Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Reactors

[dorispulaski]

NEI has a better description of how the reactor air sampling is going to go:

Friday Update




From NEI’s Japan micro-site:

TEPCO Initiates Gas Sampling for Reactors 1, 2

Plant Status

• Workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility in Japan will begin sampling gases inside containment at reactors 1 and 2 to obtain more accurate data on the types and amount of radioactive substances being released. TEPCO hopes that analysis of the samples will help determine the extent to which nuclear fuel from the reactors is leaking into containment. The gases will be extracted through pipes and analyzed on the first floor of the reactor buildings. Radiation measurements thus far have been based on readings taken on the facility premises. Sampling is scheduled to begin today at reactor 1 and in early August at reactor 2. TEPCO has not yet made plans for sampling at reactor 3, where radiation levels remain high. This is because TEPCO only began injecting nitrogen into reactor 3 on July 15 to minimize the risk of a hydrogen explosion. Nitrogen injection into reactors 1 and 2 began in April and June.

• TEPCO plans to issue an updated roadmap to recovery at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in mid-August. Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a public meeting with stakeholders July 28 to discuss the agency’s near-term task force recommendations for safety enhancements at U.S. nuclear energy facilities after the Fukushima accident. Numerous stakeholders, including the industry, called for a thorough and methodical review of accident details as they become available so that regulatory actions are consistent with lessons learned. In the next several weeks, the five-member commission is expected to provide direction to the NRC staff on next steps.

• Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has ordered the governor of Miyagi Prefecture to suspend all shipments of beef cattle after levels of cesium above the government safety limit were detected in some cattle raised there. Miyagi is the second prefecture to have cattle shipments banned. Fukushima Prefecture received a suspension order last week.

Upcoming Events

• The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing Aug. 2 to review the NRC’s near-term task force recommendations for enhancing reactor safety. The witness list has not been announced.

 

[let`s talk]

An angry Tokyo University professor is talking (with English subtitles):
http://tokyodv.com/videolog/japan-negligence-fukushima-29-6-hiroshima-nuclear-bombs/

 

[dorispulaski]

I am not sure that the item listed against Unit 3 for Spent Fuel Pool isn't incorrectly listed, and should be against Unit 4, since Unit 3's pool has been running on external pumped cooling for some time, and since JAIF reports that Unit 4's pool was very close to being done on July 27:

Unit 4

Leak test and test-run conducted on July 27th

TEPCO's status report for 3:00 JST July 30th:

Unit 1


Water was injected at approx. 3.5 m3/h through feed water system
piping arrangement. At 11:57 am on July 30, the amount of water injection through feed water system piping arrangement was adjusted to approx. 3.6 m3/h. Water is currently injected at approx. 3.6 m3/h through feed water system piping arrangement.


Unit 2

Water was injected at approx. 3.4 m3/h through feed water system
piping arrangement.At 11:57 am on July 30, the amount of water injection through feed water system piping arrangement was adjusted to approx. 3.6 m3/h. Water is currently injected at approx. 3.6m3/h through feed water system piping arrangement.


Unit 3

Water is currently injected at approx. 8.9 m3/h through reactor feed water
system piping arrangement.

-From 10 am to 5 pm on July 29, we transferred accumulated water at Unit 6
turbine building to the temporary tank.

-At 10:00 am on July 30, we started transferring low level accumulated
water from temporary tank to Mega Float.

-At 11:00 am on July 30, we transferred accumulated water at Unit 6 turbine building to the temporary tank.

-At 11:04 am on July 30, we transferred accumulated water at spent fuel common pool building to the water desalinations tank.

-From 1:16 pm to 2:47 pm on July 30, fresh water was injected to the reactor well and drier separator pit in Unit 4 to reduce the amount of radiation dose in 5th floor of the reactor building.


-At 7:47 pm on June 30, we started cyclic cooling of the spent fuel pool in Unit 3 using alternative cooling system for fuel pool cooling and filtering system. (From 11:12 am to 12:57 pm on July 30, we also injected hydrazine as corrosion inhibitor.)

Rain is getting worse; evacuations have occurred:

NHK

Torrential rain hits Niigata, Fukushima

Torrential rain in Niigata and Fukushima prefectures in northern Japan has caused rivers to overflow, raising the danger of landslides.

Authorities have issued an evacuation order or advisory to about 389,000 people in 15 municipalities. In Niigata's Sanjo City, more than 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate after a dike collapsed. A 67-year-old man in Niigata Prefecture was found in a stream and later confirmed dead. 5 people are missing in the region.

Since Wednesday, more than 650 millimeters of rain has been recorded in some parts of Fukushima. Niigata has gotten more than 600 millimeters.

The Meteorological Agency is calling on people to be on the alert for floods, landslides, lightning, and strong winds.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 11:57 +0900 (JST)

and support from people outside Japan for Japan remains high:

Messages from abroad for 3/11 disaster survivors
An exhibition featuring 1,000 messages sent from other countries to encourage March 11th disaster survivors is being held in Tokyo.

An American non-governmental group organized the exhibition at Ikebukuro station in central Tokyo. The messages were collected in New York and other cities and are written on small pieces of paper arranged in the shape of Japan's national flag.

Many passersby also handed in their own messages. A French woman living in Japan said she wrote words of encouragement because she loves the country and hopes it will recover soon.

An exhibition staff member said he hopes the Japanese people will understand how many people overseas are supporting the country.

The display will continue until August 10th in Tokyo. The organizer plans to exhibit the messages in other cities around the world.
Friday, July 29, 2011 16:03 +0900 (JST)

Investigations continue on the subject of both NISA and power companies packing public meetings with employees posing as ordinary citizens. TEPCO also reported this; presumably NISA is looking for Chubu/Kyushu Electric situations, where either the company asked or ordered employees to write positive letters and questions for public meetings (as at Kyushu Electric), or whether NISA asked the company to ask or order employees to do so (Chubu Electric).

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110729e22.pdf

TEPCO says some employees, for example those in the PR department, were asked to go to the meetings as a "gallery" to listen to what people had to say, record it, and bring the info back to the company. No one reported being asked or ordered to pose as a non-employee, or to ask a scripted question, or to express any opinion.

Fliers were handed out giving the date and location of the symposium, but no requests for attendance were made to the general working population.

You can believe this or not, I suppose. There is no way to prove whether their investigation is truthful or not.

US proposes central nuclear waste storage plant

A US government panel of nuclear experts has proposed a plan to build a central storage plant for spent nuclear fuel.

The blue ribbon commission established by President Barack Obama released an interim report on Friday on how to manage spent fuel rods from US nuclear power facilities.

The report noted a new strategy is needed as the government faces rising public interest in the disposal of spent nuclear fuel in the wake of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant in Japan.

The commission called for building a central storage plant that can store spent nuclear fuel for a maximum of 100 years and to establish an independent entity to find a location for such a facility.

The report also points to the need for a final disposal site where nuclear waste could be buried underground.

And the report urges the government to find a way to safely manage the dangerous materials to avoid passing on the burden of nuclear waste to coming generations.

The Obama administration has cancelled a plan to build a nuclear waste repository in the western state of Nevada, which had been pushed by the previous administration of former president George W Bush.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 12:46 +0900 (JST)

This is not quite what the Blue Ribbon Commission proposed. However, if they had, it is quite sad that they want to recreate Yucca Mountain, when we already have a Yucca Mountain.

Meanwhile, the following blog reminds us that compact reactors that can run a small city for 20 years are built every day, at projected cost, and on schedule in factories. These reactors run our Navy ships. Reactors for our submarines arrive here in Groton, CT, by barge, from the factory and are installed in Virginia class submarines being built here at General Dynamics.
http://atomicinsights.com/2011/07/s...mpaign=Feed:+AtomicInsights+(Atomic+Insights)
These days, the US is building small modular reactors in just 3-4 years
http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08775a.htm

– in factory settings and in a confined space. There was a time when we could decide to fund and build packaged reactors for installation in remote places like Greenland or Antarctica and have the plant up and running in its designated place in less than two years. It is physically possible, though today’s regulatory environment makes it far more challenging to demonstrate that reality.

He suggests that we should be using more of these small reactors in towns and cities.

 

[dorispulaski]

No problems at Fukushima Daini & Daiichi from the most recent earthquake.

TEPCO's status report for 3:00 JSP July 31st

Unit 4's spent fuel pool is now under control. Only Unit 1's remains to be cooled automatically, and by recirculation.

-At 10:08 am on July 31, we started alternative cyclic cooling system for spent fuel pool of Unit 4 by using alternative cooling system of the Pool's cooling and filtering system. , and implemented trial run. At 0:44 pm on the same day, we conducted its performance assessment, and started the full-scale operation.

Unit 1
-At 5:01 am on July 31, because the amount of water injection to the reactor was found to be lowered, the amount of water injection through feed water system piping arrangement was adjusted to approx. 3.7 ㎥/h. Water is currently injected at approx. 3.7 ㎥/h through feed water system piping arrangement.
Unit 2
-At 5:01 am on July 31, because the amount of water injection to the reactor was found to be lowered, the amount of water injection through feed water system piping arrangement was adjusted to approx. 3.7 ㎥/h. Water is currently injected at approx. 3.7 ㎥/h through feed water system piping arrangement.

-From 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on July 30, we transferred low level accumulated water from temporary tank to Mega Float.

-From 11:00 am to 4:00 pm on July 30, we transferred accumulated water at Unit 6 turbine building to the temporary tank.

-At 11:04 am on July 30, we started transferring accumulated water at spent fuel common pool building to the water desalinations tank.

-At 4:10 pm on July 30, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 2 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility.

-At 4:13 pm on July 30, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 3 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility.

-Approximately 3:54 am on July 31, an earthquake whose seismic center was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture with magnitude 6.4 occurred, though there were no particular influence to the status of activities, including water injection to the reactors of Unit 1 to 3, nitrogen gas injection to Primary Containment Vessels of Unit 1 to 3, operation of water treatment facilities, circulating cooling of pool water using alternative cooling facilities of spent fuel pool cooling and filtering system of Unit 2 and 3. In addition, each unit's major parameters do not show unusual figures, and no injured was found. The monitoring posts located on the border of the power station's premise shows figures within its normal range.

-At 10:00 am on July 31, we started transferring low level accumulated water at temporary tank to Mega Float.

- At 10:50 am on July 31, a leakage was detected at a water transfer pipe (hose) of the desalination system. At 11:15 am, we stopped operation of the transfer, and then shut down the desalination system. Since we found no more leakage by replacing the said pipe, we resumed operation of the system at 3:02 pm.

- At 11:00 am on July 31, we started transfer of the accumulated water from T/B, Unit 6 to Temporary Tank.

And sometimes things happen at Fukushima Daini

Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station: Units 1 to 4: shutdown due to the earthquake - At 6:32 am on July 31, air leak was found at the weld zone of unit 4's main emission duct by TEPCO employee. Radioactive materials in the air were below measurable limits. No outlier at main emission monitor and monitoring post. This is the same place repaired on June 7. The repair work will be implemented soon.

TEPCO released 144 pages of detailed analysis of all samples taken from the first and second weeks in July.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110730e9.pdf
Findings:
Outside the inner harbor, there was some cesium down as far as Iwasawa shore, but none off shore.
Inside the inner harbor, iodine & cesium only were found.
In the subdrains, mostly cesium, except Unit 1, which additionally had silver 110 and Tellurium 129 (a very short half life isotope) in the first week of July only. Subdrains of Units 4, 5, 6 had nothing found. Unit 2 had iodine as well as cesium. Unit 3 had cesium. By July 13, there was no iodine and no tellurium in any subdrain. Nothing has been found in the deep well since the first week after the tsunami.

Ocean Soil:
north discharge channel of Daiichi: 9600 becquerels per kg of Cs 137
south channel Daiichi: 1700 becquerels per kg
north channel Daini: 570 becquerels per kg
south channel Daini: 490 becquerels per kg
NHK News

Tepco test-runs No.4 spent fuel pool cooling device
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has begun a test-run of a device to cool a spent fuel storage pool where water temperature remains high.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company began test-running the cooling device at the No.4 reactor spent fuel pool on Sunday morning. The water temperature remained high there at 86 degrees Celsius on Sunday morning.

The pool holds 1,535 fuel rods, the most for any of the plant's reactors. (ETA, which is why it has been the most difficult to keep cool)

The wall supporting the pool was damaged in a blast on March 15th. TEPCO has reinforced the wall with steel pillars and concrete.

Workers then installed a cooling device with a heat exchanger to establish a circulatory cooling system that cools the water from the pool and returns it there.

TEPCO says it will gradually increase the volume of water flowing into the device. If no problems are found, the company plans to lower the water temperature to around 55 degrees within a month.

TEPCO is already cooling the water at the spent fuel pools at the No. 2 and 3 reactors. The utility is planning to do the same for the No. 1 reactor soon. ETA (Unit 1's pool has the fewest rods and has been the easiest to keep cool by water injection.)
Sunday, July 31, 2011 12:51 +0900 (JST)

Big earthquakes always have big after shocks.

Strong earthquake hits Fukushima
An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.5 jolted Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on Sunday morning.

The Meteorological Agency says the quake occurred at around 3:53 AM.

The quake's focus is off Fukushima Prefecture and is 57 kilometers deep.

Tremors with an intensity of 5 plus on the Japanese scale of zero to 7 hit Naraha Town and Kawauchi Village in Fukushima.

There is no chance of a tsunami.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says there have been no reports of abnormalities at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 05:30 +0900 (JST)

This will help people, I hope, to get the compensation they deserve.

Some 100 lawyers to mediate nuclear disputes
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations will assign around 100 lawyers to mediate settlements at proposed state entities dealing with compensation disputes related to the Fukushima nuclear accident.

In April, the government formed a panel to work on who is eligible for compensation in a bid to swiftly assist those affected by the accident.

The panel is holding discussions on creating dispute-settlement centers in Tokyo and Fukushima Prefecture.

The panel plans to have legal experts, including lawyers, bring about settlements. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations is making a list of about 100 lawyers to be recommended for the work.

The federation is also preparing to appoint 30 lawyers as screening officers tasked with looking into compensation claims and compiling points of contention.

The federation's secretary general, Yuichi Kaido, says his organization will do its utmost as the dispute-resolution centers are designed to handle the unprecedented size of compensation quickly and fairly.Sunday, July 31, 2011 05:30 +0900 (JST)

and the latest totals on the original disasters:

About 20,600 dead or missing in March 11 disasterThe number of dead or missing in the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, including aftershocks, stands at 20,627 as of Saturday.

The National Police Agency says 15,648 people are confirmed dead and 4,979 remain unaccounted for.

Miyagi Prefecture has the most deaths at 9,367, followed by Iwate with 4,615 and Fukushima with 1,600.

The disaster also claimed 24 lives in Ibaraki Prefecture, 20 in Chiba, and 7 in Tokyo.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 01:19 +0900 (JST)

 

[Olympia]

Well, at least the more recent earthquake didn't cause either a tsunami or any further damage, at least at the nuclear plants. But how awful about the rain.

A few posts back, I noticed you mentioned that two of the players on the World Cup team had at one point worked for TEPCO. Very interesting; gives even more meaning to their team's win.

 

[dorispulaski]

Olympia, Glad you're still reading. Yes, the fact that 2 TEPCO employees who had played on the company team were on the winning FIFA soccer team really hit me too.

The next milestone requires the reactor bottom temperature to be below 100 C, stably, for cold shutdown. So I'm going to start reporting on them. This is one of the guidelines that the government has talked about using before allowing evacuees whose home towns have acceptable radiation levels to go home.
August 1, 5:00 AM JST
Unit 1, Reactor bottom head temperature: 93.5 C
Unit 2, Reactor bottom head temperature: 121 C
Unit 3, Reactor bottom head temperature: 106.5 C

Radiation readings at Daiichi, August 1, 9 AM JST
Eight peripheral measurements (5, 22, 14, 13, 16, 35, 107, 88 ) microSieverts per hour
Main Building 321 microSieverts per hour
West gate 13 microSieverts per hour
Main gate 31 microSieverts per hour

Radiation readings at Daini, August 1, 9 AM JST
Seven peripheral readings ( 1.5, 1.2, 1.6, 1.4, 1.4, 0.9, 1.1 ) microSieverts per hour

TEPCO Status 10 AM JST August 1

At 10:00 am on July 31, we started transferring low-radiation level accumulated water, which we transferred from Unit 6 turbine building to temporary tank, from the temporary tank to Mega Float. At 5:00 pm on the same day, we stopped the transfer.

- At 11:00 am on July 31, we started transferring accumulated water from Unit 6 turbine building to temporary tank again. At 4:00 pm on the same day, we stopped the transfer.


At 8:06 am on August 1, we started fresh water injection to the skimmer surge tank of Unit 4 to pour water by using Alternative water injection line. At 8:48 on the same day. we stopped the water injection.

It looks like the new decontamination unit is very quick to install. Really, similar units should be run as part of waste water plants in places like Koriyama City where the concentration of cesium in sludge is high.

TEPCO installs new decontamination unit
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, installed new decontamination equipment at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Sunday.

The new equipment, called SARRY, is made by Japanese manufacturers. It consists of 14 cylindrical tanks. Each tank is about 3.5 meters high and 1.4 meter in diameter.

The equipment is designed to reduce radioactive substances in water, such as cesium and strontium, to about one millionth of the starting level.

TEPCO plans to use the new equipment, along with the existing system, for dealing with radioactive substances. After carefully going over pipe connections and conducting a test run, the utility aims to put the new system into operation around early August.

TEPCO is currently using a wastewater system that decontaminates radioactive water and recycles it as coolant for reactors. But the existing device has been hit with various problems. Its operating rate has been reduced to 63 percent, far below the goal of 90 percent.
Monday, August 01, 2011 05:59 +0900 (JST)

Full operation of Unit 4 Spent Fuel Pool cooling device begins
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has begun full operation of a device to cool a spent fuel storage pool.

The pool holds 1,535 fuel rods, the most for any of the plant's reactors. The wall supporting the pool was damaged in a blast on March 15th.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company reinforced the wall with steel pillars and concrete, and installed a cooling device with a heat exchanger to set up a circulatory cooling system.

TEPCO conducted a test-run of the cooling device at the Number 4 reactor's spent fuel pool on Sunday morning. It gradually increased the volume of water flowing into the device before shifting to full operation in the afternoon.
TEPCO says the water temperature of the pool remained above 86 degrees Celsius in the morning and it was around 82 to 84 degrees as of 5 PM.

The company plans to lower the water temperature to around 55 degrees within a month to cool the reactor in a stable manner.

TEPCO is already cooling the water in the spent fuel pools at the Number 2 and 3 reactors. It plans to do the same for the Number 1 reactor soon.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 22:41 +0900 (JST)

The next article is not news. Basically, outside the inner harbor, the cesium is not in the water, except at those times near shore when turbulence kicks up some of the cesium that has precipitated out of the seawater and has contaminated the ocean bottom (see yesterday's 144 page report on the analysis of everything). The inner harbor also has turbulence too from time to time when you see a localized rise in concentration, and some issues when there is runoff, and some that may depend on how much clean water is added to the harbor from the tides.

Cesium in seawater leveling out at the Fukushima reactors
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said on Sunday that the level of radioactive cesium in seawater around the Number 3 reactor has shown no signs of increasing since Saturday.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has been constantly checking the level of radioactive substances at water intakes in the plant and offshore.

On Saturday, seawater collected near the water intake of the Number 3 reactor recorded 1.3 becquerels of cesium 134 per cubic centimeter, which is 22 times higher than the national legal limit.

Cesium 137 was 17 times the limit at 1.5 becquerels.
But the recorded level hasn't changed since Friday.

In May, high levels of radioactive water were poured into the area around the intake and shortly afterwards cesium 134 levels 20,000 times higher than the legal limit were detected there. Levels of the radioactive substance have been decreasing since then.

In addition, iodine-131 was not detected from seawater collected from the intake of reactor Number 2 on Friday and Saturday, although it reached 7.5 million times the limit in April.

TEPCO says it conducted investigations at 4 other spots in coastal waters. It also said that radioactive cesium was detected in one of the coastal waters but was below the legal limit.

The utility says it believes that radioactive water is no longer leaking since levels of radioactive substances have stayed relatively flat.
Monday, August 01, 2011 05:59 +0900 (JST)

Definitely better to know than to find out later.

Chiba, Tochigi to test rice for cesium traces
The Chiba and Tochigi prefectural governments say they will test the rice harvested in their prefectures for radiation.

The decision comes after radioactive cesium was detected in rice straw, vegetables and compost following the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Farmers in Chiba and Tochigi planted rice seedlings in their fields after the accident and are voicing concerns over possible contamination due to fallout from the Fukushima plant.

Officials in Chiba, where harvesting is expected to begin as early as August, say they will sample unmilled rice from one to several farms in each rice-growing municipality to measure radiation levels.

They say they will not allow any farms in a municipality to ship their rice unless the tests show that the radiation readings of samples from the area are within the safety limit set by the central government.

Tochigi authorities plan to have each area submit a sample for testing. They say they will also purchase 2 special devices to detect radioactive cesium, although they are still discussing the details of the testing method with the government.

In Tochigi, rice harvesting will start in early September.

The 2 prefectures are the first in Japan to announce that they will test rice for radioactive cesium.
Monday, August 01, 2011 10:06 +0900 (JST)

and politics is politics in Japan, just as in the US. Something bad is always due to somebody else. However, IAEA also criticized the structure of NISA in their report:

Kan criticizes NISA for manipulation
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has criticized Japan's nuclear regulator for trying to manipulate public opinion on nuclear power.

Kan attended an energy policy forum on Sunday in Chino, north of Tokyo. He referred to the alleged manipulation of opinion on nuclear energy by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

The agency allegedly told Chubu Electric Power Company to ensure that some participants at a symposium asked prearranged questions in favor of nuclear power. The event was held 4 years ago in Shizuoka Prefecture, which hosts a nuclear plant.

Kan said if the allegation is true, it means that the agency sided with the utility to promote nuclear power, although the agency should ensure the safety of nuclear plants for the public.

Kan likened the agency's allegation to the scandal of tainted blood products, which he tackled when he was health minister in the mid-1990s.

In the 1980s, many people, mostly patients with hemophilia, contracted HIV through tainted products because the health ministry allowed drugmakers to sell them even after safer products were developed.

Kan said the current nuclear administration and system totally lack the ability of responding to nuclear accidents. He put the blame on the realignment of government offices about a decade ago under Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto that created various committees in the Cabinet Office.

Kan expressed his resolve to address the fundamental reorganization of institutions related to energy policy, and not just the separation of the agency from the economy ministry. He said he will pursue a fundamental reconstruction of the nuclear and energy administration from a position free from any vested interests.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 22:41 +0900 (JST)

Lantern floating ceremony held in Ishinomaki
People floated lanterns on a river in disaster-affected Miyagi Prefecture to pray for the peaceful repose of the souls of the victims of the March earthquake and tsunami.

On Sunday, the lantern floating ceremony was held as part of the traditional festival called "Ishinomaki Kawabiraki Festival".

The festival has been observed since the early 20th century to give thanks to the local Kitakami River for its blessings.

This year, the organizer decided to reduce the scale of the festival out of respect for the souls of the victims of the massive quake and tsunami on March 11th.

People gathered for the memorial service near the river running through central Ishinomaki city.

They floated about 10,000 lanterns on the river.
The river overflowed after being hit by the tsunami in March, causing a lot of damage to the area.

A woman who lost her mother said that she wrote her mother's name on a lantern hoping that she would be able watch her beloved grandchildren grow.

In Ishinomaki City, 3149 people died in the disaster and 900 are still missing.
Monday, August 01, 2011 05:59 +0900 (JST)

and as people try to stay cool without air conditioning, fan makers are making money:

Record number of fans imported in June
The number of electric fans imported by Japan rose to a record high in June, as many people are trying to save energy because of anticipated power shortages.

According to the Tokyo Customs, nearly 2.2 million foreign-made fans landed at the Tokyo port last month. This is roughly triple the figure for a year earlier and the highest monthly total since 1979 when customs began taking statistics.

The value of imported fans also marked a record high of about 2.7 billion yen, or about 35 million dollars.

More than 98 percent of the imported fans were from China, followed by Thailand and Taiwan.

The sharp increase is attributed to increasing demand for fans, which need less electricity than air-conditioners.

Japanese electric appliance makers have boosted their overseas production as retailers want to stock more fans.

The Tokyo Customs says imports of electric fans shot up in the 2 months before summer, and they will remain at this high level through the early autumn if the hot weather continues.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 22:41 +0900 (JST)

 

[Olympia]

Interesting about the fans--and that they have to import them.

And thanks for the explanation of how rice will be inspected. I know that will put a lot of people's worries to rest.

 

[let`s talk]

Interesting about the fans--and that they have to import them.

Some people take pet bottles, pour water in them and put them in a freezer. Then they take those bottles with ice inside out and put them right in front of a fan. In this case the air around the fan is cooler. Saw myself in a few houses. I don't do it. Still use air-cons only. But I somehow admire people's fantasy and imagination.

Also in some stations they use some kind of "mist machine," have no idea what the right name in English is. The michine is somewhere under the ceiling, the cool mist of whitish color is going out. It gives the affect of a sea breeze. As if you are on the beach! Also, it's fun for kids. They always to try to "catch" the whitish mist or "run away" from it.

 

[dorispulaski]

This brings back childhood memories! People would buy a block of ice and place it on a plate (to catch melting water) in front of a fan. It definitely made you feel cooler than the fan alone.

Also people carried fans and fanned themselves to stay cool.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110801e11.pdf

As announced in "Roadmap towards Restoration from the Accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station" on July 19, 2011, we are in consideration of water shield wall to prevent further seawater contamination by underground water, and to start construction during the Step 2 period. We have now decided to pre-install water shield wall in front of the existing sea walls of Unit 1 to 4, to prevent further seawater contamination by underground water. We will compile the design in an early stage, and start construction within the Step 2 period.

A wall is going to be built on the seaward side of the current sea wall. This wall is going to extend down to an "inpermeable" layer of rock, so that all seepage from the site through permeable layers will be stopped.


NHK

Govt bans beef cattle shipments from Iwate
Japan's government has ordered Iwate Prefecture to suspend shipments of all beef cattle, after radiation levels above government standards were detected in some beef from the region.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Monday that the ban was issued to the governor of Iwate after levels of radioactive cesium above the standard were found in beef from 2 municipalities.

Edano said the government will ensure that cattle farmers receive appropriate compensation, adding it will swiftly lift the ban for beef whose safety is confirmed.

Iwate is the third prefecture to face a beef shipment ban after Fukushima and Miyagi. Some cattle in Iwate were fed rice straw contaminated with radioactive cesium.

Authorities have confirmed that beef from 6 such cattle was contaminated with high levels of cesium.

The government will require the inspection of all beef from farmers who shipped meat contaminated with high levels of cesium or used tainted rice straw. Other farmers are asked to check their first beef to be shipped to market. The government says it will allow beef shipments when radiation levels are confirmed to be below the standard.

Iwate ships about 36,000 beef cattle a year. The prefecture says it will check all cattle for radiation exposure before shipment.

The government will also ask the prefecture to temporarily reduce the number of shipments to match its inspection capability.
Monday, August 01, 2011 18:45 +0900 (JST)

It's not clear whether they checked the basement of this building before.

TEPCO finds highly radioactive water flows in another building
Highly radioactive water has been found in the basement of a building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant near the storage facility for contaminated water.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said on Monday that it discovered about 700 tons of contaminated water on Saturday in the basement of an on-site building.

The utility said the water contained 19,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium 134 per cubic centimeter, and 22,000 becquerels of cesium 137 --- both very high levels.

Until June, the building was connected by a hose with another building where highly radioactive water is now being stored. The buildings are located next to each other and are part of the plant's waste disposal facility.

The utility is investigating how the leakage happened but says it has already started the work to stop the contaminated water from leaking out of the building.
Monday, August 01, 2011 21:00 +0900 (JST)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/science/earth/30radiation.html?_r=1
N.R.C. Lowers Estimate of How Many Would Die in Meltdown

Big releases of radioactive material would not be immediate, and people within a 10-mile radius would have enough time to evacuate, the study found. The chance of a death from acute radiation exposure within 10 miles is therefore near zero, the study projects, although some people would receive doses high enough to cause fatal cancers in decades to come.
One person in every 4,348 living within 10 miles would be expected to develop a “latent cancer” as a result of radiation exposure, compared with one in 167 in previous estimates.

Note that developing a cancer does not mean dying of a cancer these days.

Also note that between 25% and 33% of people in the US die of cancer without being exposed to a nuclear accident, so this increase would be hard to track, since it would be a miniscule part of normal data.

The study focused on two common reactor types in this country: boiling-water reactors at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, similar to those at Fukushima, and pressurized-water reactors at the Surry Power Station in Virginia.

The study gives a highly detailed prediction of which equipment would stop operating; what temperatures, steam pressures and flows of water and steam would result; and where and when leaks would begin after a meltdown.

It concluded that Peach Bottom would not release enough radioactive material to kill anyone immediately, although it could increase the rate of cancer deaths over future decades. At Surry, the probability was so low and the number of people living within 10 miles so small that the death toll would be a fraction of a person.

Surry is similar to Millstone here in CT, and to Indian Point in NY.

Peach Bottom is similar to Vermont Yankee, in VT, although the area within 10 miles is very sparsely populated.

Many US reactors seem to have sturdier buildings around them than the Fukushima reactors.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a very active US antinuclear group, obtained a copy of this report by a Freedom of Information Act request. The report is not due out until April. They are protesting the results, but events at Fukushima seem to corroborate the results of the report-everyone close to the reactor was able to be evacuated before the first hydrogen explosion.

Further analysis of the 3 Fukushima reactors should allow for checking the simulations the NRC is using. However, I expect their results will look much like the Japanese SPEEDI predictions, which matched the real data very well.

So people should find this report, and the NY Times article fairly reassuring.

Here's a link to the pre release version of the report that the concerned scientists got:

http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/IDMWS/ViewDocByAccession.asp?AccessionNumber=ML11168A034 (it's a 97 pg pdf file).

For those who wonder how the US intends to deal with a nuclear meltdown, the following is from p. 64 of the report:

Site-specific values are used to determine long-term habitability. Most States adhere to EPA guidelines that allow a dose of 2 rem in the first year and 500 mrem per year thereafter. The EPA recommendation has traditionally been implemented in MACCS2 as 4 rem during the first
5 years (2 rem + 4 x 0.5 rem) of exposure, and that convention is adopted here. Explicit use of the EPA recommendation cannot be implemented in MACCS2 because MACCS2 only accepts one dose and one time period.

Some States, like Pennsylvania, have a stricter habitability criterion (i.e., 0.5 rem/yr beginning in the first year). Thus, the habitability or return criterion is site specific and is discussed further in Appendix A and Appendix B.

....;

5.6 Non-Site-Specific Parameters
Ingestion of contaminated food and water is not treated in the SOARCA analyses. The reasoning
is that adequate supplies of food and water are available in the US

So, as 1 rem = 10 milliSieverts, people would be returned to any place where the dose is 20 milliSieverts/yr or less in most states.

That would be places where the radiation measurement would be 2.28 microSieverts per hour or less.


Looking at Japan:

All of Daini is below 2.28 microSieverts, for example.

This is MEXT's July 12th map. They don't have a more recent one on the site:

http://www.nsc.go.jp/nsc_mnt/110712_2.pdf

 

[dorispulaski]

TEPCO Status August 2, 10 am JST:

- At 11:04 am on July 30, we started transferring accumulated water in spent fuel common pool building to the tank located at upper stream of water desalinations (tank located at down stream of suppression pool water surge-tank) and stopped transferring at 5:45 am on August 2.

- At 4:10 pm on July 30, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 2 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility.

- At 10:00 am on August 2, we started transfer of low level accumulated water from temporary outside tank to mega-float.

- At 2:30 pm on August 1, as radiation level of surface of connection of emergency gas treatment system piping arrangement at the bottom of main exhaust stuck of unit 1 and 2 was detected over 10 Sv/h, keep the area out for restricted area with signature. We will consider countermeasure such as shielding.

The hot spot was discovered as part of the mapping effort to generate the August 1 & 2 site survey maps.


NHK

Best news yet!

No-entry zone decontamination to start next month

Japan's minister in charge of the nuclear crisis says full-scale decontamination measures will begin next month for the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Goshi Hosono made the remark on a commercial TV channel on Monday.

Hosono said the government will begin decontamination on a large scale and continue monitoring radiation levels. He said the government is aiming for a complete cleanup of the evacuation zone.

The minister added that radioactive materials must be removed from the zone so that residents can return home by early next year. January will mark the end of the second stage of a plan to achieve a cold shutdown of the damaged nuclear reactors.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 06:33 +0900 (JST)

It is ever so much better to check now than to have to recall contaminated food after it is shipped to market.

Govt to check rice for radiation

Japan's government is to ask rice-producing regions to check their crops for radiation before and after harvest.

The government plans to provide local authorities with details of the tests this week. The tests are designed to ensure that rice on the market will be free of radioactive cesium believed to come from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The government says it will suspend rice shipments if levels of cesium exceeding the safety limit are detected.

All 6 prefectures in the Tohoku region, northern Japan, have decided to test their rice for radiation.

Tokyo and 12 other prefectures also say they will carry out or consider radiation checks.

Radioactive cesium has been detected in rice straw, vegetables and compost in wide areas following the accident at the Fukushima plant.

Farmers have voiced concern that their rice may be contaminated, because it was planted after the accident.

Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo will start tests soon, as the region's harvest begins in early August.
Monday, August 01, 2011 19:15 +0900 (JST)

When you're cleaning up, you find some very dirty spots. A great deal of work in the more highly contaminated area has been done by robots-I doubt very much if a very exact survey of all locations has been done even yet, as the survey maps are very granular. Expect more hot spots to be found later.

TEPCO has been doing a site survey map about once a month. Generally, workers stay away from the really hot spots, of course. You can see from the map that they don't measure everything, and they don't measure it often.
Here's the August 2 map:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/images/f1-sv-20110802-e.pdf

I am quite sure this spot has been hot since March, but it appears that they didn't measure it "up close and personal" previously.

Highest radioactivity so far level detected at nuclear plant

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected 10,000 millisieverts of radioactivity per hour at one location at the plant. The level is the highest detected there since the nuclear accident in March.

Workers of Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Monday measured the extremely high level of radioactivity near pipes at the bottom of a duct between the No.1 and neighboring No.2 reactor buildings.

According to the science ministry's brochure, if a human received 10,000 millisieverts, they would likely die within a week or two.

TEPCO has restricted access to the site and the surrounding area.

The utility says the workers taking measurements on Monday were exposed to up to 4 millisieverts.

The utility says the high level of radioactivity was detected because the pipes were used to vent air containing radioactive substances from the crippled No.1 reactor on March 12th.

The utility had detected a maximum of 1,000 millisieverts per hour outdoors in debris, and also found a maximum of 4,000 millisieverts per hour indoors in one of the reactor buildings.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 06:33 +0900 (JST)

TEPCO to check plant radiation levels carefully

The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex is searching for radioactive hotspots after finding record high radiation near an exhaust pipe at the plant.

Tokyo Electric Power said on Monday that over 10,000 millisieverts per hour had been detected at the bottom of the exhaust pipe in between reactor buildings No.1 and No.2. That's the highest level detected since March when the quake and tsunami disabled the plant.

A photo released on Tuesday shows workers taking measurements with a detector attached to the tip of a 3-meter-long arm. The level of radiation where the workers stood reportedly reached 40 millisieverts per hour.

Here's the photos. The second photos show exactly where on the assembly the hotspots are:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/images/handouts_110802_01-e.pdf

TEPCO says the exhaust pipe was used when radioactive air was vented from the No.1 reactor's containment vessel one day after the March 11th disaster. The company subsequently revealed that the reactor had suffered a nuclear fuel meltdown. The utility believes highly radioactive substances that leaked from the container flowed into the pipe and accumulated inside.

The utility has declared the area off-limits, and is planning to seal it off with mats stuffed with lead.
It will also carefully check whether there are other highly contaminated sites within the premises that may hamper cleanup work.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 12:34 +0900 (JST)

and IAEA surely hit the nail on the head about NISA. It needs to be split off from Commerce. You can't be selling and regulating a technology at the same time. What is interesting about these cases is that it was NISA who asked the companies to do this, rather than the other way around.

Nuclear agency's meddling revealed again
Another case of questionable conduct by Japan's nuclear regulator has come to light. A former official of the nuclear safety agency has admitted asking a regional utility to mobilize its people for a government symposium on nuclear power 5 years ago.

One of the agency's former section chiefs told NHK that he made the request to an executive of Shikoku Electric Power Company ahead of the symposium in Ehime Prefecture.

The former section chief said he pushed the utility to take part actively in the event by posing questions and expressing opinions. He said he wanted its participation because opponents of nuclear power had prevented constructive debate at a similar symposium the previous year.

The former section chief denied that his aim was to manipulate public opinion. Still, Shikoku Electric mobilized retired employees and people from its affiliates, providing some of them with samples of the desired questions and opinions.

The theme of the symposium was the planned use of mixed uranium-and-plutonium fuel at the utility's nuclear plant in the prefecture. Back then, the company was waiting for local approval to start this method of power generation.

Earlier, another utility --- Chubu Electric --- reported that the nuclear safety agency had asked it to make sure that questions in favor of nuclear power be asked at a government symposium in 2007.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 09:39 +0900 (JST)

and as part of the activities around the anniversaries of the bombing of Hiroshima:

Hiroshima mayor to call for energy review

Hiroshima's mayor will call on the Japanese government to review its energy policy in an annual peace declaration on August 6th, the day the city was hit by a US atomic bomb in 1945.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Kazumi Matsui said Japanese people have lost their trust in nuclear power amid the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. But the mayor said people are divided over whether to totally scrap nuclear power generation. He said it will be best for him to describe the situation realistically in the declaration.

The mayor of the other atom-bombed city, Nagasaki, already disclosed last month that he would urge the government to shift away from nuclear energy to safer sources in his annual peace declaration on August 9th.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 14:10 +0900 (JST)

And for those that have expressed worries and concerns about the workers at Fukushima Daiichi, I hadn't seen the statistical risks laid out quite this clearly, this from Karen Street, a climatologist and global warming advocate:

http://www.friendsjournal.org/earthquake-tsunami-and-nuclear-power-japan

Although the threat to human health is smaller than what is widely believed, there may be a public health effect from the damage to the Japanese reactors. As of late May, the 21 most exposed workers have each seen an increase of 0.4–1 percent in their chance of contracting a fatal cancer

(Update: Tepco has now examined all 3,700 workers; 107 workers have from 0.4 – 0.8% chance of a fatal cancer, and another 17 have higher exposures, with chances of fatal cancer as high as 5%.)Exposure levels for other workers and the public are much lower, but one can assume that the sheer volume of exposure will produce statistical cancers, cancers predicted by the model, but occurring at a much lower rate than year-to-year variations, with vanishingly small chances of any one cancer being caused by this event. On the other hand, if the nuclear reactors were replaced with coal, in much less than a year, deaths from coal power would clearly exceed total health threats from the Daiichi disaster.

Here are tables of the likelihood of getting cancer and the likelihood of dying of cancer from low level exposure to radiation, using the Linear No Threshold model with data based on the BEIR study, done on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
http://www.nap.edu/openbook/030909156X/gifmid/311.gif

As I've discussed before, the LNT model appears to overpredict by a lot, but it is useful to set an upper bound on what can be expected.

Here is the document on the risks of coal she is citing:
http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/view/138
and the pdf file
http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/The_Toll_from_Coal.pdf

 

[dorispulaski]

August 3 temperatures:

Temperatures Reactor Pressure Vessel Bottom Head ( need to be less than 100C)
Unit 1 92.8 C
Unit 2 120.3 C
Unit 3 106.2 C
Spent Fuel Pool Temperatures
Unit 1 Not given
Unit 2 33 C
Unit 3 30.3 C
Unit 4 42 C
The new cooling arrangement at the Unit 4 spent fuel pool is working well! It was only recently as high as 85 C.
They are working on Unit 1's pool now.

TEPCO Status Report August 2nd 9:00 PM
Daiichi

- From 5:55 pm to 5:56 on August 1, we changed the volume of water injected into the reactor of Unit 1 and Unit 2 to approx. 3.9m3 / h.

- At 10:00 am on August 2, we resumed transferring the accumulated low concentrated water which was transferred from the turbine building of Unit 6 to the temporary tank to Mega Float.

- At 11:00 am on August 2, we resumed transferring the accumulated water in the basement in the turbine building of Unit 6 to the temporary tank.

Daini

○Restoration of residual heat removal system (A) of Unit 4 With regard to the residual heat removal system (A) of Unit 4, which we continued to work on for restoration, we conducted test run for it from 11:54 am to 12:24 pm on August 2 and since then it has kept in standby condition.
· At 9:31 am on August 2, we resumed regular inspection about one of the 7 monitoring posts (No.1) installed around the site boundary.

Govt sets new criteria for contaminated fertilizer
Japan's government has laid down a new set of criteria for the use of fertilizers that may be contaminated with radioactive cesium.

On Tuesday, the agriculture ministry urged farmers not to use humus and compost that contain 400 becquerels of cesium per kilogram or more.

It also called on them not to use livestock feed containing 300 becquerels of cesium per kilogram or more. For fish feed, the limit was set at 100 becquerels per kilogram.

The ministry says it will notify local governments how to measure cesium in fertilizers as soon as possible.

Last week, the agriculture ministry asked famers and fertilizer producers in 17 prefectures in eastern and central Japan to voluntarily refrain from using or selling compost and humus made from fallen leaves possibly contaminated with radioactive cesium.

This was after humus shipped from Tochigi Prefecture was found to be contaminated with radioactive substances.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 17:55 +0900 (JST)

Govt bans shipments of Tochigi beef cattle
Japan's government has ordered Tochigi Prefecture to suspend its shipments of beef cattle due to fears of radioactive contamination.

The government ordered the ban on Tuesday after beef from 4 head of cattle shipped from 2 municipalities in the prefecture was found to contain unsafe amounts of radioactive cesium.

Cesium contamination was also detected in rice straw used to feed beef cattle in the prefecture.

Tochigi is the fourth prefecture ordered to suspend beef cattle shipments, following Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate.

The government says it will allow resumption of shipments if radiation levels of all beef from farms whose shipments and feed were contaminated, as well as beef from other farms, fall below the government standard.

Tochigi says it will test all of its beef cattle, but the prefecture ships up to 55,000 head of cattle per year, and fewer than 30,000 can be processed locally.

The government is to ask the prefecture to draw up realistic plans for resuming shipments, such as limiting the number of cattle to be shipped.

Govt to conduct comprehensive radiation monitoring

Japan's government has decided to start comprehensive radiation monitoring this year by coordinating organizations that have been checking radiation levels since the Fukushima nuclear accident in March.

The government decided on the plan on Tuesday in response to criticism about difficulty in referring to results of such checks by various ministries, agencies, prefectural governments and utilities.

The plan divides monitoring activities into 6 fields including air, water, farm soil and grass, and food.

Organizations are to be in charge of monitoring and analyzing results in each field and proposing concrete measures.

The government is to set up about 250 monitoring points across the country and draw up maps showing radiation levels at children's facilities, such as schools and public libraries.

The science ministry is expected to set up a website to provide such data by mid-August.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 19:33 +0900 (JST)

Again, as workers penetrate areas that they have been avoiding, more hot spots will definitely come to light.

High radioactivity level at reactor building
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected the highest confirmed indoor level of radioactivity at the facility since the March accident.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, said on Tuesday that the level in a room on the second floor of the Number One reactor building was 5,000 millisieverts per hour.

The utility restricted access to the room, saying it will consider measures to block the radioactivity and that it has no immediate plans for operations needed in the room to bring the troubled reactor under control.

TEPCO says the level was detected because pipes running through the room were used to vent air containing radioactive substances from the reactor on March 12th.

On Monday, a level of 10,000 millisieverts per hour was detected near pipes outside the building.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 20:24 +0900 (JST)

Nissan develops EV-based home power supply system
Nissan Motor has developed a power supply system using electric vehicle batteries for use during blackouts.

The system is able to provide an average household with enough electricity to ride out a blackout for up to 2 days.
It connects batteries with distribution switch boards, to allow households to run air conditioners and other electric appliances in the event of a power outage.

Nissan aims to put the system into practical use by spring next year after completing tests.

The automaker says it was inspired by a stream of inquiries and requests from residents in areas where power shortages occurred due to the March 11th disaster, and stepped up efforts to develop the system.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 21:04 +0900 (JST)

Court injunction sought against reactor restarts
People living near 7 nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, have sought a court injunction against restarting them. The reactors are currently offline for scheduled maintenance.

Some 170 people, including residents of neighboring Shiga Prefecture, oppose the restart of 7 reactors at 3 nuclear power stations due to safety concerns.

They filed their petition with the Otsu District court in Shiga Prefecture on Tuesday.

In the petition, they argue that the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has revealed flaws in the government's safety guidelines for nuclear power stations.

They express concern about the possible radioactive contamination of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture if another nuclear accident occurs. Japan's largest lake supplies drinking water for the Kansai region.

The petition argues that the reactors should not be restarted until the government sets new safety guidelines and carries out checks based on these guidelines to ensure that the reactors can be operated safely.

Kansai Electric Power Company, which operates the 7 reactors, has declined to comment, saying it has not read the petition.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011 00:49 +0900 (JST)

I would be happy about this except that their claim that there are no studies isn't right However, that may be a case of the reporter plus translater not getting what the investigators meant.

Hiroshima University to study low-level exposure
Hiroshima University is to launch a study focusing on the health impact of exposure to low-level radiation.

The university has set up a committee of about 40 researchers to apply their knowledge to support people affected by the Fukushima nuclear accident. The university has been providing medical care to atomic bomb survivors.

The committee has 3 main themes: analysis of the impact of low-level radioactive exposure on human genes; medical response to internal exposure and exposure during an emergency; and support for a health survey conducted by Fukushima Prefecture.

The university says that when cumulative exposure reaches 100 millisieverts, the chances of developing cancer are said to rise by 0.5 percent.

It also says there is not enough data available anywhere in the world about an exposure to radiation below that level.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011 00:49 +0900 (JST)

 

[dorispulaski]

The government has passed the Nuclear Disaster Compensation Law, causing the new president of TEPCO to issue this letter:

Toshio Nishizawa President Tokyo Electric Power Company

Thanks to the strenuous efforts of the government and the many other individuals concerned, the enactment of the Nuclear Disaster Compensation Law was realized today. Under the framework of the nuclear disaster compensation system that includes this Law, we will endeavor to compensate the afflicted in a fair and prompt manner based upon guidelines to be established by the Committee for Adjustment of Compensation for Nuclear Damage Disputes in conjunction with support from the government, while also securing a stable power supply.

TEPCO received an instruction from NISA to explain how they were going to insure continued injection of water into the damaged reactors. They produced this document, showing how the revised water system works:


http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110803e4.pdf


The SARRY system is now installed. The document is worth printing out and studying. If you think about it, this is a heck of a job of engineering under pressure. It is only four and a half months since the tsunami, even though it feels longer.

TEPCO Status August 3, 3:00 PM JST

- From 5:52 am on August 3, in order to replace the nitrogen gas injector device, we stopped nitrogen gas injection into the Primary Containment Vessel of Units 1 to 3. After completion of the replacement, we restarted injection of nitrogen gas into Unit 1 at 8:33 am, into Unit 2 at 8:29 am, into Unit 3 at 8:29. (Regarding Unit 2, we continued injection of nitrogen gas with a backup injector from 5:58 am to 8:27 am.)



Unit 1
From 5:52 am to 8:33 am on August 3, the nitrogen gas supply was stopped due to switching work of nitrogen gas injection equipment to spare one.

Unit 2

From 5:52 am to 8:29 am on August 3, the nitrogen gas supply was stopped due to switching work of nitrogen gas injection equipment to spare one. (However, from 5:38 am to 8:27 am, the nitrogen gas injection was continued by using alternative gas supply line.)

Unit 3

(ETA this has been raised from 8.9 m3/h )
Water is currently injected at approx. 9.1 m3/h through reactor feed water system piping arrangement.

From 5:52 am to 8:29 am on August 3, the nitrogen gas supply was stopped due to switching work of nitrogen gas injection equipment to spare one.

From 4:10 pm on July 30 to 6:49 pm on August 2, we transferred accumulated water at Unit 2 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility.

- From 4:13 pm on July 30, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 3 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility.

- At 4:10 pm on July 30, we started transfer of the accumulated water from the vertical shaft of the Turbine Building of Unit 2 to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility(Process Main Building). We stopped transfer at 6:49 pm on August 2.

- At 5:05 pm on August 2, in order to fill water in the skimmer surge tank of Unit 4. we started injection of fresh water using an alternate water injection line. We stopped injection at 5:37 pm.

- At 10:00 am on August 2, we resumed transferring the accumulated low concentrated water which was transferred from the turbine building of Unit 6 to the temporary tank to Mega Float. We stopped transfer at 5:00 pm.

- At 11:00 am on August 2, we resumed transferring the accumulated water in the basement in the turbine building of Unit 6 to the temporary tank. We stopped transfer at 4:00 pm.

- At 10 am on August 3, we started transferring of low level accumulated water from temporary outside tank to mega-float.

- At 11 am on August 3, we started transferring accumulated water from Unit 6 Turbine Building to the temporary tank.

NHK

Nuclear compensation bill enacted
Japan's Diet has approved legislation to help Tokyo Electric Power Company compensate victims of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Upper House of the Diet approved the bill on Wednesday with majority support from both ruling and major opposition parties.

Under the law, an entity will be established to help the utility pay compensation to people and industries affected by the nuclear disaster.

Other utility firms that operate nuclear power plants are expected to contribute funds to the new organization. The government will also issue special bonds to inject public funds into the body.

The government now plans to select personnel and work out details of the new entity with a view to setting it up by early September at the latest.

The government also aims to have an expert panel step up its efforts to evaluate assets of Tokyo Electric.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011 12:44 +0900 (JST)

The trick here is to allow TEPCO to continue to produce electricity while extracting the maximum amount of owed compensation from them.

TEPCO paid $900 in provisional compensation
Tokyo Electric Power Company has so far paid 69 billion yen, or nearly 900 million dollars, in provisional compensation.

That amount includes about 700 million dollars paid since April to residents who've had to evacuate their homes or who've been forced to stay indoors. Households have received as much as 13,000 dollars, while individuals have received as much as 3,900 dollars.

Roughly 105 million dollars have been paid to farmers and fishermen who've had shipments banned or who have suffered damage from rumors about radiation contamination of their products. Small and mid-sized businesses have received 87 million dollars.

On Friday, a government panel will draw up interim guidelines about further compensation recipients and payments.

The guidelines will include damages resulting from the recent shipments of beef cattle that had been fed rice straw contaminated with radiation.

The eventual total payout is expected to balloon to tens of billions of dollars.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011 17:02 +0900 (JST)

I'm a bit annoyed about TEPCO owing more than half on the beef, because the contaminated rice straw debacle is entirely the fault of the government, who as we say in the US, "knew or should have known" that not checking feed would lead to trouble. It is the government who is responsible for food and feed checking, not TEPCO, who is responsible for cleanup and compensation, and continued production, by hook or crook, of electricity for its region.

Govt comes up with plan for a new nuclear watchdog
The Japanese government plans to create a new nuclear safety agency, in order to separate regulatory functions from the industry ministry which promotes nuclear energy.

The government has been reviewing the current nuclear administration following the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The draft plan calls for detaching regulatory functions of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency from the industry ministry, and establishing a new nuclear regulatory body under the Environment Ministry.

The new body would be in charge of initial responses to nuclear accidents and radiation monitoring as well as control of radioactive substances.

It would also be responsible for taking measures against nuclear terrorism in coordination with public security authorities.

The Nuclear Safety Commission, currently under the Cabinet Office, would be renamed and placed under the new nuclear watchdog as its advisory organ.

On Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters that he believes the plan is one option. He said the government must comprehensively study the plan to review the independence, neutrality and feasibility of the new body.

Edano said it will take time to overhaul Japan's nuclear administration, and that an organizational change could be implemented in stages.

He added officials share the view that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency should be separated from the industry ministry around April next year.

The government plans to finalize the plan shortly and submit related bills to the Diet early next year.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011 13:54 +0900 (JST)

Nagasaki mayor calls for nuclear-bomb-free NE Asia
The mayor of Nagasaki has urged the Japanese government to start efforts to denuclearize Northeast Asia, as the first step toward creating a nuclear-bomb-free world.

Mayor Tomihisa Taue met with Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Mayor Taue said he has been garnering signatures from municipality chiefs across the country for a petition calling for Northeast Asia to be denuclearized. He said he has collected more than 100 signatures so far.

He said the Japanese government should support the movement in order to start denuclearization efforts.

Foreign Minister Matsumoto said US President Barack Obama called for a nuclear-bomb-free world and that the Japanese government has been making serious efforts toward achieving nuclear arms control and non-proliferation.

He says it will be not easy to realize such a world but that the government will take the will of the mayors seriously.

After the meeting, Taue told reporters that no progress will be made toward scrapping nuclear arms as long as people only call for abolishing such weapons without taking any specific action.

He says showing the efforts of Japan, the only country attacked by nuclear bombs, to realize a nuclear-bomb-free Northeast Asia will become a step toward reaching the next stage.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011 21:02 +0900 (JST)

and this is what happens what labor and electricity become too expensive and/or inconsistent: jobs get outsourced.

Hitachi to outsource TV manufacturing
Japanese electronics maker Hitachi is planning to end production of TV sets and outsource the job to Taiwanese and other makers.

People familiar with the move say Hitachi will halt production at its only TV plant in Minokamo, Gifu Prefecture.

They say Hitachi will outsource TV manufacturing to Taiwanese and other makers but will continue to sell sets under its brand and engage in R&D.

The company launched its TV line in 1956, but workers at Hitachi's plant in Gifu will now build products other than TVs.
[ETA if this were the US, I'd say, "That's what they say now bunky."]

The move to end production comes amid squeezed profits as Hitachi faces severe price competition with South Korean and other makers.

Despite Japan's switch to digital TV broadcasts, makers are experiencing a decline in demand for digital sets.

Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba all posted losses in their 2nd quarter earnings reports.

Industry insiders say TV sales in Japan are likely to fall to nearly half last year's level and that further declines are anticipated next year.

Japanese makers are battling for market share in their traditional export destinations the United States and Europe as South Korean and other companies boost sales with low-priced products.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011 13:54 +0900 (JST

 

[dorispulaski]

Fukushima Daiichi
(Aiming for less than 100 C)
Unit 1 Reactor Bottom Head 93.6 C
Unit 2 Reactor Bottom Head 122.6 C
Unit 3 Reactor Bottom Head 108.1 C

Eight peripheral points (2:00 PM JST August 4th) ( 5, 22, 14, 13, 16, 36, 107, 89 ) MicroSieverts per hour
Main Office Building 318 MicroSieverts per hour
Main Gate 33 MicroSieverts per hour
West Gate 12 MicroSieverts per hour

Fukushima Daini
Six peripheral points (point 3 needed maintance) ( 1.9, 1.4,--,1.4, 1.0, 1.1 ) MicroSieverts per hour

TEPCO 10 am JST August 4 status repor

- At 10 am on August 3, we re-started transfer of the low level accumulated water from temporary tank to mega-float, which water was transferred from Unit 6 Turbine Building to temporary tank. At 5:00 pm on the same day, we completed the transfer.

- At 11 am on August 3, we re-started transfer of the accumulated water from Unit 6 Turbine Building to temporary tank. At 4:00 pm on the same day, we completeed the transfer.

- At 5:32 am on August 4, we stopped operation of the water treatment facility in order to improve the flow rate. - At 7:09 am on August 4, we started transferring accumulated water from the vertical shaft of Unit 2 to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility (Process Main Building).

- At 4:13 pm on July 30, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 3 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility. At 7:17 am on August 4, we stopped the transfer.

No strontium in the air at Daiichi, according to a new report.



Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station:

Units 1 to 4: shutdown due to the earthquake - At 9:31 am on August 2, we resumed regular inspection about one of the 7 monitoring posts (No.1) installed around the site boundary. At 2:30 pm on August 3, we finished the inspection.

- At 10:33 pm on August 3, we stopped operation of Residual Heat Removal System due to switching from the Residual Heat Removal System (A) to the Residual Heat Removal System (B) with switching the temporary cable of heat exchanger building of Unit 4. At 11:00 pm on the same day, we restarted the operation.

Finally!

Evacuation orders to be lifted in late August

The government says it wants to lift evacuation advisories in a few weeks for areas 20 to 30 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

A recovery timetable released on Wednesday proposes lifting the evacuation notice later this month or early next since the situation at the plant has improved.

The plan covers areas between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant. Residents there are currently advised to stay indoors and prepare for emergency evacuation.

Many residents there have been forced to evacuate, and schools and hospitals are closed.

The government says it will begin negotiations with local municipalities later this week and ask them to draw up reconstruction plans. The measures are expected to include reopening hospitals and other public services and decontaminating schoolyards. The government says it will support each local government to help them bring residents back home.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 07:57 +0900 (JST)

TEPCO to attach hoses to improve water filter flow
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will attach makeshift hoses to its wastewater filtering system to help improve the water flow.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has been filtering highly contaminated wastewater to remove radioactive material and salt, and then pumping the water back into the reactors as coolant.

But the filters have been working at about 35 percent below capacity, likely because metal piping connecting the tanks has been narrowed by mud.

The utility therefore plans to stop the system for nearly 12 hours on Thursday and attach bypass hoses at 2 locations.

TEPCO has also installed a new device to remove radioactive cesium, in addition to the one currently in use.

It plans to start test-running the device on Saturday, and begin full operation next Monday.

TEPCO aims to improve the efficiency of its water filtering system to lower wastewater pooled in facility basements to safe levels as soon as possible.

The utility says it plans to achieve this for the No.1 and No. 2 reactors in early September.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 09:47 +0900 (JST)

It appears from looking at the revised system including SARRY that the units of the 2 systems can be mixed and matched when there is a repair problem so something can be going at all times.
Therefore, it looks like this is the truth. Also, they could always go back to using seawater or external fresh water temporarily using firetrucks, as they say.

TEPCO reports cooling system's reliability

The operator of the Fukushima power plant says it could restart injecting water into its crippled reactors within 3 hours after mechanical problems or power failure halt the plant's cooling system.

Tokyo Electric Power Company made the claim in a report to the industrial ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on Wednesday.

The agency asked TEPCO to report how it will deal with the failure of the cooling system, which recycles decontaminated radioactive water as coolant for reactors.

The report says TEPCO could restart the system within 30 minutes of a loss of power or the water pumps breaking down by using extra pumps and emergency generators.

If problems occur simultaneously, TEPCO says it will use fire engines to restart injecting coolant water within 3 hours.

The report admits that if the circulation of coolant water is suspended for several hours, temperatures in the reactors could climb high enough to cause radioactive releases, or another hydrogen explosion.

The company says it would increase the amount of coolant water to the maximum levels in such an emergency.

TEPCO's report is expected to help the government review an emergency evacuation advisory for local residents.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 07:57 +0900 (JST)

The part about "several hours" is wrong. The hottest of the 3 reactors is 125 C. When the reactors were running full steam, it took 21 hours. Obviously it would take a couple days at this point. Reading between the lines, this inquiry is in aid of deciding when to return people from evacuation.

Discussions begin on how to scrap Fukushima plant
A government-appointed panel plans to finalize a timetable by January next year on decommissioning damaged reactors at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The panel of experts set up by the Atomic Energy Commission held its first meeting on Wednesday.

Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Shunsuke Kondo, called on the members to begin middle and long-term efforts to shut down the plant.

The panel will draw up a timetable using as a reference the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979. The first goal is to extract the melted fuel rods.

But the situation is more serious at Fukushima, because no one knows where the melted fuel is, and in what condition. Additionally, meltdowns have occurred at 3 reactors at Fukushima.

Kyoto University Professor Hajimu Yamana, who heads the panel, said he expects a longer preparation time in order to extract the melted fuel, because the reactor cores at Fukushima are more badly damaged than Three Mile Island was. He suggests the process could take as long as 20 years.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 11:05 +0900 (JST)

I wonder whether enough will be known by January to make a plan? It is worth thinking about it all now, though, I suppose.

On the next story:
It may make sense to fire the head of NISA & his boss, but I do wonder what Hosono did wrong, though.

Japan plans to dismiss top nuclear officials
The Japanese government plans to dismiss 3 top officials in charge of nuclear power policy over their handling of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda announced the move in a hastily arranged news conference on Thursday.

Kaieda said the ministry will soon carry out a major personnel reshuffle. He added he had been considering a restructure for about a month.

The 3 officials are the Vice Minister of the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry, Kazuo Matsunaga; the Director General of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Nobuaki Terasaka; and the Director General of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, Tetsuhiro Hosono. The ministry oversees the 2 agencies.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 11:05 +0900 (JST)

And here's the US with a lot of spent fuel, looking for a place to go. I don't see why we are not taking advantage of this opportunity...
Fukushima crisis causes British fuel plant to shut

A British plant for processing spent nuclear fuel is set to close due to the loss of business from Japanese power companies following the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The British government-affiliated Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on Wednesday announced its plan to close the plant at Sellafield.

The plant has been processing spent nuclear fuel to produce uranium-plutonium mixed oxide, or MOX fuel.

The alternative fuel was to be used for Japan's "pluthermal" nuclear recycling project.

In May last year, the plant reached a broad agreement with 10 Japanese power companies.

The British authority cited the uncertain future of Japan's pluthermal project following the March disaster as the reason for the planned closure.

It says it took the decision to avoid burdening British taxpayers.

The MOX plant has been operating well below capacity since coming online in 1996. With Japan its only major customer, changes in nuclear policy since the disaster made the plant's future untenable.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 07:57 +0900 (JST)

? There is no reason to do this? You would only change limits if you had statistical data that showed that your first limit was wrong.
You set limits because there is a danger. You assuage fears because there is no danger, based on a limit for danger not being exceeded . You do not change limits because of fears of a population. You do it because of science. Instead of using science to calm fears, you are using fear to create more fear, since you have shown that your limit is simply a political ploy and has no connection to facts.

Radiation limit for children will be lowered

The Japanese government says the yearly radiation limit for school children will be lowered as early as this month.

The government has set the limit for accumulated external radiation for children involved in outdoor activities at 20 millisieverts per year, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

But many parents and teachers want the figure to be lowered. Some schools are restricting outdoor activities by their pupils even if radiation levels are below the government-set standard.

Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki will visit an elementary school in Fukushima Prefecture on Thursday. He will inspect progress on work to replace the topsoil of its schoolyard and talk to school staff.

The ministry says it will make a final decision based on the outcome of the minister's tour and results of radiation monitoring in the areas near the troubled Fukushima plant. The limit will be most likely lowered in late August, when the ongoing summer recess is over.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 11:05 +0900 (JST)

 

[dorispulaski]

By the way, this is a much better response. The central government needs to do its job, rather than chasing polls. There are times when leadership is important. During a disaster is one of those times. Sadly, here in the US, leadership was not shown during Katrina, so we are not able to preach on the subject, other than to say, do not follow our example:

.


Communities hosting nuclear plants call for quick end to crisis

Local communities hosting nuclear power plants in Japan have urged the government to thoroughly investigate the Fukushima accident to determine its cause.

An association of 25-member municipalities held its annual meeting in Tokyo on Thursday.

Many community heads complained that they cannot explain to their constituents the need for nuclear plants while the government's energy policies remain unsettled. They also urged the government to quickly end the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station.

Others called on the government to set up a professional nuclear watchdog, after separating the current Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency from the industry ministry.

Industry minister Banri Kaieda apologized for the enormous trouble that the crisis in Fukushima has caused to other municipalities with nuclear power plants.

He said the government is determined to pour all its efforts into handling the accident.

Thursday, August 04, 2011 21:21 +0900 (JST)

 

[dorispulaski]

TEPCO status as of 3:00 PM August 5th

Unit 1

-Water injection was arranged at approx. 3.9 ㎥/h at 9:02 am on August 5 since we observed reduction of the water injection into the reactor. Water is currently injected at approx. 3.9 ㎥/h through reactor feed water system piping arrangement.

Unit 2

-Water injection was arranged at approx. 3.9 ㎥/h at 5:50 pm on August 4 since we observed reduction of the water injection into the reactor. Water is currently injected at approx. 3.9 ㎥/h through reactor feed water system piping arrangement.

-At 8:42 am on August 4, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 3 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility.

-At 5:32 am on August 4, we stopped Water Treatment Facility to improve the flow rate. After the work, we activated the facility at 3:30 pm and restarted operation of the water treatment system at 4:13 pm. When we adjusted the flow rate of the system at 6:55 pm, a pump of the decontamination instruments was stopped and the whole water treatment system was shut down. We confirmed soundness of the pump and reactivated the system at 8:30 pm, and operation of the water treatment system was restarted at 8:50 pm.

-At 2:12 am on August 5, a process alarm was activated and the water treatment system was shut down. At 4:03 am, the system was reactivated and the operation was restated at 4:21 am.

-Around 7 pm on 8:04, we discovered water leakage from a flange of transfer hose of filtered water which is used to clean up salt in a vessel of the cesium adsorption instruments in the site bunker building.

-At 10:00 am on August 5, we started water transfer of low level radioactive water from the outside temporary tank to the Mega-float.

At 11:00 am on August 5, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 6 turbine building to the temporary tank.



- At around 12:09 am on August 4, when we were conducting a power connection test associated with the enhancement work of the instrument power, false signal regarding water level in the reactor was sent and the diesel generator (B) of Unit 5 started up automatically, therefore we stopped it manually. This event has no affect on the power system.

- At around 12:50 am on August 4, blackout happened at the Main Anti-Earthquake Building, and at around 12:51pm, emergency gas turbine started up and then power supply of the Main Anti-Earthquake Building was restored. This event has no affect on the plant and water injection as well as nitrogen injection to the reactor is going on.

Nuclear reactor to shut down for inspection

A nuclear reactor at a power plant in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, will be shut down soon for a regular inspection. As a result, 39 reactors, or over 70 percent out of the total of 54 in the country, will be out of service.

The No.1 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant will reduce power output starting Friday afternoon and stop it entirely early Saturday morning for a 2-month inspection.

It is the first reactor run by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, to undergo an inspection since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima power plant. After the reactor is shut down, only 3 of the Tokyo-based company's 17 reactors will be in service.

Another reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is scheduled for a regular inspection from late August.

TEPCO plans to increase output at its thermal power plants, but is also calling for the continuation of ongoing energy-saving efforts.

Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida has said he won't decide whether he will agree to restart the reactors until the cause of the accident at the Fukushima plant is disclosed.
Friday, August 05, 2011 05:46 +0900 (JST)

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11080503-e.html

If you wondered what takes place in a normal inspection, the above press release tells about it.

On August 6, 2011, we are going to commence the 16th regular inspection for Unit 1 of Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station (boiling water reactor type, 1,100 MW of rated output). The details are shown below.

1.Planned working period for the inspection From August 6th, 2011 (60 days)

2.Main equipment that will be inspected

(1) Reactor
(2) Reactor cooling system facility
(3) Measuring control system facility
(4) Fuel facility
(5) Radiation control facility
(6) Disposal facility
(7) Primary containment facility
(8) Emergency reserve generation facility
(9) Steam turbine

3.Planned construction during the regular inspection

(1) Replacement of fuel assemblies 176 fuel assemblies (764 in total) will be replaced.

(2) Replacement construction for reactor core isolation cooling system pipes New ventilation pipes for the pipes in the core isolation cooling system will be installed that exhaust mixed gas (hydrogen and oxygen) in order to prevent the gas from accumulation that is generated through radiation dissolution in the reactor.

(3) Countermeasures against tsunami The following equipment will be arranged or installed for the countermeasures against tsunami
-Installing emergency high voltage distribution boards and laying cables for emergency high voltage distribution boards of the reactor building
-Arranging alternative seawater thermal converter equipment
-Installing top ventilation equipment for the reactor building

4.Others

(1)Equipment inspection based on the special maintenance plan In order to monitor continuously the influence of the Nigata Prefecture Chuetsu Oki Earthquake, which occurred on July 16, 2007, we will conduct nondestructive inspection for the parts which have been judged that they are not influenced by the earthquake after some fatigue assessment and insect the equipment of which function works properly in our opinion and therefore no countermeasures were taken although subtle influence was confirmed.

(2)Inspection for ventilation air conditioning ducts As a countermeasure against malfunction of ventilation air conditioning ducts that was confirmed in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March, 2008, we will inspect the ventilation ducts.

(3)Inspection of pipes for measuring jet pump*flow rate As an investigation for the causes with regard to malfunction of pipes for measuring jet pump flow rate that was confirmed in Unit 2 of Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station on March 12th, 2010, we will inspect pipes for measuring jet pump flow rate during the inspection. With respect to activation of the Unit 1, we will consult the national and local government adequately and deliberately.

I'm not sure why Kan thinks the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is the appropriate place for this. Nuclear power and nuclear bombs are no more linked than gasoline and napalm. They use some of the same natural resources. You can have nuclear power without nuclear bombs, and nuclear bombs without nuclear power. There are some nations in each category.

However, it's a bit iffy to report what he is going to say before he says it.

Kan to express aim to reduce nuclear power

Prime Minister Naoto Kan will express his resolve to reduce Japan's dependency on nuclear energy at the August 6th ceremony to mark the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.

The prime minister will deliver a speech at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday, the 66th anniversary of the bombing.

Kan is expected to call on his country to lead international talks on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation to work toward a world without nuclear arms.

He is also expected to say that the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused anxiety around the world, and announce plans to review Japan's energy policy in total.
In addition, Kan will announce his intention to implement stringent safety measures in operating nuclear power plants.

He will stress that the Fukushima accident is a lesson for mankind, and that it is Japan's duty to inform people around the world about it.

Regarding the prime minister's speech at the ceremony, some government officials are against mentioning nuclear power policy. They contend atomic bombs and nuclear power plants are different issues.

But Kan has apparently decided to include nuclear power policy in his speech and emphasize his resolve to reduce dependence on nuclear energy.
Friday, August 05, 2011 05:46 +0900 (JST)

Which typically means higher dependence on gas, oil, or coal for base load.

The following situation illustrates what it means to be dependent on intermittent, or only cyclically available power.

http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2011/08/texas-electric-grid-declares-level-1.html

Here is the US, Texas has declared a heat emergency. They are calling for conservation because the grid is at full capacity. Texas is big in wind power, as the US goes (and sometimes calls itself the Saudia Arabia of wind) , but this chart shows you why wind was not as useful as one would like for providing needed peaking power. The wind reliably provided power at just the wrong time of day. Apparently, there is a cyclic lessening of wind in TX doesn't match their peak load. Here in CT, the wind typically dies down at about 4 pm or so.

All 4 Texas nuclear plants at 100% capacity. Because they are refueled about every 18 months, they were scheduled to never go down in the hottest months. Typical US up time/capacity for reactors is over 90%.

http://i.imgur.com/YDvZN.png

Power you can depend on is a desirable thing in an emergency...or for that matter any time.

Which is why coal and nuclear and gas are typically used to replace one another as electrical power sources.

 

[Olympia]

I think Japan is in a special situation, so if anyone should be allowed to increase their carbon footprint, it ought to be the Japanese. They are so geologically unstable, and those tsunamis add to the problem. It's possible that down the road, when there are better ways to strengthen plants or to clean up after an unforeseen disaster, Japan might trust nuclear again. But I can't blame them for wanting to change now. Doris, you've done an admirable job of stating the benefits of nuclear and the drawbacks of sources such as wind (and the traditional fuels from coal and oil), but clearly in the intersection of human frailty, nuclear energy, and Japanese geology, something's gotta give. I know you said that this particular earthquake wasn't what damaged the plant (it was the tsunami breaching the wall--see? I have been paying attention!--but some other earthquake might be shallower or deeper or whatever and might crack a facility in two. Easy for us to urge them to keep a steady course with nuclear, but I'm not so sure I could say that if I lived in, say, Nagano.

 

[dorispulaski]

Olympia, I definitely agree that no one should interfere with whatever the Japanese people decided ultimately to do, and that perhaps they should not be held to the Kyoto Protocols.

OTOH It's extremely unlikely that any earthquake would be worse, given that this earthquake broke a number of world records.

And it is still true that no one has died from radiation in Japan.

And it is true that there will be significant consequences from whatever choice they make, including to the world as GWG do not only affect the country that emits them.

However, it must be their choice.

Olympia, it would not matter to me if I lived in Nagano. I live within 5 miles of 2 nuclear plants and over a dozen nuclear submarines, and I'm not running out to move. While we are not subject to earthquakes of any size, we do have hurricanes, including this one:

http://www.livescience.com/3820-history-reveals-hurricane-threat-york-city.html

and hurricanes do have tidal waves with them.

But I do understand your reservations.

The intersection of large dams and human frailty has been far more dangerous to human life and the environment than either Fukushima or Chernobyl.
The largest energy disaster ever was this one:

Banqiao Dam, China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam

Casualties

According to the Hydrology Department of Henan Province,[10] in the province, approximately 26,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent epidemics and famine. In addition, about 5,960,000 buildings collapsed, and 11 million residents were affected. Unofficial estimates of the number of people killed by the disaster have run as high as 230,000 people.[11] The death toll of this disaster was declassified in 2005.[2]

Big power projects of all sorts are inherently dangerous in one way or another.

 

[dorispulaski]

One thing that I do want to see is data on the effectiveness of cleanup efforts in towns that are still occupied, but I haven't seen very many reports.


TEPCO Status

It looks like they are very near to getting the Unit 1 spent fuel pool cooling system up and running. The following sounds like a test of all/some part of the system.

-At 3:20 pm on August 5, we started freshwater injection into the spent fuel pool of Unit 1 through Spent Fuel Pool Cooling and Filtering System, and finished at 5:51 pm

-At 4:44 pm on August 5, we started freshwater injection into the skimmer surge tank of Unit 3 through Circulating Cooling System, and finished at 5:35 pm.

-Accumulated water of low-level contamination had been transferred from Unit 6 turbine building to temporary tanks. At 10 pm on August 5, we restarted transferring the accumulated water from temporary tanks to mega- float, and finished at 5 pm.

-At 11 pm on August 5, we restarted transferring the accumulated water on the basement of Unit 6 turbine building to temporary tanks, and finished at 4 pm.

-At 6:20 am on August 6, we stopped the water desalination facility and started inspection of the level switch of water tank of the water desalination facility from 8:30 am.


At 8:42 am on August 5, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 3 turbine building to Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility.

- At 10:00 am on August 6, we started transferring low level accumulated water from the outside temporary tank to the Mega-float.

- At 11:00 am on August 6, we started transferring accumulated water at Unit 6 turbine building to the temporary tank.



Water flow to the reactors was lowered back to 3.8 m3/h for Units One and Two and to 9.0 m3/h
for Unit 3.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11080603-e.html
An interesting letter documenting TEPCO's agreement to sell power to Tohoku Electric, which has not enough capacity.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110805e13.pdf
A file showing further analysis of offshore water samples dating from July 13th &14th. 0.048 becquerels per liter of strontium were found in water samples taken 15 km off Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini. (The limit for water is 30 becquerels per liter, so this is a very small amount.)

Japan to continue nuclear exports


The Japanese government says it will continue exporting nuclear technology for now, despite Prime Minister Naoto Kan's recent remarks calling for a review of the nation's nuclear policy.

The Japanese cabinet approved on Friday a document confirming that Japan should continue ongoing negotiations and uphold past agreements.

The document says Japan should provide its nuclear power technology to countries that wish to use it, while ensuring the highest standards of safety.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano later told reporters that the government's decision is not inconsistent with the prime minister's recent remarks.

Edano said what is important is to compile policies on nuclear technology cooperation at an early date, based on conclusions drawn from the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Until the March accident, the government had been promoting nuclear plant exports as part of the nation's growth strategy.
Friday, August 05, 2011 21:21 +0900 (JST)

Utilities to be probed for influence peddling

Industry minister Banri Kaieda says an independent panel has begun investigating allegations that nuclear safety regulators repeatedly tried to influence public symposiums on the use of nuclear energy.

On Friday, Kaieda told reporters that a third-party task force is looking into claims that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency intervened in town meetings with the help of local power companies.

He said the panel will thoroughly investigate allegations that Chubu and Shikoku electric power companies, under the agency's instructions, lined up participants and requested that they ask prearranged questions in favor of nuclear power.

He added that Japan's other major utilities will also be subject to investigations for potentially engaging in similar dubious conduct.

Kaieda said that he wants the task force to propose a set of guidelines on to what extent the government should be involved in organizing public symposiums.
Friday, August 05, 2011 14:18 +0900 (JST)

The above is an odd business, since it appears that the government involved the companies rather than the other way around. My understanding of influence peddling would be if the companies paid money to the government to acquire influence.

My guess is that this is the direct outcome of having the same government department responsible for promoting the use of nuclear energy and for regulating it. The old US Atomic Energy Commission was like that (AEC), and when the conflict was recognized, it was split into two agencies under different departments. The regulatory group is the NRC today.

Panel compiles nuclear compensation guidelines

A Japanese government panel has updated its guidelines on compensating people affected by the nuclear accident in Fukushima. Nearly 5 months into the disaster, full-scale payments are now likely to start.

The panel of experts finalized what they call interim guidelines at a meeting on Friday, after releasing a set of rules on compensating evacuees and businesses affected by widespread fears of radiation.

The guidelines broaden the range of such businesses to include cattle farmers in 17 prefectures where rice straw with excessive levels of radioactive cesium was distributed as feed. Also now eligible are green tea producers in 8 prefectures where radioactive substances turned up in tea leaves.

Travel agents in Fukushima had been included as eligible due to domestic tour cancellations, but the new guidelines add agents in 3 neighboring prefectures. Travel agents whose foreign customers canceled trips after March 11th are to be compensated regardless of prefecture.

Exporters are to receive damages for merchandise produced or shipped but rejected or restricted by foreign governments due to radiation fears.

The guidelines' release comes 2 days after the Diet enacted a bill to launch a new entity to help nuclear plant operator TEPCO begin full-scale compensation payouts.

TEPCO has already started paying provisional damages to people affected by the nuclear accident. But the recipients and others have complained that the payments are too small and too late.
Friday, August 05, 2011 19:32 +0900 (JST)

And this is nice to think of.

Summer festivals underway in Tohoku
The summer Tanabata star festival is underway in Sendai, northeastern Japan.

The annual festival began as scheduled on Saturday, though the scale is reduced due to the impact of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. Many tourists are visiting the disaster-hit city for the celebration.

The streets of Sendai's main shopping district are lined with about 3,000 bamboo poles decorated with colorful streamers, paper strips, and about 80,000 paper cranes made by elementary and junior high school students.

The head of the city's chamber of commerce says he hopes the festival will cheer up people living in shelters.
About 1.75 million visitors are expected for the festival through Monday, down 60,000 from last year's figure.

In Yamagata Prefecture, the Hanagasa Festival started on Friday night. Dancers were parading through Yamagata city's main street, holding hats decorated with safflower, a famous local product.

At the front of 4,000 dancers is a banner with messages of encouragement for the Tohoku region. Among the spectators are 50 people who were invited from affected areas in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. The festival will continue through Sunday.

Other famous summer festivals in the Tohoku region are also going on. The Kanto lantern festival in Akita City will run through Saturday, and the giant lantern-lit Nebuta float festival in Aomori City will continue through Sunday.
Saturday, August 06, 2011 14:52 +0900 (JST)

 

[dorispulaski]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-japan-energy-idUSTRE7731GS20110804

This is a very good article, and the bottom line is that it strongly criticizes almost everything the Kan government has done in this crisis. All its actions have created uncertainty and fear without giving a strong, organized direction.

I would have to agree.

It also makes it clear what the costs to Japanese manufacturing have been already for government lack of leadership.

Analysis: Energy policy chaos threatens Japan's economy

(Reuters) - Political disarray over Japan's energy policy will make it tough for Tokyo to avert a total nuclear shutdown next summer and presents a long-term threat to the world's third-largest economy.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima power plant that shattered the public's confidence in the safety of the country's nuclear fleet. Scandals over the government's cozy relationship with the power industry have exacerbated the concern.
...
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called for gradually weaning Japan off its dependence on nuclear power, a U-turn on the 2010 energy policy that sought to boost nuclear capacity to supply 50 percent of Japan's energy needs by 2030. In that plan, nuclear was seen as a cheaper and cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

...But the unpopular Kan, fighting to stay in his post, has given no detail on how he plans to build enough capacity to substitute nuclear supply, nor how to make alternative supplies economical.

"The issue is the uncertainty over policy," said Naohiko Baba, chief Japan economist at Goldman Sachs.

"Because of an unclear direction about nuclear power plants, companies can't make their investment plans while utilities can't make a decisive shift to other power sources from nuclear power. The uncertainty over the energy future heightens the possibility of companies leaving Japan."

Instead of rebuilding generation capacity, utilities may freeze even the investments necessary to maintain capacity, until they see clarity from Tokyo on the fate of their reactors and government energy priorities.

The biggest problem is that the policy, whatever it is going to be, has not been finalized.

"The uncertainty over the outlook of the energy policy, together with the rising yen, are pushing Japanese companies to shift operations overseas."

It's worth a read. Particularly steel and aluminum industries, and other industries relying on a reliable supply of cheap electrical power are affected.

 

[let`s talk]

Japan might trust nuclear again.

Supermarkets used to have big losses. Nowdays they have to deliver spinach, cabbage, rice, beef, etc. from Gifu, Shikoku, Kyushu, etc. Because nobody was buying the stuff from Ibaraki, Tochigi, Iwate, etc. I seriously doubt those regions will be able to win the consumer's trust again any time soon, not saying of the trust to nuclear energy in general.