Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Reactors | Page 6 | Golden Skate

Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Reactors

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has produced a set of answers to frequently asked questions about Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster:

http://www.nrc.gov/japan/faqs-related-to-japan.pdf

Answers are very complete, but in short:

1. The only part of the US where this combination of earthquake and tsunami could occur is in northern California, Washington and Oregon, which are near the Cascadia subduction zone. The only nuclear plant in this part of the country is Columbia, and it is 225 miles from the ocean, and 300 miles from the subduction zone. In other parts of the country, the maximum earthquake would be 8 . (I am thinking the writer of this piece forgot about Alaska and Hawaii...Alaska had a combo of earthquake and tsunami during the Great Alaska Earthquake, which was actually bigger than the Japanese Quake. OTOH, there are no reactors there.

The US says the tsunami in the ocean off Daini was 7 meters (22.97 feet) and off Daiichi was 8 meters (26.25 feet). They don't have the official Japanese data.

The article describes in detail earthquake, tsunami and other disaster planning that is done for nuclear sites and prospective nuclear sites in the US.

This was interesting to me:

The Japanese facilities are similar in design to some US facilities. However, the NRC has required modifications to the plants since they were built, including design changes to control hydrogen and pressure in the containment. The NRC has also required plants to have additional equipment and measures to mitigate damage stemming from large fires and explosions from a beyond-design-basis event. The measures include providing core and spent fuel pool cooling and an additional means to power other equipment on site.
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And as to how prepared US plants are for disasters:

22) Could an accident sequence like the one at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants happen in the US?
It is difficult to answer this question until we have a better understanding of the precise problems and conditions that faced the operators at Fukushima Daiichi. We do know, however, that Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-3 lost all offsite power and emergency diesel generators. This situation is called “station blackout.” US nuclear power plants are designed to cope with a station blackout event that involves a loss of offsite power and onsite emergency power. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s detailed regulations address this scenario. US nuclear plants are required to conduct a “coping” assessment and develop a strategy to demonstrate to the NRC that they could maintain the plant in a safe condition during a station blackout scenario. These assessments, proposed modifications to the plant, and operating procedures were reviewed and approved by the NRC. Several plants added additional AC power sources to comply with this regulation.
In addition, US nuclear plant designs and operating practices since the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, are designed to mitigate severe accident scenarios such as aircraft impact, which include the complete loss of offsite power and all on-site emergency power sources.
US nuclear plant designs include consideration of seismic events and tsunamis’. It is important not to extrapolate earthquake and tsunami data from one location of the world to another when evaluating these natural hazards. These catastrophic natural events are very region- and location-specific, based on tectonic and geological fault line locations.
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Does anyone know what the relevant Canadian websites and agencies are? Have they issued any updates, explanations, or so forth?
 
And now JAIF posts its recap of the NHK coverage at March 21, 9 am Japanese time

Temperatures in all the spent fuel pools are looking better.

Status of Fukushima Daiichi power station as of 09:00, March 21, 2011
“NHK News reports on developments at Fukushima Daiichi on March 21” and others
Here is information regarding the status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station according to the news reports aired by NHK in this morning on March 21.

Injecting water to the spent fuel pool at unit 3 of Fukushima Daiichi by Tokyo Fire Department’s task force was finished at around 04:00 am this morning after 6.5 hours operation. Then, the Self-Defense Force conducted the operation of injecting water to the spent fuel pool at unit-4 from 06:37 am to 08:30 am this morning.

A construction company in Mie Prefecture voluntarily offers assistance for water injection at Fukushima Daiichi. The government emergency headquarters decided to accept the offer. The company’s 2 special vehicles and 3 operators departed last night to the site. The vehicles can inject waters by using its 50-meters-long arm and pumps.

Ministry of Defense announced that the Self-Defense Force helicopter measured the surface temperatures of Fukushima Daiichi from the air and found that the temperature of each units are below 100 degrees C. Unit 1:58 degrees C; Unit 2: 35 degrees C; Unit 3: 62 degrees C; Unit 4: 42 degrees C; Unit 5: 24 degrees C; Unit 6: 25 degrees C. (as of the afternoon on March 20)Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported that…

The pressure of the Reactor Containment Vessel at unit 3 of Fukushima Daiichi rose once (320 kPa as of 11:00 March 20th). TEPCO prepared to lower the pressure but concluded immediate pressure relief was not required. Monitoring the pressure continues (225 kPa as of 22:00 March 20).
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For what it's worth, I had read a discussion of the Mark I type of reactor, which is the kind found at Fukushima, and which is also found in several U.S. locations. (I don't know whether any are in Canada.) The article said that the U.S. authorities had ordered certain retrofittings on such reactors, which may not have been in place in the Japanese ones. (Sorry to be vague, but I'm not any kind of expert on these things. I defer to Ms. Pulaski for clarification!) So there are presumably more safeguards on the American-located Mark I reactors than there were in the original design. Apparently these reactors were promoted as being cheaper and less bulky...great assets, until the ground shakes and the seas rise. Anyway, that style was discontinued in the U.S., and the existing ones had modifications installed.
 
Tokyo Disney has stated that the park suffered minimal damage (it sits on reclaimed land, so they were lucky it wasn't worse), and are still running tests on all attractions, but the main issues the parks will have in reopening is waiting for travel in and out of Japan to go back to normal, and the transportation to teh parks to resume.

I know it sounds so trivial compared to teh nuclear plant, but tourism is a big deal when it comes to bringing in $$. I've always wanted to visit that park, and I know there are many who have it on their trip of a lifetime planned this year. Being from a tourism supported state, I know things get tight for the entire population when things like this happen (after 9-11 no one wanted to travel, so Alaska suffered big time.)
 
Toni, Thanks for a daybrightener. I'm glad to hear Tokyo Disney survived well.

As to changes to US reactors in the same style as Daiichi 1 & 2 (GE Boiling Water Reactors), the NRC answered this question

The Japanese facilities are similar in design to some US facilities. However, the NRC has required modifications to the plants since they were built, including design changes to control hydrogen and pressure in the containment. The NRC has also required plants to have additional equipment and measures to mitigate damage stemming from large fires and explosions from a beyond-design-basis event. The measures include providing core and spent fuel pool cooling and an additional means to power other equipment on site.
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One of the main struggles at Three Mile Island was to control a hydrogen bubble, and this fact caused a number of changes in the way venting is set up in US. Another problem at TMI2 was a stuck vent, which led to a new vent design.

People will be looking at Daiichi & the Japanese Earthquake for some time to see what lessons are learned.

Some I've learned:
1. In the US, the NRC does not pay the same attention to non-nuclear parts of a nuclear facility that it does to the nuclear parts of the plant, and the same is true in Japan. An example of this is the fire in the turbine plant part of the reactor complex at Onagawa. About 3 or 4 years ago, there was another earthquake in Japan (6.8 in magnitude) that led to a transformer fire at Kashiwazki-Kariwa Nuclear Plant. There was also a spill of water from the spent fuel pool.

http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article4062825.ece

In the US, the wooden (yes wooden) cooling tower at Vermont Yankee collapsed, and it was not subjected to the same scrutiny as the nuclear part of the site.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/09/14/vt_yankee_reports_on_collapse_in_tower/

For what it's worth, the operators should take the same care of non-nuclear stuff on site.

2. It looks like extra batteries should be available for spent fuel pool cooling, and separate backups for them (by this I mean the spent fuel pool where rods go immediately after being removed from the reactor at refueling time, not the site spent fuel pool at Daiichi, where rods go when they require more minimal cooling). These are the pools that had hydrogen explosions in Units 3 & 4 at Daiichi. You'd think that 16 feet of water over the rods would be enough, but apparently not.

3. Design of the spent fuel pool could use some work. I can't say I like the concept of having the spent fuel pool on the 3rd or 4th floor in an earthquake zone, as at Daiichi. I presume it's there to minimize the distance the rod has to travel when first removed from the reactor. I'm awaiting some info on this.

4. In the US, monitoring for hydrogen in the spent fuel pool areas is done. I'd like to see this be done on a circuit with emergency lighting, if it isn't already.

5. Like hospitals, nuclear plants should have some emergency power for lighting inside the plants, separate from the diesel generators, etc, and it should be good for a week. I was shocked to hear that the inside of Daiichi was not properly lit. This may be in error, because I haven't seen it confirmed.

6. Use of borated sea water, and doping cooling water in general with boric acid to slow down the nuclear reaction, seemed to work quite well to slow the pace of an emergency, but I await the judgment of the experts on this. Perhaps a stockpile of boric acid should be available. I heard that Japan acquired all of Korea's stockpile of boric acid to use at Daiichi-better to have your own store, if it is a good idea at all.

7. Obviously, any new tsunami protection structures in Japan need to be taller.
 
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TEPCO's status for 6 am March 21st is up. There is little new in it.

UNIT 2

We completed receiving electricity from the external transmission line
up to the auxiliary transformer. We installed the power cable from the
transformer to the temporary power panel. At 3: 46 PM, March 20th, we
started energizing the load-side power panel.
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SPENT FUEL POOLS

-From 9:30 PM on March 20, water discharge by Tokyo Fire Department's Hyper
Rescue was conducted to Unit 3 and completed at approximately 4:00 AM today.
-At approximately 6:30 AM today,, water discharge to Unit 4 was started by
Self-Defense Force's fire engines and US army's fire engines and was
finished at approximately 8:40 AM.
-We are considering further water discharge at Unit 3 and others subject
to the conditions of spent fuel pools.

....

Others
...

-In total 12 fire engines are lent for the water discharge to the spent
fuel pools and water injection to the nuclear reactors by various regional
fire departments* as well as Tokyo Fire Department.
*: Koriyama Fire Department, Iwaki Fire Brigade Headquarters, Fire
Headquarters of Sukagawa District Wide Area Fire-fighting Association,
Yonezawa City Fire Headquarters, Utsunomiya City Fire Headquarters,
Fire Headquarters of Aizu-Wakamatsu wide area municipal association,
Saitama City Fire Bureau, and Niigata City Fire Bureau.
-We will continue to take all measures to ensure the safety and to
continue monitoring the surrounding environment around the Power Station.
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Nothing new from IAEA or NEI. The JAIF has another one of their cute block status diagrams as of 16:00, Japanese Time, March 21st

New facts:
Containment Vessel Pressure is still decreasing at Unit 3, which had a rise in pressure yesterday. Venting was not necessary. Containment Vessel Pressure is now rated "stable" at Units 1 & 2.

Seawater injection was done to the spent fuel pool at Unit 2 on March 20th, and is being considered for Unit 1 for March 21st.

The water temperature is continuing to drop at the spent fuel pools in Unit 5 & 6, since cooling capability was recovered.

The radiation measurement in the spot that JAIF describes as North of the Service Building is
2105.0μSv/h at 13:00, Mar. 21 ( lower than yesterday) and JAIF says
Immediate threat is damage of the fuels in the fuel pool outside the containment vessel. The operation for spraying water to the pool is continuing at Uni-3 and 4 and certain effect has
been confirmed based on the declining trend of radiation monitored.
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For reference sake, North of Service Building: 2362.0μSv/h at 4:00, Mar. 21, so radiation dropped significantly over the 9 hour period.

And
　External AC power has also reached to the transfomer for Units 5 and 6. (Currently they are on diesel backup)
 
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Afternoon updates.

I think they will be resuming spraying at Unit 3. Smoke was observed rising from one corner of the building. The fire department was called.



UPDATE AS OF 10:30 A.M. EDT, MONDAY, MARCH 21:Fukushima Daiichi
Tokyo Electric Power Co. continued efforts on Monday to restore power to its reactors at Fukushima Daiichi as well as stabilize cooling in the used fuel pools of some reactors. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 are in stable condition and reactors 5 and 6 are stable and being cooled by systems powered by electricity that was restored over the weekend.

The Tokyo Fire Department sprayed cooling water into the reactor 3 used fuel pool for about 4.5 hours, ending early Monday morning. At reactor 4, Japan's Self-Defense Force sprayed water into the pool for about two hours. Overall, 13 fire engines have been used in the spraying. Efforts to spray water into the used fuel pools at reactors 3 and 4 reactor buildings and used fuel pools was stopped on Monday while TEPCO assessed the effectiveness of these efforts.

Workers were evacuated from the area around reactors 2 and 3 Monday when smoke was observed coming from the secondary containment buildings.

Electricity is expected to be restored to both reactors 3 and 4 by March 23.

Radiation dose rates at monitoring posts are slightly higher than on past days. Rates at the plant site boundary range from 1 to 3 millirem per hour. Radiation dose rates in the area where fire trucks have been located are reported to be 2 to 3 rem per hour, with some isolated areas as high as 30 rem per hour.
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TEPCO also did an afternoon update.

March 21st, 7:00 PM Japanese Time

Unit 3

At approximately 3:55 pm, March 21st, light gray smoke was confirmed
arising from the southeast side of the 5th floor roof of the Unit 3
building, and the situation was reported to the fire department at
approximately 4:21 pm. The parameters of reactor pressure vessel,
reactor containment vessel, and monitored environmental data remained
at the same level. However, employees working around Unit 3 evacuated
to a safe location. It is observed the smoke has been decreasing.
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Unit 4
As of March 21st, cabling has been completed from temporary substation
to the main power center.
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External Power Work

* The restoration work of electricity supply from external source for
Units 3, 4, 5 and 6 are being implemented. At 11:36 am, March 21, the
service power supplied by emergency diesel generators in Units 5 was
partially restored through transmission line (Yonomori-line) using a
power receiving facility of Unit 6.
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Spent Fuel Pools
* In total 12 fire engines are lent for spraying water to the spent fuel
pools and water injection to the nuclear reactors by various regional
fire departments* as well as Tokyo Fire Department.

*We will continuously endeavor to securing safety, and monitoring of the
surrounding environment.
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I checked with my friend who has been involved with the Indian Point Power Plant in Buchanan, NY, for many years, and they do not have any spent fuel pools on the upper floors of buildings.

The fuel pools at Indian Point are underground, and spent fuel rods are moved from the reactor via a shaft & canal, if I have remembered what he told me correctly.

I think it is inadvisable, particularly in a country which has earthquakes, to have a fuel pool anywhere but at basement level.
 
:) doris... I wish there was some way we could nominate you for a Pulitzer , or something..You know you've been better than many news outlets throughout this whole nightmare..sticking with the story , checking the facts..I love telling people my source for news is GoldenSkate FS forums..:laugh:
 
I agree, Colleen. What Doris has done here is exceptional!! I was someone who really hoped that there was little for the media to blow up into apocalyptic terms, so I was really dismayed when the situation did merit so much concern ( BUT still not the the headlines I see in the media). Doris has given a balanced analysis based on fact. I have really appreciated the commitment she has shown. Thanks Doris!!!
 
You're welcome! (You could send the URL to friends ;)

Reactors 5 & 6 are now off diesel power and on to AC power! (That's a good thing)

I see no further mention of white smoke coming from the Reactor 3 building that caused workers to leave that general area in the updated status.

Here's the NEI update for 1:30 PM March 21, EDT

UPDATE AS OF 1:30 P.M. EDT, MONDAY, MARCH 21:
Fukushima Daiichi

Workers were making progress Monday to bring off-site power to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. External electricity has been connected to reactor 2, and work continued to energize the reactor's cooling systems. Reactors 5 and 6, and the used fuel pools at those reactors, were switched from backup diesel generators to the off-site power supply. Work also continued to establish electric service to reactors 3 and 4.

Spraying seawater into the spent fuel pools of reactors 3 and 4 and providing additional cooling water to fuel pool at reactor 2 continue to be a priority for TEPCO's recovery workers. Water spraying at the Daiichi site's common used fuel pool began Monday morning, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.[NISA is the Japanese government's counterpart to the US's Nuclear Regulatory Commission or NRC.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Briefing

Bill Borchardt, the executive director for operations at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, briefed the agency's commissioners Monday on the NRC's response to the Fukushima accident in Japan. Borchardt's slides and NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko's prepared remarks are available on the NRC website.

"We have a responsibility to the American people to undertake a systematic and methodical review of the safety of our own domestic nuclear facilities, in light of the natural disaster and the resulting nuclear emergency in Japan," Jaczko said at the briefing. "Beginning to examine all available information is an essential part of our effort to analyze the event and understand its impact on Japan and the implications for the United States."
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Here's a link to NRC Chairman Jaczko's remarks:

http://nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2011/11-054.pdf

Pretty much boilerplate, except the NRC has been working to help the Japanese as much as they can since the beginning of the disaster. And the NRC will be doing a safety audit of all US plants, looking to incorporate any lessons learned from Daiichi.
 
IAEA's afternoon update, Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (21 March 2011, 15:30 UTC

More data on the measurements the IAEA has taken, introducing the Becquerel. I'll be posting a comment about radiation dose measuring again. In my opinion, there are altogether too many confusingly named radiation measurement units.


Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (21 March 2011, 15:30 UTC)
On Monday, 21 March 2011, Graham Andrew, Special Adviser to the IAEA Director General on Scientific and Technical Affairs, briefed both Member States and the media on the current status of nuclear safety in Japan. His opening remarks, which he delivered at 15:30 UTC at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, are provided below:

"1. Current Situation

We are seeing some steady improvements, but the overall situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains very serious. High levels of contamination have been measured in the locality of the plant.

The restoration of electrical power to Unit 2, which we reported yesterday, is good news. AC power is available and an electrical load check to pumps, etc. is currently on-going. Work on the restoration of off-site power to Units 3 and 4 is also underway.

Seawater is still being injected into the reactor pressure vessels of Units 1, 2 and 3.

Pressure in the reactor pressure vessel and the containment vessel drywell at Unit 3, which had been rising yesterday, has again fallen.

Water is being sprayed periodically into the spent fuel pools at Units 2, 3 and 4. The Agency still lacks data on water levels and temperatures in the spent fuel pools at Units 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Following the restoration of cooling at Units 5 and 6, temperatures in the spent fuel pools continue to decline.

2. Radiation Monitoring

As I reported yesterday, the IAEA radiation monitoring team took measurements at distances from 56 to 200 km from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. At two locations in Fukushima Prefecture gamma dose rate and beta-gamma contamination measurements have been repeated. These measurements showed high beta-gamma contamination levels. Measurements by the IAEA and the Japanese authorities were taken at the same time and locations. The Japanese and independent IAEA measurements gave comparable results.

Measurement of gamma dose rate and beta-gamma contamination were taken on 20 March at more locations. The dose-rate results ranged from 2-160 microsieverts per hour, which compares to a typical natural background level of around 0.1 microsieverts per hour. High levels of beta-gamma contamination have been measured between 16-58 km from the plant. Available results show contamination ranging from 0.2-0.9 MBq per square metre.

Further measurements are needed to assess possible contamination beyond the area currently monitored - both closer to the facility and further way. We have no contamination measurements showing that that contamination levels are high at greater distances than 58 km from the plant, but this cannot be excluded.

I have no further information available regarding the measurement of alpha radiation. As I reported yesterday, from the measurements taken within the evacuation zone (20 km), no significant alpha radiation had been detected at that time.

In the coming days, the IAEA monitoring team will continue to take measurements in the Fukushima prefecture. We are seeking data from Japan on radioactivity contamination measurements for the rest of Japan.

Some results on the monitoring of foodstuffs have been made available by Japan to the IAEA and FAO. Results provided recently by the Japanese authorities range up to 55 000 Bq per kg of I-131 in samples of Spinach taken in in the Ibaraki Prefecture. These high values are significantly above Japanese limits for restricting food consumption (i.e. 2 000 Bq/kg). I understand that the Japanese Government is actively considering relevant precautionary measures and has instructed four Prefectures (Ibaraki, Totigi, Gunma, Fukushima) to refrain, for the time being, from distributing two types of vegetables (spinach and kakina) from these Prefectures and milk from Fukshima.

3. Agency Activities

The Director General briefed the Board of Governors today on the outcome of his visit to Tokyo."
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http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2011/board210311.html

The IAEA board discusses the Fukushina situation & Director General Amano's trip to Japan.

He discusses the situation & the monitoring that has been done.

The most important thing he said, in my opinion is the following:

I know I speak for all of you when I pay tribute to the immense courage of the emergency response teams who have been battling under extremely difficult circumstances to make the reactors safe.

It is difficult for us here in Vienna to imagine the conditions in which they are working. The site has been seriously damaged by flood water and is littered with debris. Buildings have been damaged by explosions. There has, for the most part, been no electric power. Radiation levels are elevated. It is no exaggeration to describe the work of the emergency teams as heroic.
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and the second most important thing said was:

I also had meetings with senior officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) - the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant - and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).

My main message was: "You are not alone." I said that Japan faced a very serious situation but could count on the full support of the international community - both practical and moral - in overcoming it.
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Additionally, he described what the IAEA will be doing in Japan:

During my visit, the Agency's on-the-ground support to Japan became operational. It consists of three main elements.

First, a senior Agency official has been deployed in Japan to coordinate our assistance activities.

Second, the Japanese authorities agreed to the designation of two IAEA liaison officers, now in place, who are working closely with NISA 24 hours per day.

Third, the Agency's radiation monitoring team has begun sending back measurements to Vienna, including from locations close to the Fukushima site. Additional staff will fly out from Vienna shortly to strengthen the team.

Since the accident, I have tried to address some widespread misconceptions in the media about the IAEA's role in nuclear safety. These misunderstandings fuelled some criticism of the Agency's response, which was not always justified.

I explained that we are not a "nuclear safety watchdog" and that responsibility for nuclear safety lies with our Member States. The IAEA acts as a hub for international cooperation, helping to establish safety standards and providing expert advice on best practice. But, in contrast to the Agency's role in nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear safety measures are applied voluntarily by each individual country and our role is supportive.

....

The speed at which information now travels, and the huge volume of information in public circulation, are among the most significant changes since then. Live television and the internet provide constant updates on a crisis situation - not always accurately - to a global audience.

The responsibility of the IAEA is to provide authoritative and validated information as quickly as possible, but doing this under the current arrangements inevitably takes time and has limitations.


-- By Peter Kaiser, IAEA Division of Public Information
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Today, on MSNBC, I heard some fool commentator complaining that because reactors 5 & 6 were hooked up to off site power while Reactors 1, 3 & 4 hadn't been yet, that somehow TEPCO was lying to the media and we should distrust everything they say. For me, that is an insult to people who are heroes. When you are working in such a dangerous & difficult situation, estimates of time to complete projects have to been seen as goals rather than promises.

I'm praying for all of them.
 
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The NEI put up another update.

The smoke at unit 3 subsided after two hours. No clue has been given as to what was the source of the smoke. It did cause radiation levels downwind to rise.

TEPCO estimates the height of the tsunami as 14 meters (45.9 feet !) when it hit land at Daiichi.


UPDATE AS OF 6:30 P.M. EDT, MONDAY, MARCH 21:

Japan's NHK broadcasting network reported that Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed that the March 11 earthquake and tsunami were beyond the Fukushima Daiichi plant's design standards.

TEPCO believes the tsunami that inundated the Fukushima Daiichi site was 14 meters high, the network said. The design basis tsunami for the site was 5.7 meters, and the reactors and backup power sources were located 10 to 13 meters above sea level. The company reported that the maximum earthquake for which the Fukushima Daiichi plants were designed was magnitude 8. The quake that struck March 11 was magnitude 9.

Smoke seen from Fukushima Daiichi reactor 3 on Monday subsided after about two hours. Water pressure and levels at the reactor were unchanged through the episode, as were radiation levels, the company said.

The site was temporarily cleared of workers after smoke rose from at the secondary containment buildings that house reactors 2 and 3. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the smoke from reactor 2 caused radiation levels downwind to rise for about three and a half hours.

TEPCO continues work to reconnect external power to all six reactors. Connections were made to the distribution line at reactor 1 and 2, and components and circuits at those reactors are being checked. Similar power connections have been made to reactors 5 and 6 and a diesel generator is providing power to a cooling pump for the used fuel pools. Power cable is being laid to reactor 4, and power is expected to be restored to reactors 3 and 4 by Tuesday.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano announced that Prime Minister Kan has ordered the governors of four prefectures near Fukushima to restrict the shipment of spinach and "kakina," another leafy vegetable. The shipment of milk from Fukushima prefectures was also restricted. Edano said the order was a precautionary emergency measure.
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colleen o'neill said:
:) doris... I wish there was some way we could nominate you for a Pulitzer , or something..You know you've been better than many news outlets throughout this whole nightmare..sticking with the story , checking the facts..I love telling people my source for news is GoldenSkate FS forums..:laugh:
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I completely agree. I really appreciate your newsposts, Doris. I'm not saying much, because it's a lot to take in at the end of a long day, but it's a lot of quality work you're doing for our benefit.

mot, what you said about the potential long-term economic impact for Fukushima and possible discrimination of the people who lived around there...I hope it doesn't go on for long. It's sad to think that the tragedy doesn't just stop when the quakes/tsunamis do, it's been too much already.
 
All the measurements of radiation on food and in milk in Japan came to mind while I was thrashing my way through "Wormwood Forest" again.

On page 122 the following discussion takes place between workers in the Chernobyl Zone:

Igor himself once shot a roe deer measuring 1,000 becquerels in the hunting grounds outside Ivankiv. "I ate that one," he said, with a mischievous smile.

"You're kidding, right?" exclaimed Chernobylinternform's Rimma Kyselytsia, who had come by to take me to my next appointment. "The maximum allowable levels for cesium-137 for meat are 200 becquerels per kilo."

The maximum permissible amount of strontium in a kilogram meat is 20 becquerels. In fish, it is 150 becquerels of cesium per kilogram and 35 for strontium, while in fruit it is 70 becquerels of cesium and 10 of strontium. The maximum amount of cesium allowed in a kilogram of mushrooms or berries is 500 becquerels of cesium and 50 of strontium.

"That's in Ukraine," said Igor. "But Ukraine practices overkill when it comes to radioactivity levels in food. The international standard for permissibile radioactivity is 1,000 becquerels and that's good enough for me."

The United Nations set the 1,000 becquerel standard for cross border trade in food, but other countries set lower thresholds-though not so low as Ukraine's. In Japan, it's 350 becquerels per kilogram. In Europe, it's 600. In Belarus, the maximum cesium allowable in game meat is 500 becquerels."

Soaking meat in brine for an hour can remove nearly half of the radionucleides, while soaking for a day gets rid of more than 80 percent, though it also leaches out vitamins and nutrients.
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Just what's safe to eat is a subject of significant disagreement it would seem. There is a lot of opinion, it's clear, in the health science of eating radioactive food.

This website has more info on the differences in measures of radioactivity, and some info about differences in radioactivity, by where you live, and what you do. It's an interesting, if somewhat perplexing read.

http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/53939/radiation-exposure

US natural background radiation exposure is an average of 3.6 milleSieverts/year

Australia 2.4 milleSieverts/year
,
Ramsar (Iran) 260 milleSieverts/ year
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Ramsar Iran has more than 100x the background dose of Australia.

And there is another unit you might see, the picocurie (pCi). A Becquerel is one atomic decay per second. (Bq). A banana has 18.9 Bq of potassium 40.

- EPA limit for drinking water = 20,000 pCi of tritium/liter = 740 Bq of tritium/liter.

I see no reason whatsoever for using the pCi, other than the scare the public to death. So far, we haven't seen it used in this discussion, but look for it.
 
TEPCO has it's 9 am status up for March 22, 2011.

The only item that is new is:

On March 21st, we detected cobalt, iodine and cesium from the seawater
around discharge canal of Unit 1, 2, 3 and 4.
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This is not surprising, given that cesium 137 and iodine 131 have been found elsewhere on the ground and on vegetables. The question is, how much, and the reports don't say.

cesium 137 is an important contaminant & health risk in the soils around Chernobyl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137

The mean contamination of caesium-137 in Germany following the Chernobyl disaster was 2000 to 4000 Bq/m2. This corresponds to a contamination of 1 mg/km2 of caesium-137, totaling about 500 grams deposited over all of Germany.
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I'm assuming the cobalt is cobalt 60

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11032201-e.html

And they issued the above statement:

On March 21st 2011, radioactive materials were detected from the seawater
around the discharge canal (south) of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Station which was damaged by The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku
Earthquake.
This is the result of the sampling survey of radioactive materials in the
seawater which was implemented as a part of monitorings of surrounding
environment.
TEPCO had informed the result to Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
(NISA) and Fukushima prefecture.
Details are as follows;
Re-sampling survey is scheduled tomorrow in the morning.
Same kind of sampling survey is scheduled at Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power
Station to examine radioactive materials spread into the sea.
Click to expand...
 
On a more unpleasant note, my antivirus program just popped up with a notice that scammers are collecting money, purportedly for Japan, but really for themselves. This is unspeakably vile, but it was very common post-Katrina, and a lot of people were taken in.

The program advises me to donate to those of my regular charities who have initiatives to help Japan and the quake victims.

In my case, that would be Habitat for Humanity.
 
JAIF has a copy of what was reported on NHK.

I'm not sure whether there are one or two instances of white smoke. However, I do know from the recently released TEPCO monitoring results for the Main Gate area that radiation has been slowly decreasing, since the spike. (264 MicroSieverts/hour at 6 am March 22, Japanese time.

Status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station as of 12:00, March 22,
2011
Here is information regarding the status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
station from the news reports aired by NHK on the midnight and morning of
March 22.
 TEPCO resumed the work to recover external AC power to these units
around 19:00, March 21. TEPCO is trying to recover external AC power at
unit-2 and unit-3 by March 23rd. TEPCO stopped the work after Gray smoke
from unit-3 and steam like white smoke from unit-2 was discovered on the
evening of March 21st. (11:23, March 22)
 Radiation surrounding Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station increased
after white steam rose from the unit-2. Radiation decreased afterward. People
who worked at unit-1, 2, 3 and 4 evacuated indoor after white smoke rose
from unit-2 around 18:20 of March 21st. (08:45, March 22)
 It is founded that the Tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station
and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was 14-meter-high, which is
more than 2 times of tsunami height assumed. (06:25, March 22)
 TEPCO conducted investigation and radioactive nuclides such as iodine and
cesium were detected from seawater around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power station. (03:45, March 22)
End
Click to expand...

The JAIF has a little more info on the sea water sampling, from their 10 AM, Japanese time, March 22, report:

Monitoring results of seawater sampled at the front coast of the station showed that radioactive Iodine, I-131, and Cesium, Cs-134, 137, exceeding the regulatory limit were detected.
Click to expand...

Cesium 134 is another isotope of cesium, found in nuclear accidents.
 
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