant are being gradually relaxed, spreading anxiety and confusion amongst workers, according to a worker at the plant.



2:09 AM Jul 11