Typhoon Wipha headed for Fukushima

It looks as if this will hit Tokyo in a couple of hours from now

Typhoon threatens Japan; precautions at Fukushima nuclear plant

A once-in-a-decade typhoon threatened Japan on Tuesday, disrupting travel and shipping and forcing precautions to be taken at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Reuters,

16 October, 2013

Typhoon Wipha is moving across the Pacific straight towards the capital, Tokyo, and is expected to make landfall during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, bringing hurricane-force winds to the metropolitan area of 30 million people.

The center of the storm was 860 km (535 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 0800 GMT, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website. It was moving north-northeast at 35 kph (22 mph).

The storm had weakened as it headed north over the sea but was still packing sustained winds of about 140 kph (87 mph) with gusts as high as 194 kph (120 mph), the agency said.

The agency issued warnings for Tokyo of heavy rain, flooding and gales, and advised people to be prepared to leave their homes quickly and to avoid unnecessary travel.

A spokesman for the meteorological agency said the storm was a "once in a decade event".

The typhoon is expected to sweep through northern Japan after making landfall and to pass near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, on the coast 220 km (130 miles) northeast of Tokyo, later on Wednesday.

The operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Corp, which has been struggling to contain radioactive leaks, said it would cancel all offshore work and it would decide whether to continue work onshore after assessing the weather.

The utility will also take down cranes and secure all cables, hoses and machinery, a company spokesman said.

RADIOACTIVE WATER

Tokyo Electric said it would pump out the rainwater expected to fall into protective containers at the base of some 1,000 tanks storing radioactive water.

The radioactive water is a by-product of its jerry-rigged cooling system designed to keep under control reactors wrecked in a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The rainwater that builds up will be pumped into an empty tank, checked for radioactivity, and if uncontaminated, released into the sea, the company said.

Typhoon Wipha is the strongest storm to approach eastern Japan since October 2004. That cyclone triggered floods and landslides that killed almost 100 people, forced thousands from their homes and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Four Japanese oil refining companies said they suspended marine berth shipments in eastern Japan as the typhoon approached but there was no impact on refining operations.

The affected facilities are Idemitsu Kosan Co's Chiba and Aichi refineries, JX Holdings Inc's Negishi, Kashima and Sendai refineries, Fuji Oil Co's Sodegaura refinery and Cosmo Oil Co's Chiba refinery.

Japan Airlines Co cancelled 183 domestic flights on Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly from Tokyo's Haneda airport. Rival ANA Holdings Inc halted 210 flights in Japan with three international flights also cancelled. The combined cancellations will affect 60,850 passengers, the airlines said.

East Japan Railway Co said it had cancelled 31 bullet trains going north and west from Tokyo.

Nissan Motor Co said it was cancelling the Wednesday morning shift at its Oppama and Yokohama plants south of Tokyo. Oppama makes the all-electric Leaf and other models

“Once-in-a-decade typhoon” on path for Fukushima

— Top Official: Giant tanks of nuclear-contaminated waste at risk of being destroyed

— Winds near 200 kilometers per hour

— Gov’t: Water can be released into ocean

— WSJ: ‘Monster’ bearing down on plant

ENENews,

15 October, 2013

Japan Times, Oct. 15, 2013 at 10:20a ET: The strongest typhoon to reach Tokyo in 10 years was expected to slam into the region with full force Wednesday morning, the Meteorological Agency said. [...] TEPCO said it was bracing for the storm to hit the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant [...]

AFP, Oct. 15, 2013 at 8:30a ET: Once-in-a-decade typhoon heads for Japan nuclear plant [...] on a path that will take it towards the precarious Fukushima nuclear power plant. Typhoon Wipha, packing winds of nearly 200 kilometres (125 miles) per hour near its centre [...] later in the day [on Wednesday it] would be off the coast of Fukushima, where the crippled nuclear power plant sits. “It is the strongest typhoon in 10 years to pass the Kanto region (Tokyo and its vicinity),” Hiroyuki Uchida, the agency’s chief forecaster, told a news conference. […]

Wall Street Journal, Oct. 15, 2013 at 8:35a ET: Tepco to Drain Water Before Storm — Again [...] late Tuesday, the NRA panel overseeing the contaminated water problems gave Tepco the go-ahead to drain rainwater that had again accumulated around tanks storing “lightly contaminated” water used to cool the reactors. “We must decide on this issue today. A typhoon is approaching,” said panel head Toyoshi Fuketa. [...] But with a monster typhoon bearing down, are water leaks the real concern? NRA head Shunichi Tanaka has said for months the leaks aren’t as serious as many people think. Rather, one of the “largest risks” is that of another major natural disaster, such as an earthquake or powerful winds hitting the Fukushima site. That could destroy the makeshift tanks and the water processing equipment, releasing radioactive materials into the environment at “much, much greater levels than we are talking about regarding the leaks,” Mr. Tanaka warned. [...]