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| Tweet Topic Started: April 11 2011, 02:28 PM (7,670 Views) | |
| Audi-Tek | May 21 2011, 03:44 PM Post #41 |
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Prince
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20 Terabecquerels of Radioactive Materials Leak into Sea from N-Plant Fukushima, May 21 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> said Saturday that some 250 tons of water including 20 terabecquerels of radioactive substances flowed into the sea from the No. 3 reactor of its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant earlier this month. The amount of radioactive materials is some 100 times the maximum allowable level of leaks a year from the northeastern Japan plant, which was badly damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to the company. The water is believed to have contained radioactive iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137, the company said. Most of the leaked water is believed to be remaining within the port area of the plant because silt fences have been installed in waters around the plant following the nuclear crisis triggered by the disaster. The contaminated water, which is estimated to have come from the No. 3 reactor via the reactor's turbine building, spilled into the Pacific Ocean from around the water intake of the reactor on May 10-11, Tokyo Electric Power said. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 21 2011, 07:09 PM Post #42 |
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Prince
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Analysts dispute TEPCO's estimate of height of tsunami. Experts are questioning whether the tsunami that hit the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was as high as the plant's operator says. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) says the tsunami was a towering 14-15 meters high when it hit the plant, but some analysts are pointing out that the figure is well in excess of other measurements in the vicinity. If the wave is found to have been smaller, it would be much harder for TEPCO to argue that it had been hit by an unforeseeable calamity and would severely weaken the company's case in trying to limit its compensation liabilities. TEPCO released on May 19 new photos of the tsunami hitting the Fukushima No. 1 plant and said a survey of sea-facing walls at the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 reactors demonstrated that water had reached 4-5 meters above ground level and 14-15 meters above sea level. That 14-15 meter figure is much higher than the 5.7 meter tsunami height envisaged in the plant's original design, and TEPCO has been emphasizing the "unanticipated" scale of the March 11 event. "It was nearly three times as large as (the design anticipated)," said Sakae Muto, an executive vice president at TEPCO. The company has asked for alleviation of its compensation liabilities in the light of the unusual size of the wave. In a letter to the government-appointed panel overseeing the Fukushima compensation issue on April 25, TEPCO said: "Given that the tsunami was so large that it reached a height of 14-15 meters, there is good room for an interpretation that it amounted to an 'extremely large-scale act of God.' " The utility is arguing that the law on compensation for nuclear accidents gives it immunity from compensation liability in such a case. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 22 2011, 02:51 PM Post #43 |
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Prince
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Nuclear plant workers suffer internal radiation exposure after visiting Fukushima. The government has discovered thousands of cases of workers at nuclear power plants outside Fukushima Prefecture suffering from internal exposure to radiation after they visited the prefecture, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Most of the workers who had internal exposure to radiation visited Fukushima after the nuclear crisis broke out following the March 11 quake and tsunami, and apparently inhaled radioactive substances scattered by hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. The revelation has prompted local municipalities in Fukushima to consider checking residents' internal exposure to radiation. Nobuaki Terasaka, head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told the House of Representatives Budget Committee on May 16 that there were a total of 4,956 cases of workers suffering from internal exposure to radiation at nuclear power plants in the country excluding the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, and 4,766 of them involved workers originally from Fukushima who had visited the prefecture after the nuclear crisis. Terasaka revealed the data in his response to a question from Mito Kakizawa, a lawmaker from Your Party. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it received the data from power companies across the country that measured the workers' internal exposure to radiation with "whole-body counters" and recorded levels of 1,500 counts per minute (cpm) or higher. In 1,193 cases, workers had internal exposure to radiation of more than 10,000 cpm. Those workers had apparently returned to their homes near the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant or had moved to other nuclear power plants from the Fukushima No. 1 and 2 nuclear power plants. According to Kakizawa, one worker at the Shika Nuclear Power Plant operated by Hokuriku Electric Power Co. in Ishikawa Prefecture returned to his home in Kawauchi, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 13 and stayed there for several hours. He then stayed in Koriyama in the prefecture with his family for one night before moving out of Fukushima. On March 23, he underwent a test at the Shika Nuclear Power Plant that showed his internal exposure to radiation had reached 5,000 cpm. He was thus instructed by the company to remain on standby. The radiation reading dropped below 1,500 cpm two days later, and then he returned to work. Another male worker in his 40s told the Mainichi that he had waited at his home, about 30 kilometers from the crippled nuclear plant, following a hydrogen explosion at one of the troubled reactors. He later went through a test which showed his internal exposure to radiation had reached 2,500 cpm. "I think most of the radiation derives from iodine (which has a short half-life), and therefore the radiation reading is expected to drop. But I am worried," the man said. The local government in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, has received inquiries about internal exposure to radiation from its citizens. In response, it is considering selecting infants and people working mainly outdoors and measuring their internal radiation exposure levels using whole-body counters, officials said. Internal exposure to radiation lasts longer and carries more risks than external exposure. People are deemed to have had internal exposure if whole-body counters detect over 1,500 cpm of radiation from them. If more than 100,000 cpm of radiation is detected from body surfaces, decontamination is said to be necessary. A special earthquake-resistant building that serves as a base for emergency workers at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had its doors strained by hydrogen explosions at the No. 1 and 3 reactors in March, making it easier for radioactive substances to come in. "We had meals there, so I think radioactive substances came into our bodies," a male worker in his 40s said. "We just drink beer and wash them down," he added. A 34-year-old male worker, who entered the nuclear complex earlier in May, voiced concerns over the lack of a sufficient system to check internal exposure to radiation. "Most of the workers around me have not undergone checkups at all. Those in their 20s are particularly worried," he said. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, is to check workers' internal exposure to radiation whenever deemed necessary, in addition to regular checks conducted every three months. But as of May 16, only about 1,400 workers have gone through checkups -- roughly 20 percent of the total number of workers. And only 40 of the workers have had their test results confirmed. The highest level of radiation to which a worker has been exposed so far is 240.8 millisieverts, and 39 millisieverts of radiation was from internal exposure |
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| Audi-Tek | May 22 2011, 03:33 PM Post #44 |
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Prince
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Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University: "No One Knows How Fukushima Could Be Wound Down" As the Corium May Be Melting Through the Foundation So says Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, Koide is practically agreeing with Christopher Busby that there's not much anyone can do to stop the release of radioactive materials and further contamination of air, soil and water, other than somehow "entomb" the reactors (a.k.a. Chernobyl solution). Koide reiterates his view that the corium (he says "melted fuel" and "melted core" in the interview for lay people, but it is melted fuel, and anything else that melted with the fuel inside the RPV) may have already escaped the Containment Vessel in the Reactor 1. # (Assuming that TEPCO is telling the truth) the worst-case scenario of a hydrogen explosion inside the reactor caused by the melted fuel seems to have been avoided. # I believe the Reactor Pressure Vessel has a large hole, not the small holes that TEPCO says. # TEPCO cites the pressure and the temperature data as the reasons to believe the melted fuel still stays inside the RPV. However, I wonder if the pressure and the temperature data of the Reactor 1 is accurate. After all, the data on the water level was completely wrong. # That much water has leaked (4,000 tons in the reactor building basement) and yet TEPCO says there's still pressure inside the RPV. It is impossible, given the structure of the reactor. # There is no definite data as to whether there is any water in the Containment Vessel. Considering the reactor building basement is flooded with water, I think it is possible that the melted fuel already damaged the Containment Vessel. # Outside the Containment Vessel, what's left as containment is the concrete foundation of the building. # In order to have a reactor in "cold shutdown", you need to have the RPV intact so that the cooling water can circulate. No point in talking about cold shutdown when we don't even know whether the fuel is still inside the reactor. # We're in the uncharted territory that we enter for the first time ever since the human race started to use nuclear power. # As to whether the radioactive materials are going to be released into the atmosphere [from the meltdown and breach of RPV and Containment Vessel], I don't think it is likely as of now. The concrete foundation of the reactor building may have sustained some damage, but as a whole I don't think it is completely broken. # I cannot properly assess the possibility of the corium melting through the concrete foundation and reaching the water table. If that should happen, the radioactive materials will flow into the ground water and contaminate the ocean even more. # As to the the corium, I think the inside of the corium is not solid even if there's water in the reactor. # The Suppression Chamber in the reactor building basement is torus-shaped. The location where the corium may have dropped is the center of the torus, and it is concrete. The thing to worry about is how far down the concrete the corium will go. # The water circulation system using water in the building proposed by TEPCO is tantamount to admitting that the Containment Vessel is broken. It is a much more serious situation than I envisioned, and there's no other way to cool [the corium] other than the one proposed by TEPCO. [Koide was proposing a system that circulate water inside the Containment Vessel back into the RPV, as he had assumed correctly that the RPV had been breached.] # However, if the corium goes into the concrete, no point in talking about circulating water to cool. There will be nothing you can do. The only way may be to entomb the whole building in a concrete coffin. # I suspect that TEPCO's "roadmap" was created by the TEPCO headquarters under political pressure, and not by the TEPCO people in Fukushima I Nuke Plant who struggle everyday to contain the situation. If anything, the "roadmap" should be created by them, not by the headquarters. # According to TEPCO's data, even now the fuel rods in the Reactors 2 and 3 are soaked in water up to half the height. # Comparing Chernobyl and Fukushima, Fukushima is still on-going. There is a possibility of further hydrogen explosion, and it is still possible that Fukushima exceeds Chernobyl in terms of magnitude of the disaster. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 23 2011, 10:26 PM Post #45 |
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Prince
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School communities shattered / Evacuation orders affect thousands of students, dozens of schools The Yomiuri Shimbun FUKUSHIMA--Twenty-three primary and middle schools inside evacuation zones in Fukushima Prefecture have been unable to find alternative sites to relocate their teachers and students en masse, and have as a result been deemed "closed" by the prefectural board of education. The 14 primary school and nine middle school communities have been split into pieces, with their about 5,000 students now attending schools near the various evacuation centers where they are staying. The evacuation zones near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant included 54 primary and middle schools in total, with 31 of those schools able to shift the entirety of their operations to a new location. The board of education deems a school "closed" if its teachers are unable to teach the curriculum to the student body. Sunday marked one month since the government designated evacuation zones in Fukushima Prefecture. The government's plan for supporting disaster victims said utmost efforts would be made to secure learning opportunities for students from evacuation areas. Seventeen of the closed schools are in no-entry zones, four are in planned evacuation zones and two are in areas where residents have been told to be prepared for evacuation if necessary. The town of Namiemachi, where all areas are designated either as no-entry zones or planned evacuation zones, has the most closed schools--six primary schools and three middle schools. There are four closed schools in Tomiokamachi, three each in Futabamachi and Narahamachi, and two each in Hironomachi and Katsuraomura. One school that was able to relocate its operations en masse is based in Futabamachi. The Futabamachi municipal office operations and all evacuees from the town were relocated to shelters in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture. Students from Futabamachi have been able to attend school in Kazo, but with their classmates and teachers from Futabamachi, thanks to arrangements made by the Saitama and Fukushima prefectural governments. A member of the board said, "Seeing teachers from their old schools will help to reassure students who are attending new schools after moving." As of May last year, there were 176,000 primary and middle school students in Fukushima Prefecture. It is estimated that since March 11, about 11,300 students have begun attending different schools, and about 7,100 of those students are now attending schools outside the prefecture. The Fukushima board of education has reassigned teachers according to needs at different schools. At some, the number of students has plummeted or dropped to zero, while it has increased sharply at other schools due to the arrival of evacuees. (May. 24, 2011) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 23 2011, 10:30 PM Post #46 |
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Prince
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Tuesday, May 24, 2011 At least 44 welfare commissioners dead, missing in three prefectures Kyodo KAMAISHI, Iwate Pref. — At least 44 local welfare commissioners who help elderly or disabled people living alone have been reported dead or missing in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures since the March 11 disasters, welfare authorities said Monday. Many other commissioners have also been unable to perform their duties as "caretakers of the community" since then, officials said. Demand for their work is growing because many elderly or otherwise vulnerable people are moving into temporary housing in the disaster-hit areas. Commissioners mediate between the bureaucracy and people who are elderly, disabled and on welfare, carrying out three-year terms under the welfare ministry. There were around 228,700 commissioners nationwide as of the end of March. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 24 2011, 07:25 PM Post #47 |
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Prince
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www.irishtimes.com, Updated: 24/05/2011 Tepco confirms nuclear meltdown Tepco, operator of the nuclear power plant at the centre of a radiation scare after being disabled by Japan's earthquake and tsunami, confirmed today that there had been meltdowns of fuel rods at three of its reactors. Photograph: Tepco/Reuters ![]() Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has confirmed that three of six reactors at a Japanese nuclear plant damaged in the March earthquake and tsunami suffered metldowns within days. The disclosure of the meltdowns more than two months after the quake struck came as a UN nuclear safety team began an investigation into the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, 25 years ago. Experts are still trying to understand how events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant on Japan's Pacific coast, 240 km north of Tokyo, spiralled out of control. "We're here to gather information and to seek to learn lessons, because the basis for the high standards in nuclear safety is never being complacent," said Michael Weightman, head of Britain's nuclear safety agency and leader of an 18-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team. Engineers are still battling to stop radiated water leaking from the reactors and bring the plant under control. Representatives of the IAEA team, which includes nuclear safety experts from France, Russia, China and the United States, will meet Japanese officials this week before traveling to Fukushima. The UN team will prepare a report that will be presented at a meeting of international officials next month in Vienna and represent the first outside audit of Japan's emergency response. Tepco had been wary of using the term "meltdown" but said earlier today it had concluded that meltdowns had occurred at three of the six reactors. The government and outside experts had already said that fuel rods at three of the reactors had likely melted soon after the disaster and today's disclosure confirms what most outside experts had come to believe within days of the accident. The timing of the announcement has renewed questions about whether officials had been forthcoming about the extent of the crisis, which spread fear of radiation contamination around the world. "I think there was an element of the government's initial view of the accident that wasn't severe enough and that's something we have to reflect on," said Goshi Hosono, an aide to prime minister Naoto Kan, who has been coordinating the response to the accident. Mr Kan has come under fire for his government's response to the disaster and for what some say is patchy disclosure of information despite regular briefings. In a report to the government, Tepco also said the tsunami rather than the magnitude 9.0 quake had disabled external power and cooling systems, a point of keen interest in the Japan, which relies on atomic power for about 30 per cent of its electricity. The radiation leaking from the plant is at much lower levels than it was in the days following a series of hydrogen explosions that came around the time of the meltdowns in March. Some analysts said the delay in confirming the meltdowns suggested the utility feared touching off panic by disclosing the severity of the accident. "The word 'meltdown' has such a strong connotation," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. "Now people are used to the situation. Nothing is resolved, but normal business has resumed in places like Tokyo." Tokyo Electric officials said damage to the No.2 reactor fuel rods had begun three days after the quake, with much of the fuel rods eventually melting and collecting at the bottom of the pressure vessel containing them. Fuel rods in the No.3 reactor were damaged by the afternoon of March 13, they said. Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, echoed the utility's view that the 15-metre tsunami triggered the crisis but said a fuller picture would require an inspection of the site. Reuters |
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| Audi-Tek | May 25 2011, 12:18 AM Post #48 |
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Prince
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What Fukushima's Triple Meltdown Means. Two weeks after announcing the meltdown of fuel inside Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has said there have very likely been partial meltdowns at the other two reactors that were operating when the crisis began on March 11 as well. A spokesman for TEPCO, Japan's largest power company that has come under fire for its management of the crippled plant, said fuel rods at reactor No. 3 started melting March 13, two days after the 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck the plant. Fuel rods at No. 2 probably started melting a day later, on March 14. When the nuclear plant entered its state of emergency, the fuel rods inside these reactors began to melt from their upright position and slump down to the bottom of their containers, or pressure vessels, which are designed to keep them sealed up and isolated. That's a problem because the nuclear fuel in a state of meltdown can, in the worst-case scenario, burn through its container and the plant infrastructure to leak into the ground around the facility. That, as Eben wrote here last week, is known as a ‘China Syndrome,' and that's what we want to avoid. Fortunately, it appears for now we have dodged that bullet, and the not-great-but-not-apocalyptic news du jour is that the meltdowns at Nos. 2 and 3 are not as bad as what occurred at No. 1. About 35% of the rods at 2 and 30% of the rods at 3 were damaged, compared to a near total meltdown at 1. A TEPCO spokesman said on Monday that while those melted fuel rods inside 2 and 3 are still sitting at the bottom of their containment vessels, they are covered in water and stable, and damage to the vessels is “limited.” The situation at No. 1 is the more critical: the fact that water levels inside the vessel are believed to be low indicates the slumped fuel may have permeated the vessel, creating holes through which contaminated water may be leaking into the plant. Minimizing the damage to the nuclear fuel rods inside the damaged reactor buildings has been the highest priority of TEPCO and the Japanese government since this crisis began to unfold more than two months ago. When the earthquake and tsunami wiped out the main electricity, generators, and backup battery systems at the plant designed to keep the cooling reactors' cooling systems online, the race to find ways to keep the fuel cool was one. Some tactics – like having helicopters attempt (and mostly fail) to dump water over a reactor from the air – were designed more for PR than for practicality. But in general, pouring water into the reactor cores has done what it's supposed to. Temperatures inside the reactors are still too high to stop cooling them, but they are stable enough that fuel is no longer melting. The highest levels of radiation were released into the atmosphere in the early days, too, when at least two and possibly three hydrogen explosions, the result of the building up of heat and steam inside the cores, occurred in the reactor buildings, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere. It was also during those first days after the disaster that TEPCO, at the insistence of Kan's government, opened a vent in reactor 1 to relieve building pressure inside the building and prevent an explosion. (TEPCO hesitated to do so because the subsequent release of radiation into the atmosphere would push this crisis into Chernobyl territory. Too late.) So why does the bad news from Fukushima keep coming? The utility says it is only starting to understand what it's dealing with. The problem with a nuclear accident is that the damage gets done early, and fast. Even after the makeshift cooling system started to work, TEPCO knew there was damage to the fuel inside the reactors, but, they say, it wasn't until radiation inside the reactor buildings dropped to safe enough levels for workers to go in and take measurements that the company could start to ascertain the problem. Some have argued that the release of the information was timed to have the least impact, now that life in Japan has started to get back to normalcy. “The situation will gradually be getting better,” says Dr. Bing Luk, TITLE TK. “As long as they keep the system cool, then it will just stay as is. In a few years, maybe they can start thinking about retrieving some of the fuel rods.” That won't be happening anytime soon. If the fuel rods were intact, Luk says the standard machinery used to handle them could go in, pluck them out of the containment vessels and stick them in the spent fuel pools where fuel rods go to die. But as we've established, they're not intact, so instead TEPCO will have to leave the rods in situ while they lose potency. “If you can give them more time, the material will become less hot — both in terms of temperature and radioactivity,” Luk explains. Enter TEPCO's plan to build a containment structure around the plant by the end of the year. The structure, which would be a precursor to a more permanent one, would contain the low levels of radiation that are still leaking from the plant while the figure out how to get the melted fuel out of the reactors. For now, barring any significant discovery of a breach in one of the vessels or a major leak into the environment, the discouraging news trickling out of the plant doesn't mean things are actively getting worse. It just means we're finding out how bad they are. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 25 2011, 12:27 AM Post #49 |
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Prince
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FEATURE - Japan city grapples with nuclear doubts after Fukushima crisis. MATSUE, Japan (Reuters) - For decades, local politician Tomoaki Tanaka campaigned on a platform promoting nuclear power as a safe form of energy and a welcome economic boon to his hometown of Kashima, nestled between mountains and the sea in southwestern Japan. Like many politicians in the rural backwaters that host Japan's 54 nuclear power plants, Tanaka was a small player in a nexus linking local interest groups with powerful forces in Tokyo promoting atomic power and, critics say, ignoring the risk of disaster in this earthquake-prone land. Now, after watching the world's second-worst nuclear accident unfold at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant far to the north following a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, Tanaka is having second thoughts. "I used to say that nuclear power was safe, that nothing was safer," said the 67-year-old, now an assembly member of Matsue City, which merged with the town of Kashima in 2006. "After the Fukushima accident, I thought - can this really be safe? Now I feel responsible for what I myself have promoted," he said in an interview at city hall in this drab provincial city, just 9 km (5.6 miles) from Chugoku Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) Shimane nuclear plant. Workers are still battling to control damaged reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co's <9501.T> Fukushima Daiichi complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, more than two months after the disaster struck, and nearly 80,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes, most of them from a 20-km (12-mile) radius around the plant. The Fukushima crisis has prompted Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose Democratic Party of Japan swept to power for the first time in 2009, to call for a complete review of a national energy policy under which nuclear power would have provided 50 percent of electricity by 2030, up from 30 percent now. * Nation * Sarawak * World Updates * Courts * Parliament * Columnists * Opinion * Honours List * Tuesday May 24, 2011 FEATURE - Japan city grapples with nuclear doubts after Fukushima crisis By Linda Sieg MATSUE, Japan (Reuters) - For decades, local politician Tomoaki Tanaka campaigned on a platform promoting nuclear power as a safe form of energy and a welcome economic boon to his hometown of Kashima, nestled between mountains and the sea in southwestern Japan. The south side airlock double-entry doors are seen inside Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Fukushima, in this handout photo taken from the large equipment service entrance on May 20, 2011, and released by TEPCO on May 22, 2011. (REUTERS/Tokyo Electric Power Co/Handout) Like many politicians in the rural backwaters that host Japan's 54 nuclear power plants, Tanaka was a small player in a nexus linking local interest groups with powerful forces in Tokyo promoting atomic power and, critics say, ignoring the risk of disaster in this earthquake-prone land. Now, after watching the world's second-worst nuclear accident unfold at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant far to the north following a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, Tanaka is having second thoughts. "I used to say that nuclear power was safe, that nothing was safer," said the 67-year-old, now an assembly member of Matsue City, which merged with the town of Kashima in 2006. "After the Fukushima accident, I thought - can this really be safe? Now I feel responsible for what I myself have promoted," he said in an interview at city hall in this drab provincial city, just 9 km (5.6 miles) from Chugoku Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) Shimane nuclear plant. Workers are still battling to control damaged reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co's <9501.T> Fukushima Daiichi complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, more than two months after the disaster struck, and nearly 80,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes, most of them from a 20-km (12-mile) radius around the plant. The Fukushima crisis has prompted Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose Democratic Party of Japan swept to power for the first time in 2009, to call for a complete review of a national energy policy under which nuclear power would have provided 50 percent of electricity by 2030, up from 30 percent now. SHIMANE GIVES CLUES TO ENERGY POLICY But the substance of the policy shift is vague and questions remain how much really can change. The fate of the Shimane plant could provide clues to whether a serious shift in energy policy is in store or whether powerful interests backing nuclear power will stage a comeback. The Shimane plant's 37-year-old No.1 reactor, one of Japan's oldest, has been closed for a planned inspection since last November. Its No.2 reactor is operating normally but comes up for inspection next year. Chugoku Electric has said the start of a third reactor may be delayed beyond a March 2012 target date because its engineers are busy helping out at Fukushima. "I suspect the sheer practicalities will expose the prime minister's rhetoric for what it is," said Paul Scalise, a non-resident fellow at Temple University's Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies in Tokyo. A CLASSIC CASE Kashima appears much like other rural Japanese communities, except for the mammoth nuclear plant by the sea. Fishing boats jostle in a marina adjacent to a cluster of small processing plants. Rice paddies dot the spaces between roads and clusters of old-fashioned tile-roofed homes. Plans to build a nuclear plant in Kashima surfaced in 1966 in a pattern repeated around Japan over decades. Shimane-born Yoshio Sakurauchi was a member of parliament from the then-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) whose constituency included Kashima. His brother, Kimio, was an executive at Chugoku Electric. "Chugoku Electric was urged by the government as part of national policy and they were responding to that," Matsue City Mayor Masataka Matsuura told Reuters. "I think there were worries about the future of the fishing industry in Kashima. If a nuclear plant was built, they would get a fiscal boost and be able to carry out projects they couldn't do before, such as building roads and various facilities." Shimane's No.1 reactor came on-line in 1974 - the same year that Japan, stunned by soaring oil prices, enacted three laws enabling the central government to provide even bigger subsidies to communities willing to host nuclear plants. Such subsidies became even more crucial after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States fanned previously muted local concerns about safety. Yasue Ashihara, then a mother of two small children, joined the anti-nuclear power movement around 1980, but the activists gained little traction even after Chernobyl in 1986. Ashihara and other critics say political and economic dynamics also prompted the nuclear industry to turn a blind eye to the potential risk of damage from earthquakes, although Japan accounts for one-fifth of the world's tremors of magnitude 6.0 or more. In 1999, activists filed a lawsuit seeking the plant's closure after researchers discovered an active seismic fault near the facility despite Chugoku Electric's long-standing assertions that none existed. Over the next decade, the utility acknowledged data indicating the existence of a fault more than 20 km (12 miles) long, but a district court ruled last year that the plant was nonetheless safe. "Their premise was that if the government had approved the safety, then it was safe," Ashihara said. The Fukushima crisis has struck a nerve in Matsue. Matsue City Mayor Matsuura confessed that the city had not previously drafted a disaster response plan to cope with the possible long-term evacuation of all its inhabitants. "I drew a circle with a 20 km radius on a map and almost all of Matsue City was inside. We have a population of nearly 200,000 and to evacuate all of them smoothly would be a huge enterprise." Local scepticism over official assurances of safety has grown, though concerns persist about what its closure would mean economically. "If I think about my child, I think it would be better to close down the plant," said Takafumi Hasegawa, 32, as his year-old son played at the Shimane nuclear plant visitor centre. "But Shimane doesn't have much other industry and without the plant, there might be a power shortage. It's hard to say one way or the other." Matsuura, first elected mayor in 2000 with the backing of the LDP, is taking a cautious stance toward whether it's safe for the No.1 Shimane reactor to restart. Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the crippled Fukushima plant, on Tuesday reiterated its view that the tsunami, not the quake, had knocked out power to the plant's cooling system. "Most people think it isn't clear whether it was just the tsunami or whether there were other reasons," Matsuura said before just days before TEPCO's report. "So they should promptly analyse the cause of the Fukushima accident." Nor was Matsuura willing to say whether the No.3 reactor should start operations as planned. "We have approved it once, but there is a new situation since March 11. So unless they clear that, we cannot give an okay ... It has leading edge technology so it ought to be safer. But I can only go so far as to say that 'ought' to be true." Immediate safety concerns aside, Matsue doubts Japan can quickly wean itself from reliance on nuclear power and would prefer to see the nuclear plant remain open because of the economic boost he says it provides locally. Toru Adachi, 42, a taxi driver in Kashima, agrees - but a note of doubt creeps in as he makes his point. "The problem in Fukushima was the tsunami but that's not an issue on the Sea of Japan side of the country. Even if there were a big earthquake, the plant would be okay," Adachi said. "But I guess people in Fukushima thought exactly the same thing." (Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and John Chalmers) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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| Audi-Tek | May 26 2011, 07:47 PM Post #50 |
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Super Typhoon Songda Expected to HIT Fukushima.![]() ![]() Tropical cyclones do not necessarily move along the lines connecting the centers of probability circles. Unit: 1KT(knot) = 1.852 km/h = 0.5144 m/s 1NM(nautical mile) = 1.852 km Songda was upgraded to super typhoon (category 5 ) status at 3 p.m., around the same time Okinawa entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3, meaning destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are expected within 48 hours. If you haven’t cleaned up around the office or home and made that commissary, gas station and ATM run, Friday’s the time to do so. Expect long lines, so plan your trips early. Timeline: Onset of 58-mph gusts, 9 a.m. Saturday. Onset of sustained 58-mph winds, noon Saturday. Maximum wind gusts expected, 132 mph between noon and midnight Saturday. Subsiding of 58-mph gusts forecast for 6 a.m. Sunday. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 26 2011, 07:52 PM Post #51 |
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Prince
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Fukushima nuclear plant is leaking like a sieve - May 26, 2011. As more details leak out about the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, it's become clear that something else is leaking—radioactive water from the cores of three damaged reactors. Leaks have been a persistent problem at the plant since it was struck by an earthquake and tsunami on 11 March. Three reactors operating at the time of the quake went into meltdown after the tsunami wiped out emergency generators designed to circulate water through the cores. TEPCO recently admitted that all three units probably suffered complete meltdowns before workers could flood them with seawater. Since then, reactor operators have kept water flowing to the cores and several fuel storage pools above the reactors. That same water appears to be flowing out into the basements of buildings and eventually the Pacific Ocean, where environmentalists and scientists have raised concerns about possible contamination. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which runs the plant, hoped to rectify the problem by pumping water into storage tanks until it can be reprocessed, but today Reuters reports that the storage tanks appear to be leaking. And that's just the start of the bad news because the reactors themselves appear to be leaking as well. TEPCO initially hoped that the leaks were largely coming from pipes that could be repaired, but they now concede that both the reactors' pressure vessels and primary containment vessels, which are designed to contain an accident, are probably leaking water. The leaks will probably force TEPCO to abandon its plans to set up a recirculation system that can cool the reactor cores. That's a serious blow to efforts to bring the reactors to a safe temperature within months. Recirculation is far more efficient (and less radioactive) than simply dumping water into the cores. A new plan posted on 17 May seems to indicate that TEPCO will instead try to recirculate water from the basements of the damaged buildings into he reactor cores. It would be better than nothing, but a far cry from a closed loop efficiently cooling the reactors. Meanwhile, new questions are being raised about the early hours following the accident. Logs seem to indicate chaos inside the control room, and indecision from company managers who were perhaps worried about the financial loss they would face if the reactors were ruined with seawater. A story in The Daily Yomiuri implicates prime minister Naoto Kan in the delays as well. TEPCO has also released a preliminary report on the tsunami, which has previously unseen pictures of the damage (p. 15) and some pretty chilling snapshots of conditions in the plant before power was restored (p.71). Think gasmasks and flashlights. Given all these problems it may be no surprise that some scientists are simply floating the idea of turning Fukushima into a nuclear graveyard. It would be a simple solution, but given the plant's location on the coast, storing the waste there for millenia may be unrealistic. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 27 2011, 03:37 PM Post #52 |
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Prince
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As typhoon approaches Okinawa, military readies alcohol ban. Stars and Stripes Published: May 27, 2011 CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Airmen and Marines on Okinawa are banned from drinking alcohol this weekend if and when incoming Super Typhoon Songda nears the island, according to both services. The ban goes into effect when the storm is within 12 hours of making landfall and the military announces a Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1 warning level, which was expected to occur sometime Saturday afternoon. Songda has had wind gusts from 160 to 200 mph and is the first major storm to threaten Okinawa this year, though the official storm season does not begin until June 1. In a prepared statement Thursday, the 18th Wing commander, Brig. Gen. Ken Wilsbach, said typhoons “can pose a significant challenge to military operations on Okinawa — a challenge that requires complete readiness of personnel to prepare for a storm’s arrival and to resume full operations after a storm passes.” All active-duty servicemembers are covered by the alcohol ban, including those people on leave and those on TDY who are awaiting transportation. Civilians are not covered but are “encouraged to refrain from alcohol consumption” during the storm. The alcohol ban will remain in effect until Songda passes and the military declares the situation all clear, according to Wilsbach’s announcement. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 27 2011, 04:30 PM Post #53 |
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Prince
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Letter from a Fukushima mother When Tomoko-san, a mother of two in Fukushima City, heard from an NGO worker that I was going to be in Fukushima to report on a story about radiation levels at local schools, she was kind enough to volunteer her time to speak to me – and handed me this letter. I promised to translate it and share it with you. So here it is: To people in the United States and around the world, I am so sorry for the uranium and plutonium that Japan has released into the environment. The fallout from Fukushima has already circled the world many times, reaching Hawaii, Alaska, and even New York. We live 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the plant and our homes have been contaminated beyond levels seen at Chernobyl. The cesium-137 they are finding in the soil will be here for 30 years. But the government will not help us. They tell us to stay put. They tell our kids to put on masks and hats and keep going to school. This summer, our children won’t be able to go swimming. They won’t be able to play outside. They can’t eat Fukushima’s delicious peaches. They can’t even eat the rice that the Fukushima farmers are making. They can’t go visit Fukushima’s beautiful rivers, mountains and lakes. This makes me sad. This fills me with so much regret. Instead, our children will spend the summer in their classrooms, with no air conditioning, sweating as they try to concentrate on their lessons. We don’t even know how much radiation they’ve already been exposed to. I was eight years old when the Fukushima Daiichi plant opened. If I had understood what they were building, I would have fought against it. I didn’t realize that it contained dangers that would threaten my children, my children’s children and their children. I am grateful for all the aid all the world has sent us. Now, what we ask is for you to speak out against the Japanese government. Pressure them into taking action. Tell them to make protecting children their top priority. Thank you so much, Tomoko Hatsuzawa Fukushima City May 25, 2011 |
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| Audi-Tek | May 27 2011, 04:43 PM Post #54 |
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Fukushima Faces ‘Massive Problem’ From Water By Stuart Biggs and Yuriy Humber - May 27, 2011 10:22 AM GMT . As a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visits Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled nuclear plant today, academics warn the company has failed to disclose the scale of radiation leaks and faces a “massive problem” with contaminated water. The utility known as Tepco has been pumping cooling water into the three reactors that melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. By May 18, almost 100,000 tons of radioactive water had leaked into basements and other areas of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. The volume of radiated water may double by the end of December and will cost 42 billion yen ($518 million) to decontaminate, according to Tepco’s estimates. “Contaminated water is increasing and this is a massive problem,” Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist in isotope analysis and radiation detection at Nagoya University, said by phone. “They need to find a place to store the contaminated water and they need to guarantee it won’t go into the soil.” The 18-member IAEA team, led by the U.K.’s head nuclear safety inspector, Mike Weightman, is visiting the Fukushima reactors to investigate the accident and the response. Tepco and Japan’s nuclear regulators haven’t updated the total radiation leakage from the plant since April 12. Tepco has been withholding data on radiation from Dai-Ichi, Goshi Hosono, an adviser to Japan’s prime minister, said at a press briefing today. Hosono said he ordered the utility to check for any data it hasn’t disclosed and release the material as soon as possible. ‘Public Distrust’ “This kind of repetition will invite public distrust,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters today when asked whether the perception that the government has withheld data since the accident is eroding public trust. “This is a grave situation for the entire nuclear energy administration as much as the accident itself is.” Japan’s nuclear safety agency estimated in April the radiation released from Dai-Ichi to be around 10 percent of that from the accident at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union in 1986, while a Tepco official said at the time the amount may eventually exceed it. “Tepco knows more than they’ve said about the amount of radiation leaking from the plant,” Jan van de Putte, a specialist in radiation safety trained at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, said yesterday in Tokyo. “What we need is a full disclosure, a full inventory of radiation released including the exact isotopes.” Leakage Radiation leakage from Fukushima was raised at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this week. U.S. regulations may need to be changed after the Fukushima meltdown, William Ostendorff, a member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. The Japanese utility is trying to put the reactors into a cold shutdown, where core temperatures fall below 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), within six to nine months. Ostendorff rated the chance of Tepco achieving that goal at six or seven out of 10. Tepco took more than two months to confirm the meltdowns in three reactors and this week reported the breaches in the containment chambers. The delay in releasing information has led to criticism of Prime Minister Naoto Kan for not doing more to ensure Tepco is keeping the public informed. ‘Fundamentally Incorrect’ “What I told the public was fundamentally incorrect,” Kan said in parliament on May 20, referring to assessments from the government and Tokyo that reactors were stable and the situation was contained not long after March 11. “The government failed to respond to Tepco’s mistaken assumptions and I am deeply sorry.” Public disagreements emerged this week between Tepco and the government over whether orders were given to halt seawater injection into reactors to cool them the day after the tsunami. Tepco is considering whether to discipline the manager of the Fukushima plant, Masao Yoshida, after he ignored an order to stop pumping seawater, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the company, said yesterday. He was commenting after Kyodo News cited Tepco Vice- President Sakae Muto saying Yoshida will be removed for disobeying the order. Hosono said Yoshida is needed at the plant to contain the crisis. Blackout The earthquake and tsunami knocked out power in the Fukushima plant, depriving reactor cooling systems of electricity. Fuel rods overheated, causing fires, explosions and radiation leaks in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on April 12 raised the severity rating of the Fukushima accident to 7, the highest on the global scale and the same as Chernobyl. The partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 is rated 5. The government needs to investigate the total amount of radiation leaked from the plant to ascertain damage to the ocean from contaminated water, said van de Putte, also a nuclear specialist at environmental group Greenpeace International. The group found seaweed and fish contaminated to more than 50 times the 2,000 becquerel per kilogram legal limit for radioactive iodine-131 off the coast of Fukushima during a survey between May 3 and 9. Mol, Belgium-based Nuclear Research Centre and Herouville- Saint-Clair, France-based Association pour le Controle de la Radioactivite dans l’Ouest confirmed they conducted analysis of the samples supplied by Greenpeace. Radiation Readings Ascertaining the cumulative volume of radiation emitted by the plant is possible, van de Putte said. “Perhaps the government will speak about this matter after the detailed accident analysis,” the University of Nagoya’s Iguchi said. “It’s possible to calculate this with the time- series plant data recorded in the control room. The most important thing we need to know is the amount of fuel left in the reactor core.” Tepco is planning to treat the contaminated water at Dai- Ichi with a unit supplied by Areva SA (CEI) from mid-June. The decontamination equipment can process 1,200 tons of water a day, Tepco said. The company had little choice in pouring water on the reactors because the risk of contamination was outweighed by the risk of leaving fuel rods exposed, Peter Burns, a nuclear physicist with 40 years of radiation safety experience, said in an interview. Burns, the former representative for Australia on the United Nations’ scientific committee on atomic radiation, added pumping in the water “was a desperate measure for desperate times.” |
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| Audi-Tek | May 27 2011, 04:47 PM Post #55 |
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Prince
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Greenpeace finds radioactive sea life off Japan By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy, Updated Thu May 26, 2011 7:52pm. Greenpeace says data from its radiation monitoring in the ocean off Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant shows massive levels of contamination in seaweed and other marine life. The environmental group is warning that both the environment and people are at long-term risk. After taking samples of fish, shellfish and seaweed collected in the Pacific Ocean, 20 kilometres off Fukushima, Greenpeace sent them for analysis at independent French and Belgian laboratories. The conservation group says the results show seaweed radiation levels are 50 times higher than official limits, while other marine samples showed high levels of radioactive caesium and iodine. Greenpeace says it proves radioactivity is accumulating in marine life and not diluting, as claimed by Japanese authorities. The group criticised Japanese authorities for their "continued inadequate response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis" sparked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. "Despite what the authorities are claiming, radioactive hazards are not decreasing through dilution or dispersion of materials, but the radioactivity is instead accumulating in marine life," said Jan Vande Putte, a Greenpeace radiation expert. "The concentration of radioactive iodine we found in seaweed is particularly concerning as it tells us how far contamination is spreading along the coast, and because several species of seaweed are widely eaten in Japan." Mr Vande Putte accused Japan of doing too little to measure and share data on marine life contamination and said: "Japan's government is mistaken in assuming that an absence of data means there is no problem." "This complacency must end now, and [the government must] instead mount a comprehensive and continuous monitoring program of the marine environment along the Fukushima coast, along with full disclosure of all information about both past and ongoing releases of contaminated water," he said The tests were conducted by Greenpeace monitoring teams on shore and from its Rainbow Warrior flagship, which was only allowed to test outside Japan's 20-kilometre territorial waters. Japan has said ocean currents and tides are rapidly diluting contaminants from the tsunami-hit atomic plant, and Fukushima prefecture said that no fishing is going on at the moment in its waters. "We have exercised self-restraint as [prefectural] safety tests have not been conducted yet," said a Fukushima official. "We will make a decision after confirming the results of the tests, which will take place shortly." The official added: "People do not bother fishing now. If you caught fish or other marine products in waters near the plant, they wouldn't sell." Japan's fisheries agency, and neighbouring prefectures, have been checking marine products at different spots, and the government has prohibited fishermen from catching some species found to have elevated radiation levels. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 27 2011, 07:35 PM Post #56 |
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Saturday, May 28, 2011 Tepco disclosure said lacking from get-go Kyodo Tokyo Electric Power Co. did not fully disclose radiation monitoring data after its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government revealed Friday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, after being informed by Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told reporters that he instructed Tepco to sort out the data, make it public and make doubly sure no more information-withholding occurs. Coming a day after he blasted Tepco's flip-flop over the injection of seawater into the plant's reactor 1, Edano said the government "cannot respond to this matter on the premise" that no more undisclosed information will emerge. "There is a distinct possibility that there is still more," he said, urging Tepco to accurately and swiftly report the truth to the government. Hosono also noted Tepco's delay in revealing this fact, 2? months after the nuclear crisis started. The government will look into how this happened, the two officials said. NRC quickly aware KYODO New York — A senior nuclear regulatory official in the United States said Thursday he believed there was a "strong likelihood" of serious core damage and core melt at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in the days immediately after the crisis began. "There were numerous indications of high radiation levels that can only come from damaged fuel at those kinds of levels," said Bill Borchardt, executive director for operations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "So we felt pretty confident that there was significant fuel damage at the site a few days into the event." The NRC also had "suspicions" about the conditions of the spent fuel pools, Borchardt said after a speech at the Japan Society in New York. Based on that assumption, he said, the NRC recommended that U.S. residents in Japan stay 80 km away from the crippled power plant, which was far beyond the Japanese government's recommendation for residents within a 20-km radius to evacuate. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday — more than two months after the disaster began — that there is a good chance the cores of reactors 2 and 3 probably melted down just like the reactor 1 core, which melted just 15 hours after the quake hit. In his speech, Borchardt said that since the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami hit the Tohoku region on March 11, his agency has carried out a review of the 104 operating nuclear plants across the United States and confirmed their safety. "The initial findings of the short-term task force is that we have not identified any issues that undermine our confidence in the continued safety of the U.S. plants or in the emergency planning for those facilities, although it is entirely expected that they will recommend some actions for evaluation that would enhance either safety and/or preparedness activities," he said. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 27 2011, 11:25 PM Post #57 |
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Radioactive Iodine 131 Found Near Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Plant – Cobalt 58 Found At Hamaoka Nuclear Plant okyo Electric Power Co. said it found traces of radioactive iodine 131 near its Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear plant that may have originated from the utility’s stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi reactors. Operations at Kashiwazaki on Japan’s western coast are normal, the company known as Tepco said in a statement today. The iodine was found in seaweed that may have drifted over from the Fukushima plant on the country’s eastern coast, according to the statement. Radiation leaks from the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima rank the accident on the same scale as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The 20-kilometer (12-mile) exclusion zone around Fukushima has forced the evacuation of 50,000 households, extermination of livestock and disposal of crops. Chubu Electric Power Co., which shut all the reactors at its sole nuclear station following the Fukushima disaster, detected radioactive cobalt 58 on a filter attached to an exhaust stack at the plant, the utility said today. The amount of cobalt 58 found at the Hamaoka plant in southeast Japan wasn’t high enough to be harmful, according to Chubu Electric. Maintenance at the plant’s reactor No. 5 may have tainted the filter, the company said. During the reactor’s shutdown, about 400 metric tons of seawater leaked into the steam condenser and 5 tons of it flowed into the pressure vessel, Akio Miyazaki, the Tokyo-based spokesman at the utility, said by phone today. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 28 2011, 07:28 PM Post #58 |
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![]() As of Saturday, EDT, Typhoon Songda was centered near 23.1 north and 123.8 east, or about 340 miles southwest of Okinawa, Japan. Movement was to the northeast at 18 mph. Maximum-sustained winds were near 120 mph, with gusts to 150 mph. Typhoon Songda is expected to continue towards the northeast, over the next 24 to 48 hours, taking it west of the Ryukyu Islands and east of the Honshu, Japan. The typhoon will bring damaging winds and heavy rain to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan today, before spreading heavy rainfall into Japan over the weekend and possibly into early next week. Songda will lose some intensity due to increased wind shear and colder water temperatures. The storm will weaken further before reaching the Ryukyu Islands, and major weakening is expected prior to Songda passing near Honshu. NW Pacific: Storm Alert issued at 28 May, 2011 12:00 GMT Typhoon SONGDA (04W) is forecast to strike land to the following likelihood(s) at the given lead time(s): Yellow Alert Country(s) or Province(s) Japan probability for CAT 1 or above is 25% in about 24 hours probability for TS is 100% within 12 hours Yellow Alert City(s) and Town(s) Okinawa (26.3 N, 127.8 E) probability for CAT 1 or above is 15% currently probability for TS is 100% currently Kagoshima (31.5 N, 130.5 E) probability for CAT 1 or above is 10% in about 24 hours probability for TS is 95% within 12 hours Saga (33.0 N, 133.0 E) probability for TS is 90% in about 24 hours Shiono-misaki (33.5 N, 135.8 E) probability for CAT 1 or above is 10% in about 24 hours probability for TS is 90% in about 24 hours Tokushima (34.1 N, 134.6 E) probability for TS is 85% in about 24 hours Kumamoto (32.7 N, 130.7 E) probability for TS is 75% in about 24 hours Nagoya (35.2 N, 136.9 E) probability for TS is 75% in about 36 hours Shizuoka (35.0 N, 138.5 E) probability for TS is 75% in about 36 hours Osaka (34.6 N, 135.5 E) probability for TS is 75% in about 24 hours Tokyo (35.7 N, 139.8 E) probability for TS is 70% in about 36 hours Obama (35.4 N, 135.8 E) probability for TS is 60% in about 36 hours www.tropicalstormrisk.com Hard to believe that Fukushima will be hit with another crisis, on top of the 3 they have already. All those people still in shelters and living in damaged homes. The radiation will spread out everywhere. Heartbreaking and frightening |
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| Audi-Tek | May 28 2011, 08:13 PM Post #59 |
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Crippled nuclear plant not prepared for heavy rain, wind Saturday 28th May, 04:31 PM JST. FUKUSHIMA — The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds forecast due to a powerful typhoon moving Saturday toward disaster-affected areas of northeastern Japan, according to the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. Heavy rain has been forecast for the areas from Sunday to Monday due to the season’s second typhoon, Songda, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. TEPCO has for the last month been spreading anti-scattering agents around the troubled Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings to prevent radioactively contaminated dust from being carried into the air and sea by rain and wind. But some of the reactor buildings have been left uncovered after they were damaged by hydrogen explosions following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. TEPCO plans to launch the work to put covers on the destroyed buildings in mid-June. A TEPCO official said, ‘‘We have made utmost efforts, but we have not completed covering the damaged reactor buildings. We apologize for the lack of significant measures against wind and rain.’‘ Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told a press conference that the current measures ‘‘cannot be said to be appropriate.’‘ He added, ‘‘We are now doing the utmost to prevent further spreading of radioactive materials in consideration of the typhoon.’’ |
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| Audi-Tek | May 28 2011, 08:43 PM Post #60 |
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Rain likely to induce more radioactive leaks The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it is closely monitoring contaminated water levels in the facility as heavy rain is forecast next week. Tokyo Electric Power Company is continuing to inject water to cool reactors. As a result, the level of highly radioactive water around reactor buildings is rising. The company is concerned that contaminated water in the basement of reactor buildings and nearby tunnels may overflow and seep into the ground and the sea. Rain is forecast on Sunday and Monday because of an approaching typhoon. As of Saturday morning, the water height is 57.6 centimeters below ground level around the Number 2 reactor and 43.1 centimeters below ground level for the Number 3 reactor. Saturday, May 28, 2011 13:45 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 08:04 PM Post #61 |
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Gov't to scrap upper limit of radiation exposure for workers at Fukushima plant The government has decided to abolish the upper cap of radiation exposure for workers at the disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, drawing concern from experts, it has been learned. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare decided to lift the yearly 50-millisievert maximum permissible amount of radiation exposure for workers at the troubled Fukushima plant in the face of the prolonged restoration work at the facility. The ministry has notified the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) -- Japan's largest labor organization -- of the decision in writing. The ministry will uphold the combined 100-millisievert maximum allowable exposure for workers over a five-year period, inclusive of doses they are exposed to during regular inspections of other nuclear power plants. The move came after it became likely that workers at the Fukushima plant would not be able to be engaged in regular inspections at other nuclear power generation facilities after their stint at Fukushima. However, experts are voicing concerns over the change of policy, saying it could adversely affect the workers' health. The ministry had earlier upgraded the yearly limit of 100-millisievert accumulated exposure in emergencies to 250 millisieverts only for workers at the Fukushima plant, while leaving a decision whether to allow the doses to be combined with those they are exposed to during regular inspections at other nuclear plants unclear. In a notice issued on April 28, the ministry clearly stated that workers should be exposed to no more than 100 millisieverts of radiation over a five-year period and that the yearly limit of 50 millisieverts should be upheld for workers at other facilities than the Fukushima plant. According to sources close to the case, the ministry's notice was distributed at an ad-hoc meeting at Rengo's Tokyo headquarters on May 11 under the name of a division head of the ministry's Industrial Safety and Health Department. The notice stated that workers at the Fukushima plant will not be given administrative guidance even if they are exposed to more than 50 millisieverts of radiation a year but that they will be instructed to be exposed to no more than 100 millisieverts over a five-year period. "We wanted to prevent our decision from being misunderstood by workers," said an official with the ministry's Industrial Health Division. Masanobu Nishino, secretary-general of the Kansai Occupational Safety & Health Center and an expert in occupational exposure to radiation, criticized the ministry's move. "Considering the fact that workers are exposed to only around an average 1 millisievert of radiation a year through regular inspections at nuclear power plants, even the limit of 50 millisieverts is too much and this raises concerns over workers' health. It should be the role of the health ministry to instruct workers to be exposed to no more than 50 millisieverts," Nishino said. (Mainichi Japan) May 30, 2011 |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 08:06 PM Post #62 |
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Prince
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Fukushima forestry industry at risk of collapse due to ongoing nuclear crisis Forestry cooperatives that oversee woodlands in areas designated as no-entry zones and planned evacuation zones due to high levels of radiation from the ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture are in danger of collapse, it has emerged. Forestry workers are currently not operating outdoors in the affected areas out of concerns over radiation exposure. In addition, because it is more difficult to improve soil conditions of woodlands than that of farmland, it is likely that forestry workers will be kept from returning to work for a long time. Long-term neglect of woodlands, in turn, can lead to various risks, including the increased incidence of mudslides. According to the Fukushima Prefectural Government and an association of Fukushima Prefecture forestry cooperatives, there is approximately 138,000 hectares of forest mostly under the jurisdiction of five different forestry cooperatives in the 11 municipalities where entry is prohibited or evacuation will be required in the coming weeks based on government directives. After the village of Iitate was designated a planned evacuation zone and the government instructed workers there to refrain from working outdoors, a local forestry cooperative that oversees over 7,200 hectares of forest determined that it was unfeasible to continue its operations. As a result, the majority of the cooperatives' 11 officials and 15 workers will be forced to go on leave in the near future. Meanwhile, one cooperative official worries about what the implications of interrupted operations will be. "If we can't go in to thin the trees for a year or longer, the underbrush will grow and the saplings that have been newly planted will suffer from lack of sunlight," said cooperative chief Hiroshi Sagara. "The forest will fall into disrepair and trees will fail to grow well." Sagara is also concerned about severe soil contamination by radioactive materials. "Improving soil quality (in forests) is harder than it is for farmland. Even if the evacuation orders are rescinded, it may be a long time before radiation levels are low enough for workers to go in there." He also fears that even if such problems are alleviated, there may not be enough workers to support the industry at that point. "People who land new jobs where they've evacuated to may not return to forestry. There may be a shortage of workers, preventing us from sufficiently caring for the woodlands." The Futaba area forestry cooperative, which presides over some 31,000 hectares of woodlands, is located within a 30-kilometer radius from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. The cooperative office was relocated from the village of Tomioka to the city of Tamura approximately 40 kilometers away, and some 80 workers have evacuated to various locations both in and outside the prefecture. Cooperative chief Kimio Akimoto, however, says he wants to keep the cooperative going. "There are workers who say that they want to come back when we restart operations," he said. "There will be a lot less work for us, but I want the cooperative to survive." Meanwhile, woodlands in the city of Tamura, parts of which were previously under the government's indoor-standby directive, are now designated an "emergency evacuation preparation zone," where residents are required to be prepared to take shelter indoors or evacuate by themselves, but are otherwise permitted to work outdoors. At Fukushima Central Forestry Cooperative, which resumed operations on May 25, officials and workers have voiced concerns over the difficulty of prompt evacuation in case of an emergency during outdoor work. Most of the work right now is being carried out using heavy machinery with doors and windows that can be closed shut, and plans are underway to supply site supervisors with radiation meters to further ensure workers' safety. The association of Fukushima prefectural forestry cooperatives plans to support the five cooperatives by providing them with work that would have gone to other prefectural cooperatives. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry's Forestry Agency is slated to investigate contamination levels of mountain forests, but has yet to establish specific decontamination measures. "For the time being, we would like the industry to use TEPCO's payments for damages and aid from the national government to continue its operations and strive for its survival," a ministry official said. (Mainichi Japan) May 30, 2011 |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 08:14 PM Post #63 |
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Prince
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Over 200 temporary homes left unoccupied as evacuees worry about job prospects.![]() Temporary housing is pictured in Koori, Fukushima Prefecture. Many of the homes have stayed empty as evacuees remain reluctant to move into areas where they have no prospects of finding work and becoming independent. (Mainichi) FUKUSHIMA -- Only one-quarter of the temporary housing that has been set up in northern Fukushima Prefecture for evacuees from the town of Namie has been filled since its completion more than a month ago, it has been learned. Town residents have been forced to evacuate their homes due to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant that followed the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and there are no immediate prospects of them being able to return. However, trouble finding work and becoming independent in areas they aren't familiar with has prompted many evacuees to opt to remain in shelters. Residents started moving into the 300 temporary dwellings, located in the town of Koori in northern Fukushima Prefecture, on April 21. Fourteen of the homes were reserved for residents from Koori, while the remaining 286 were left open for evacuees from Namie. The housing is just five minutes walk from a station on the JR Tohoku Line, and there is a hospital and school nearby. The prefabricated units have baths and toilets, as well as large refrigerators, flat-screen television sets, fully automatic washing machines and microwaves provided with support from the Japanese Red Cross Society. Furthermore eating utensils, clothing and futons collected from across Japan have been prepared, enabling residents to move in immediately. But as of May 29, only 73 households from Namie were using the dwellings, leaving more than 200 empty. The town of Namie has a population of 21,434, and about half of the residents remain in Fukushima Prefecture. Town officials estimated that 2,700 temporary dwellings would be needed to provide housing for about 8,000 people, and the local government secured 2,300 units in areas including the city of Fukushima and Koori. Some temporary housing has been completed and is ready to be occupied, but about 5,300 people are still living at secondary shelters such as hotels and inns. "We never thought there would be so few applicants," said perplexed Namie housing official Yoshimi Hara, adding, "Residents have no prospects of being able to return to their homes or of becoming independent in the new area, and many people want to stay in shelters until the deadline at the end of July. The people have little connection with Koori, and so we can't force them to move in." Koori officials have also been left at a loss, saying they called for the moving process to be sped up, but it did not appear that the homes would be filled anytime soon. The operations of Namie town hall have been moved to the town of Nihonmatsu, and the biggest secondary shelter is located in the Dake hot spring district there. Under Japan's disaster relief law, the government is covering evacuees' 5,000 yen-per-night accommodation fee and utility expenses and providing them with three meals a day. Residents who move into the temporary dwellings are not required to pay rent, but they must shoulder food and utility bills themselves. Yoshihiro Shiga, a 50-year-old evacuee staying at a Dake hot spring hotel, said people were pessimistic about the prospects of returning to Namie. "My friends are starting to give up on returning to Namie. Even if we return, talk of restoration won't go anywhere," said Shiga, whose home is located just 10 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Shiga is 16th in a generation of pottery makers whose business has continued in Namie for some 300 years, but now he is doing simple office work as a temporary employee of the town government. He is living with his 73-year-old mother, 50-year-old wife and 16-year-old son on 1.4 million yen he received in relief money and a lump sum payment from the nuclear power plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Most evacuees had to leave their homes and workplaces behind, and there is no guarantee that they will find new work if they move into temporary housing. "Everyone wants to become independent, but we can't form a clear picture of the future and are unable to leave the shelters. We are like 'refugees.' There are some people who drink and get boisterous." Shiga has given up on the idea of returning to Namie and hopes to produce pottery in the city of Soma instead, but he has no prospects of raising the money to do so. (Mainichi Japan) May 30, 2011 |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 08:18 PM Post #64 |
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Prince
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Aichi Prefecture governor's demand to turn off air conditioning at schools causes confusion NAGOYA -- Education authorities here seem confused after Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura ordered all public schools in the prefecture to turn off air-conditioning systems as part of efforts to cut energy consumption ahead of a serious power shortage expected this summer. Following Prime Minister Naoto Kan's decision to suspend operations at Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, facility operator Chubu Electric Power Co. is calling on prefectural and municipal governments in the region to save power consumption during peak electric use hours in summer. On May 24, Omura said his government would make every effort to cut as much electricity use as possible. "I don't believe students could not take notes without lighting," Omura said. He further insisted that all air-conditioning systems at public schools be switched off, referring to his school days when no air-conditioning was available. Omura's remarks, however, caused confusion among local educational authorities, as installation and electricity costs for air-conditioning systems are covered mainly by donations from Parent Teacher Associations at most high schools in the prefecture. "I understand the governor's determination (to cut power consumption), but it seems difficult for his government to impose such a strict restriction on educational institutions," a senior educational official commented. According to the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education, only two out of all 149 public high schools here were provided with funds by the prefectural government to install air-conditioners. Ninety schools started collecting donations and introducing air-conditioning systems from 2007 after they decided they could no longer count on subsidies from the cash-strapped prefectural government. Furthermore, the two high schools for which the prefecture granted subsidies are unable to open windows due to noise and exhaust gas from nearby roads. Schools for students with special needs also find it difficult to turn off air conditioners as some students are unable to cope with the heat. "We are in a position to ask for cooperation from each school. It seems that the governor has yet to understand the situation," said a senior board of education official. (Mainichi Japan) May 30, 2011 |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 08:22 PM Post #65 |
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Prince
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2 Fukushima workers may have exceeded radiation exposure limit TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Two Tokyo Electric Power Co. employees working at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have been exposed to radiation exceeding the ultimate limit of 250 millisieverts, but no health problems have so far been reported, the company and the government said Monday. The two men, who are in their 30s and 40s and have been at the plant from the time the March 11 quake and tsunami triggered the crisis, may have been cumulatively exposed to several hundred millisieverts, a company official said, while adding that they are "not at a stage that would require emergency medical treatment." To cope with the country's worst nuclear power plant crisis, the government has raised the legal limit on the amount of radiation to which each worker could be exposed in an emergency situation to 250 milliseiverts from 100 millisieverts. The National Institute of Radiological Sciences is expected to conduct a detail assessment of the workers' internal radiation exposure so as to determine the total levels of their exposure, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman of the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The two workers have been involved in dealing with the plant's Nos. 3 and 4 reactors. At a measurement on May 23, their thyroid glands were found to have absorbed 7,690 and 9,760 becquerels of radioactive iodine-131, respectively, 10 times higher than data on other workers. The external exposure levels of the two workers were between 74 and 89 millisieverts, the plant operator known as TEPCO said. The two have worked at the plant's reactor control room, a building where the headquarters to deal with the crisis is located, and outside on the premises. They ingested stable iodine on March 13 to prevent radioactive iodine from accumulating in the thyroid and increasing the risk of thyroid cancer. TEPCO said it plans to check some 150 other workers who have engaged in similar work. The utility, meanwhile, is coming to the view that it will be impossible to stabilize the crisis by the end of this year, senior company officials said Sunday, possibly affecting the timing for the government to consider the return of evacuees to their homes near the plant. The recent findings that nuclear fuel meltdowns had occurred at the plant's Nos. 1 to 3 reactors, most likely with breaches to pressure vessels encasing nuclear fuel, have led the officials to believe that "there will be a major delay to work" to contain the situation, one of them said. TEPCO announced April 17 its road map for bringing the troubled reactors at the plant into a stably cooled condition called "cold shutdown" in six to nine months. (Mainichi Japan) May 30, 2011 |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 08:37 PM Post #66 |
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Prince
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Tuesday, May 31, 2011 Heavy rains trigger tsunami-zone landslide alert Kyodo Heavy rain caused by the remains of Typhoon Songda posed multiple landslide threats Monday in areas hit by the March 11 disasters, prompting local authorities to go on alert. News photo ![]() When it rains: A Self-Defense Forces vehicle plows through a flooded road amid a mountain of debris from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami Monday in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. KYODO Several areas had already been flooded by the morning and dozens of cars were trapped on overflowing roads in Sendai's Wakabayashi Ward and in the nearby city of Iwanuma, both in Miyagi Prefecture. The ground in some areas sank several centimeters during the massive quake, which shifted the island's position in the Pacific Ocean. This made many areas vulnerable for the first time to high tides and heavy rain. Shortly after 9 a.m., a blackout struck the disaster-hit town of Minamisanriku, Iwate Prefecture, where many people are still living in emergency shelters at schools. "After the lights went out, I was horrified by my memory of the March disaster," said Yasuko Saijo, 77, who is living in one of the shelters in town. She said her home in the coastal area has been persistently flooded by seawater since the magnitude 9 earthquake. "Heavy rain this time may further damage my home," she said. East Japan Railway Co. suspended train services on the Tohoku Line between Fukushima and Ichinoseki stations in Iwate Prefecture, while the Joban Line between Watari and Iwanuma, both in Miyagi, was suspended for safety reasons. In addition, at least one bullet train run was canceled as of Monday morning on the Akita Shinkansen Line, JR East said. The typhoon had weakened into a tropical storm off Shikoku on Sunday afternoon, but the Meteorological Agency warned that it could still cause downpours and strong winds across the country through Monday. Winds as strong as 118 kph were observed in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, the agency said. Ishinomaki and other coastal areas along the Pacific will see full tides between Tuesday and June 7, the agency said, warning of floods on a mass scale coupling with heavy rain. The storm was moving toward waters off eastern Japan, activating the front hovering over the Tohoku region, especially on the tsunami-ravaged Pacific side, the agency said. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 09:15 PM Post #67 |
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Prince
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Radioactivity in No. 1 Reactor Basement Water 10,000 Times Normal Fukushima, May 30 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> said Monday that the amounts of radioactive materials in water at a reactor building of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant were about 10,000 times the normal levels for water inside a nuclear reactor. The water, recently found in the basement of the No. 1 reactor building of the nuclear power plant, contained 30,000 becquerels of iodine-131 per cubic centimeter, 2.5 million becquerels of cesium-134 and 2.9 million becquerels of cesium-137. On May 13, Tokyo Electric Power employees entered the No. 1 reactor building and found water 4.2 meters deep in the basement. Water levels had risen to 4.6 meters high by 5 p.m. Monday (8 a.m. GMT) due to rain and water injections to cool the damaged nuclear fuel. The amount is estimated at 2,700 tons. The water is believed to have leaked into the basement from the reactor pressure vessel and the container that houses the vessel. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 30 2011, 10:49 PM Post #68 |
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Prince
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Poll: Most Japanese distrust gov't on nuke crisis Updated 12:40 a.m., Monday, May 30, 2011 TOKYO (AP) — A new poll showed Monday that more than 80 percent of Japanese voters do not trust government information about the country's nuclear crisis. The poll conducted by Fuji Television Network also found that nearly 85 percent of respondents said the utility that operates the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is dealing with the crisis poorly. An earthquake and tsunami on March 11 damaged crucial cooling systems at the plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. The twin disasters also left more than 24,000 people dead or missing in northeastern Japan. Eighty-one percent of respondents to the survey said they did not trust government information about the crisis, Fuji TV said. Seventy-eight percent said Prime Minister Naoto Kan lacked leadership in handling the disasters. Kan is facing calls for his resignation even within his own ruling party. Opposition parties are expected to submit a no-confidence motion against him as early as Thursday. Kan is likely to survive the motion because his Democratic Party of Japan controls the powerful lower house of parliament. However, some ruling party lawmakers may support the motion to pressure Kan to quit, local media say. The national poll of eligible voters was conducted by telephone on May 28-29 and had 1,000 responses. No margin of error was given, but a poll of that size would normally have a margin of error of about 4 percentage points. Link ....... http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Poll-Most-Japanese-distrust-gov-t-on-nuke-crisis-1401334.php |
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| Audi-Tek | May 31 2011, 11:20 PM Post #69 |
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Prince
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Ombudsman slams secrecy over Fukushima contamination Published 31 May 2011. Published 31 May 2011 Tags Fukushima nuclear accident Ombudsman 10Share Printer-friendly versionSend to friend Following complaints from citizens, the European Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the EU's permitted levels of food contamination following the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and their communication to the wider public. Similar complaints are also being heard in France. "Based on complaints submitted to me, it appears that a number of Union citizens perceive a lack of precise and reliable information as regards the changes made to the maximum permitted levels in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident," wrote EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros in a letter addressed to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on 19 May. Diamandouros noted that while the EU executive's websites provide links to relevant adopted legislation (297/2011 and 351/2011), "no comparative information on the maximum permitted levels before and after the Fukushima accident has apparently been made available". Therefore, the Ombudsman decided to launch an own-initiative inquiry into the matter as a way to provide "citizen-friendly" information. He asked the Commission to submit an opinion on the issue by 30 June 2011, calling for "precise figures, preferably also in the form of graphs and charts, which would allow an easy identification of the maximum permitted levels in force" both before and after the Japanese nuclear accident. French authorities pressed to evaluate Fukushima fallout The Ombudsman's request for more transparency in communicating data to the public was not isolated. Last week (25 May), a French NGO specialised in measuring radioactivity, CRIIRAD, asked the French government to investigate what it described as "serious failures" in measuring the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident in France and communicating the results to the public. According to the NGO, the radioactive cloud from the stricken reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant reached France two days earlier than officially announced. In addition, the levels of radioactive iodine-131 were 20 times higher on 22 March than announced on 24 March, according to the NGO's findings. CRIIRAD reached its conclusions after analysing data recorded by the French National Network for the Measurement of Radioactivity in the Environment (RNM), an official body. In a letter addressed to French Prime Minister François Fillon and the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), CRIIRAD questions in particular the work of the country's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and demands an investigation into the chronology of facts and the responsibilities of the different actors involved in informing the public about the Fukushima fallout. But the IRSN refuted the accusations, saying that the NGO had come to its conclusions based on surveys that correspond to several days of measurement rather than a single day, and reaffirmed that the fallout had probably reached France on 24 March as initially announced. CRIIRAD also continues to condemn the authorities' "secrecy" regarding public access to data on radioactive contamination. Shortly after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami that hit the Japanese nuclear plant, the NGO launched an international "petition for total transparency on the airborne radioactivity we are breathing". More than two months after the nuclear accident, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted last week that three out of six reactors at the nuclear plant suffered meltdowns within days of the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, raising worrying questions about why the scale of the disaster was not disclosed sooner. |
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| Audi-Tek | May 31 2011, 11:55 PM Post #70 |
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Prince
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Blast at Japan nuclear plant 'likely gas cylinder'. – Tue May 31, 4:00 am ET TOKYO (AFP) – An explosion was heard Tuesday at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, but no rise in radiation levels nor any injuries were reported, the plant operator said. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which has struggled to control the crippled Fukushima plant, said the explosion was heard as unmanned heavy machines worked near the unit four reactor building. "The machines were remotely controlled to remove rubble when the blast was heard," a TEPCO spokeswoman told AFP. "Local workers believe a gas cylinder might have been damaged and caused the blast noise," she said. "No one was injured as it was a remotely controlled operation. No changes in radiation levels were detected in the area." Oil spill, blast hit crippled Japan nuclear plant. y YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press – Tue May 31, 11:52 am ET TOKYO – An oil spill and a small explosion have caused limited damage — but no further radiation leaks — at the crippled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan, the plant operator said Tuesday. Workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant found an oil spill in the sea near reactors five and six, which were in shutdown when the earthquake and tsunami struck March 11, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The spill was contained by an oil fence, TEPCO spokesman Taichi Okazaki said. The explosion workers heard at reactor four was likely from a gas tank and did not cause any additional radiation leaks, Okazaki said. The cause was being investigated. The main problems at Fukushima Dai-ichi are involve reactors one, two and three, where the fuel cores have largely melted. Scientists and government officials say the reactors are short of a full meltdown, in which the fuel breaks through the bottom of the outer container. Workers have been fighting to get the reactors under control after the tsunami destroyed backup power generators, halting crucial cooling systems that managed the fuel temperature. In the immediate days after the tsunami, several explosions larger than Tuesday's hit the plant and scattered highly radioactive debris and puffs of radioactive particles into the environment. The plant has also leaked tons of radioactive water, which officials are promising to clean up. TEPCO has promised to bring the plant under control by January, but fears are growing that was too optimistic. Concerns about the risks workers face there surged this week as TEPCO said two workers might have exceeded a radiation exposure limit. The government had raised the limit for men soon after the earthquake and tsunami set off the crisis at the plant. TEPCO has been instructed to check internal exposure levels of all workers who might have worked closely with the two men and to remove all of them from plant duties until the checks are made, Health Minister Ritsuo Hosokawa said. "Workers who had engaged in similar plant work also might have been internally exposed," Hosokawa said. Further testing is being done on the two men who were responsible for central control rooms of two reactors, and the company has said they do not show immediate health problems. More than 2,000 workers tested so far did not have exposure levels beyond the limit, but hundreds more are waiting to be tested, TEPCO spokesman Takeo Iwamoto said. Also Tuesday, TEPCO said it has finished its promised payment of preliminary compensation of 1 million yen ($12,300) for 50,000 households affected by the nuclear crisis. The company said it has started temporary compensation payment for farmers to cover their crop damages. ___ |
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| Audi-Tek | June 1 2011, 12:33 AM Post #71 |
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Prince
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How Many Animal Lives Has the Fukushima Evacuation Zone Claimed?. It was one disaster after another when Japan was slammed in early March by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. The earthquake caused a tsunami that swept away homes and lives. Explosions and leaks at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station led to what’s been called the world’s largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. When the community surrounding Fukushima was evacuated, people were given very little warning that they had to clear out. They had no time to prepare, and shelters weren’t set up accommodate animals. As a result, countless animals were left behind to fend for themselves. Linda Wolfe, Program Associate for Born Free USA, explained that, “Unfortunately, Japan is now learning what New Orleans learned with Katrina regarding the non-existent contingency for animal evacuation.” According to Wolfe, the Japan Anti-Vivisection Association believes that nearly 675,000 farm animals lived in the evacuation zone, and the number that survived could be as few as 1,000 or less. It’s unknown how many companion animals were left behind, or how many are still alive. For the first few weeks, residents and rescue groups were allowed to enter the evacuation zone at their own risk. That meant some animals received some care, but they couldn’t be taken out of the zone. Then, on April 22, the Japanese government enacted a strict “Do Not Enter” policy, complete with barricades and military guards. A few groups and individuals snuck in to care for the animals, but it was a risky proposition. “These animals have basically been on their own since April 22,” Wolfe says. “Time is running out, if it hasn’t already.” On May 10, the Japanese government eased the barricades a little bit. While some media outlets reported that people were allowed back in and animals were receiving care, the truth is a little less optimistic. Residents have been allowed to go in for two hour increments, but only a handful at a time, and only when it’s their village’s turn. “This is going to be a very slow process," Wolfe said. "It would take several weeks/months for everyone to be allowed back and the animals still surviving need immediate help — they don’t have several weeks." There are a number of problems with this process besides the timeline. With so many of the surviving animals now roaming free, it will be hard for people to find their companions with such a short time allotment. Farm animals aren’t included in this plan at all, and residents still aren’t allowed to bring their animals out of the evacuation zone. Instead, they’re being told to tie up or crate their animals outside, where government officials can collect them in a day or so. And if they don’t come by? The suffering will continue. Several groups are standing by, ready to help, and they have been since Day One. Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support is a collaboration of local no-kill animal rescue organizations that’s also supported by Kinship Circle and Last Chance for Animals. International Fund for Animal Welfare had been on the ground, too, working with local leaders on a plan to evacuate the animals. Many smaller groups, local and international, and concerned individuals are ready and waiting, but there's little they can do until the evacuation zone is opened up. Helping animals affected by the Fukushima disaster doesn’t need to come at the expense of helping people; the Japanese government just needs to allow it to happen. And it needs to happen soon. |
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| Audi-Tek | June 1 2011, 12:42 AM Post #72 |
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Prince
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Rain increases radioactive water at nuke plant Heavy rain has increased the volume of highly radioactive water building up inside the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Contaminated water already floods the basements of the turbine and reactor buildings, partly due to water injections to cool down the reactor cores. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, now says water levels rose faster on Monday as rain poured inside the badly damaged buildings. In the basement of the No.1 reactor building, radioactive water rose by 37.6 centimeters during the 24 hours through Tuesday morning. At the No.2 reactor, the level of water rose by 8.6 centimeters in an underground tunnel extending from the building. The water in the tunnel's shaft is now only about 39 centimeters below ground level. The utility is speeding up work to seal the opening. TEPCO is planning to decontaminate and recycle the radioactive water as coolant for the reactors. But the system won't be in place until July at the earliest. In the meantime, the utility is studying steps to prevent rainwater from seeping in. It will also consider new storage sites to which the contaminated water can be quickly transferred as the rainy season approaches. Tuesday, May 31, 2011 12:32 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | June 1 2011, 12:45 AM Post #73 |
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Prince
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High levels of strontium detected at Fukushima The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected high levels of a radioactive substance that tends to accumulate in human bones. Tokyo Electric Power Company says it took soil samples on May 9th at 3 locations about 500 meters from the No.1 and No.2 reactors and analyzed them. The utility detected up to 480 becquerels of radioactive strontium 90 per kilogram of soil. That's about 100 times higher than the maximum reading recorded in Fukushima Prefecture following atmospheric nuclear tests carried out by foreign countries during the Cold War era. TEPCO reported detecting 2,800 becquerels of strontium 89 per kilogram of soil at the same location. This is the second time since April that radioactive strontium has been found inside the plant compound. The substance was also detected in soil and plants more than 30 kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear power station in March. When people inhale radioactive strontium, it accumulates in bones. Scientists say that strontium could cause cancer. Tokyo Electric Power says it believes that radioactive strontium was released from the damaged plant and it will continue to monitor radiation levels. An expert on radioactive substances says he thinks radioactive strontium may continue to be detected around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. But he says the strontium levels that might be detected in soil will be far lower than those of the radioactive cesium released in the accident by a factor of several thousand. Yoshihiro Ikeuchi of the Japan Chemical Analysis Center says strontium tends to accumulate in bones, like calcium. But he also says its levels in the air are thought to be lower than those for soil and even if people inhale the substance, no health problems will be caused by such internal exposure to radiation. Wednesday, June 01, 2011 02:59 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | June 1 2011, 01:54 AM Post #74 |
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My Thoughts on the Fukushima Reactors Dr. Aharon Friedman PhD. Monday, March 29, 2011 I am writing this commentary as I feel that I would be neglecting my duties as a citizen of this planet and as a Physicist, if I do not take the time to enlighten as many people as I can reach regarding the ongoing nuclear crisis and the happenings in Japan. The general public world-wide is being misled and misinformed. The Japanese government which has always been less honest and forthcoming, is the government who is lying to us. Our President, while fully briefed on what is really going on, is taking a too passive role in the matter. While I sympathize with the rebels in Libya, I feel strongly that the situation with the reactors in Fukushima is and should be the top priority for every government on this planet, be it a democracy or any other form of government. This is an actual war that we are all involved in right now. Background about Radiation Let me start this briefing by explaining how fission works. The forces that be rely on our ignorance and complicity to perpetrate their atrocities undeterred. Once you, the reader gains basic knowledge on the matter, you could view it with a critical eye. Fission is a process by which an unstable atom breaks into smaller atoms, releasing energy as it does. What makes an atom unstable is the number of neutrons in its nucleus. In nature, elements show up with a different count of neutrons. These are called “isotopes” of the element. For example: a nucleus made of one proton is Hydrogen, when it has a proton and a neutron, it is Deuterium, an isotope of Hydrogen. When it has two neutrons and a proton, it is Tritium another isotope of Hydrogen. When an unstable isotope breaks into smaller atoms, it emits several types of radiation. Of these, the important ones for our purposes and understanding, are neutrons and gamma radiation. These radiation particles, other than being dangerous to us as they ionize atoms (strip their electrons) and created chemical changes, are also capable of activating inert materials by changing the number of their neutrons. Thus, stable isotopes now become unstable. Such unstable isotopes are said to be “radio active.” To recap, when you expose a stable matter (iron, led, water, concrete, etc.) to neutron and hard gamma radiation, you get radioactive matter. Let us now view one isotope in particular Uranium 235 (U235). This is a Uranium atom with 92 protons and 143 neutrons. By itself, U235 it is a slightly unstable isotope with a half-life time of 704 million years. What this means is that if you leave a one pound piece of Uranium-235 by itself and come back in 704 million years, you will find only a half-pound. Not so dangerous, is it? But when bombarded with neurons, U235 tends to absorb them. Some of the U235 will then break off, emitting more neutrons which will then break other U235 isotopes. This is called a “Chain Reaction.” When there are enough U235 atoms we have a critical mass and a large amount of energy is released in a small space and short time, creating an explosion. Thus, you have an Atom Bomb. In nature U235 makes up only 0.72% of Uranium. To create a highly fissionable substance, uranium is processed to 40% or more U235, and you then have what’s called, “Enriched Uranium.” It can then be used for atom bombs or as fuel innuclear reactors. There are other fissionable isotopes, but let us just deal with U235 for the sake of simplicity. Nuclear reactors are made with a large metal (steal, laden with lead) tank. In the tank is a pool of heavy water (water in which one of the Hydrogen atoms is Deuterium or Tritium). Rods of enriched uranium (or other fissionable isotopes) are sunk into the heavy water. When the rods are close enough to each other a chain reaction begins, releasing energy into the water which then turns to heat. The heavy water transfers the heat to a close circuit system, the heat from which boils water into steam, which steam is then used to turn turbines to create electricity. To stop the reaction the rods are sunk into lead containers to keep them away from each other. This is not enough, the rods have to be aggressively chilled to stop any reaction within the rods (hot atoms move a lot and get a lot closer to each other than cold atoms). When the U235 in the rods is thus actively depleted, we are left with a highly radioactive non-fissionable junk that we now must get rid of. Since nobody wants to deal with it, it is left at the power plant in pools of water. A few issues with nuclear reactors: 1. The “spent” rods remain highly radioactive. 2. Everything becomes radioactive, in the reactor environment. That includes the heavy water, the closed system re-circulating water, and the shielding. 3. Stopping the chain reaction is nothing like throwing the switch on an electric device, or shutting of the gas line to an engine. It is a very complex process that is not instantaneous. What Happened at the Fukushima Plant: When the earthquake hit the plant, the plants shut-down procedure started immediately, as planned. However, several things went wrong: 1. The electricity to the plant was cut off (not unexpected with such an earthquake). 2. The cooling lines were damaged. 3. With no successful active cooling of the rods, the chain reactions continued (and probably still continue). 4. Due to the intense heat produced by the ongoing chain reactions, the vessels in which the rods are contained started melting (this is the “Meltdown”). At this point, due to massive damage to the reactor, it is very unlikely that we can even run coolant through the container. 5. When the container melts, radioactive lead which is in the area of the rods, finds its way to the surface. 6. Most, if not all the pools that contained water, cracked and the water which was radioactive as well and contained dissolved radioactive metal, leaked to the underground water table and into the ocean. 7. Some of the water turned to radioactive steam was released into the atmosphere in a big radioactive cloud. 8. Some of the water got so heated that it separated into Hydrogen and Oxygen, which then exploded, thus creating mayhem and further breaking down of containment. 9. The spent rods became exposed to the atmosphere, releasing radioactive and highly toxic junk into the atmosphere. What may still happen? The active rods in the molten core may touch each other, reaching critical mass and xploding. This is in addition to what is happening as above. What Are the Japanese really doing? The Japanese authorities are committing several atrocities in trying to resolve the problem while “saving face.” They are sending teams of heroic people to go into the reactor buildings to work on stabilizing the plant. These people have simply been sent to die. This would have been okay if their mission was a voluntary one to “save the world.” However, their mission is to “save face” for the Japanese government and the owners of the plant. The people who sent them should be tried as murderers. On orders, many tons of water have been poured over the plant. This was done according to some fantasy that the water wouldn’t somehow find its way through cracks in the walls of the building and refill the pools. This is like expecting 50,000 monkeys with typewriters to come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Even if some water gets to the pools, the pools are cracked. In reality, the water becomes radioactive and goes into the water table, the ocean, and the atmosphere. They keep trying to pull cooling lines to the reactors to stop the chain reaction. It’s too late for that. The core has melted and these people are dying for nothing. They tell us to take Potassium – Iodine which is not very helpful. If you want iodine, eat kelp and half an onion a day. Even so, it is of very limited benefit against radiation. What Should Be Done? The Fukushima reactors should, as quickly as possible, be entombed along with the plant structures, under layers of concrete and sand. Then shielding should be put in place underground to block the flow of radioactive materials into ground water and the ocean. This is a long and costly project. It should start now. Why Should We Care? In the fifties and sixties when nations conducted nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, dangerously high levels of radiation where measured all over the world. It affected the world population. This was not as bad as what is happening now. An atom bomb uses a relatively small amount of U235 and other fissionable material. Each release from the bomb tests was final and most detonations were done in deserts, far from water sources. Yet, radioactive material was found in water, air and food. Here, in these nuclear power plants, there is vastly more radioactive material and the exposure is continuous. Each reactor core, as it melts down, is capable of releasing the equivalent in radioactive materials as ten-thousand Hiroshima or Nagasaki size atom bombs. We have already seen radioactive rain in Massachusetts (as far east as you can go from Japan and still be in the US) and radioactive fallout scattered from Japan to our eastern seaboard and beyond. This is just a sign of things to come. It does not take much to affect the oceans. Witness the fact that all fish today contain high levels of mercury. The theory that the ocean will dilute the problem has already proven itself wrong. What Should We Do? First we need to take care of ourselves and our loved ones. 200 mg of Niacin a day will help tremendously. Use the type of niacin that causes a flush. Do not go for a buffered one. I am now also working on a source of non-radioactive Strontium for our friends. We need to write letters to our congressmen and senators, urging them to take action. Our government should bring it up in the UN Security Council. The Japanese have been criminally negligent in this matter. The area should be declared an international disaster zone in which the Japanese government has no jurisdiction, and we should go to work. Time is working against us. Dr. Aharon Friedman Sarasota, Florida |
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| Audi-Tek | June 1 2011, 09:12 PM Post #75 |
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Prince
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Thursday, June 2, 2011 Fatigue sets in on nuke responders By JUN HONGO Staff writer Workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are facing an increased risk of accidents due to human error caused by chronic sleep deprivation and fatigue, an expert on social medicine said Wednesday in Tokyo, as he called for improved working conditions at the plant. Ehime University professor Takeshi Tanigawa, who has visited the crippled power plant twice since the March 11 quake, said workers are getting only two days off every four days as they go about the trying task of keeping the nuclear reactors cool. Although they finally got separate beds last month, the workers still don't have proper shower facilities, he noted. "I thought that sanitary conditions (for the workers) were not good," Tanigawa, who has worked part-time as a physician for Tokyo Electric Power Co. since 1991, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. When he first visited ground zero in April, the workers were having to share blankets. Most lived within the 20-km no-go zone around the power plant and "did not have a place to go home to," Tanigawa said. In addition to the inadequate conditions, the medical expert stressed that Tepco employees laying the groundwork at the crippled power plant are facing a quadruple threat that may cause serious mental stress. "There is the danger of their work, and they are also themselves victims of the earthquake," Tanigawa said, adding that most lost at least one family member or friend in the disaster. Being an employee of the company responsible for the accident is also taking a toll on their mental health, he said. Many of the workers went as long as 10 days straight without a bath or proper rest after March 11. They also witnessed the hydrogen explosions nearby "and testified that they were prepared for death," according to Tanigawa. "Their level of stress is something unimaginable," he said, adding that psychological care will be necessary for their posttraumatic stress. Tanigawa expressed concern over the decision to cut the number of workers, thus increasing the workload on those remaining at the plant. |
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| Audi-Tek | June 1 2011, 09:24 PM Post #76 |
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Prince
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Thursday, June 2, 2011 Post-3/11, women seek matrimonial bonds By SAWAKO OBARA Kyodo. ![]() Eyes on the prize: A woman looks at wedding rings at the Shinjuku Takashimaya department store in April. KYODO. In the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, some people scrambled to stock up on emergency supplies. Others flocked to buy energy-saving devices as power outages loomed. Amid the heightened sense of insecurity, a growing number of women also had their minds set on finding something else — a marriage partner. This eagerness to get married, they say, comes after many are reassessing their lifestyles and rediscovering the importance of family in these trying times. Since the twin disasters, which also triggered the nation's worst nuclear crisis, matchmaking agencies have reported a surge in female membership and the number of marriages arranged. Retailers are also noting brisk sales of engagement rings and wedding bands. A 38-year-old divorced mother in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, who goes by the pseudonym Yoko, registered with a marriage agency on March 15, just four days after the 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami. "Since the earthquake, I worry, especially at night," said Yoko, who lives with her 9-year-old daughter after divorcing more than six years ago. Having a man in the house, she said, would make it feel safer should another temblor or aftershock strike. "The desire to have a family — just an ordinary one will do — grew stronger," she said. Yoko, who is now dating a man she met via the agency, said if she remarries, she plans to stay at home to spend as much time as possible with her daughter. In Tokyo, 30-year-old Ai, also a pseudonym, felt the urge to find someone to tie the knot with as well. "We never know what fate has in store for us," she said. "When I thought about that, I came to realize that what's been left undone was getting married and having children." Ai, who is currently not dating anyone, said many women around her feel the same way. "I want to let my parents meet their grandchild. I do have worries about raising a kid, but I feel I want a family." Among major matchmaking services, Nozze marriage information center has seen a 13 percent rise in its female membership since the March disaster. O-net Inc., another service, saw an increase of almost 20 percent in the number of marriages between its users in March and April compared with the same period last year. "The disaster probably helped give many couples that one last push to take the dive," an O-net official said. At the Shinjuku branch of major department store Takashimaya, sales of engagement and wedding rings jumped roughly 30 percent in April from a year ago. Many customers were couples in their 20s. "People are feeling a stronger urge to confirm 'kizuna' (bonds) with their loved ones," a Takashimaya salesclerk said. The boost came as overall department store sales took a beating, with customers reluctant to buy unnecessary items as the disaster zone suffered. In an online survey conducted in April by digitalBoutique Inc., 76 percent of 300 mothers polled nationwide said their way of living, lifestyle and mind-set have changed since March. The biggest shift took place in their eating habits and power-saving efforts, but many respondents also said they felt significant changes in their attitude toward life itself and relationships with family and friends. A 34-year-old woman from Aichi Prefecture said in the poll she no longer puts off tackling things that are on her mind. "Even if I get into a quarrel with my husband, I now try to make up with him quickly as I come to think 'What if all of a sudden we'll never get to see each other again,' " she said. Similarly, a 33-year-old woman from Miyagi, one of the three Tohoku prefectures hardest hit by the disaster, said she now chats with neighbors whom she had rarely approached. "(The disaster) gave many people a renewed sense of the importance of things we often took for granted, such as being with family and bonding with others in the community," said lifestyle columnist Izumi Momose. Amid rolling blackouts and radioactive contamination of tap water due to the quake-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, "People realized that things that had been seen as private matters, such as housework and child-rearing, are in fact closely linked to (what is happening in) society," Momose said. |
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| Audi-Tek | June 1 2011, 09:27 PM Post #77 |
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Prince
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Thursday, June 2, 2011 Tohoku Electric may tap Tepco for power shortchanging Kyodo SENDAI — Tohoku Electric Power Co. may seek compensation from Tokyo Electric Power Co. over its failure to meet a power supply contract following the March quake and tsunami, sources said. Under a contract between the two utilities, Tepco agreed to supply Tohoku Electric with electricity from its Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant, located 15 km from the leaking Fukushima No. 1 station. Tohoku Electric contributed 25 percent of the funds used to build reactors 3 and 4 at the Fukushima No. 2 plant and is entitled to receive the same percentage of electricity generated by them. But Tepco has failed to deliver on the contract due to damage to the plant from the disaster, the sources said. The Fukushima No. 2 power station has been put into a cold shutdown despite temporarily experiencing a partial loss of cooling functions after suffering damage in the disaster. Tohoku Electric is hoping to start negotiations with Tepco when the prospects for bringing the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant under control become clear, the sources said. Tohoku Electric could demand compensation worth tens of billions of yen if reactors 3 and 4 at the No. 2 plant are decommissioned, the sources said. In fiscal 2010, which ended in March, Tohoku Electric fell deep into the red, logging an extraordinary loss of ¥109.3 billion in connection with the suspended operation at its Onagawa nuclear power plant in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and other facilities damaged by the disaster. The company may fail to meet electricity demand this summer unless it buys power from other suppliers. |
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| Audi-Tek | June 2 2011, 10:50 PM Post #78 |
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Prince
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Wastewater rises, fears mount The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is struggling to remove pools of highly radioactive wastewater as fears of an overflow get more intense. Tokyo Electric Power Company says wastewater levels rose around 6 centimeters inside the No.2 reactor turbine building, and in its utility tunnel, during the 24-hour period through Thursday morning. Increases were also seen inside the No.3 and 4 reactor turbine buildings. The water level in the utility tunnel is now just 28 centimeters from the surface outside the No.2 reactor, and 24 centimeters from the surface outside the No.3 reactor. Tokyo Electric plans to start using a water purifier by the middle of this month. But as an emergency measure it's preparing to remove wastewater pooled inside the No.3 reactor turbine building to its turbine condenser. The utility is also considering using 2 additional buildings inside the compound as storage. The level of wastewater inside the No.1 reactor building dropped 8 centimeters on Thursday morning from Wednesday, unlike the other facilities. Tokyo Electric is measuring the level of radiation in groundwater near the plant to check for possible wastewater leakage. Thursday, June 02, 2011 13:03 +0900 (JST) |
| Why is cloud 9 so amazing ? What is wrong with cloud 8 ? | |
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| Audi-Tek | June 2 2011, 10:51 PM Post #79 |
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Prince
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Nagasaki staffers exposed to Fukushima radiation Nagasaki University Hospital says that at least 40 percent of local people sent to Fukushima Prefecture, host to the crippled nuclear plant, suffered internal radiation exposure. The hospital checked staffers and medical experts sent to Fukushima by Nagasaki's prefectural government. They spent around a week helping local government offices and medical institutions in Fukushima after the nuclear plant accident in March. The hospital says radioactive iodine was detected in the bodies of 34, or about 40 percent, of 87 examinees. Some were also detected for radioactive cesium. Neither substance occurs naturally in human bodies. Officials at the hospital insist, however, that the level of radioactive contamination is very low and poses no health concerns. Nagasaki University Professor Naoki Matsuda, who joined the survey, says Fukushima residents should also be checked for levels of internal exposure. The survey results will be reported at a conference in Hiroshima City on Sunday. Thursday, June 02, 2011 21:20 +0900 (JST) |
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| Audi-Tek | June 2 2011, 10:51 PM Post #80 |
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Prince
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TEPCO plans to plug all potential leaks The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, plans to plug all potential leaks of highly radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in June. TEPCO submitted its plan to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency after finding in April and May that highly radioactive water was flowing into the sea via seaside concrete maintenance pits. The water apparently came from turbine buildings of the plant's No.2 and 3 reactors. The utility says it identified 5 concrete tunnels and 39 pits around the plant as possible points from which radioactive water could flow out to the sea. The firm says it filled all the tunnels and some of the pits with concrete, and that it will finish work at 17 of the pits and repair cracked seawalls in June. TEPCO is under pressure to also find places to store an increasing amount of contaminated water in the turbine buildings, as the current rainy season is raising fears of overflows. The utility plans to install a water purification system to recycle the water. Thursday, June 02, 2011 19:31 +0900 (JST) |
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2:10 AM Jul 11