Fukushima update 10/02/2013

NHK Top Story: New highly radioactive leak at Fukushima

Believed to be draining into Pacific Ocean 200,000 Bq/liter of strontium and other beta-ray emitters

ENENews,

2 October, 2013

Kyodo News, October 3, 2013: New leak of stored toxic water found at Fukushima plant: TEPCO [...] Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has found that highly toxic water has leaked from another storage tank at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex. [...] TEPCO, which operates the Fukushima plant, said it detected high levels of radioactive materials in water accumulated within barriers around a group of storage tanks including the leaky one. [...]

NHK WORLD, Oct. 2, 2013: Contaminated water detected in Fukushima [...] Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have detected highly-radioactive substances in water within a barrier surrounding contaminated water storage tanks. [Tepco] says it found 200,000 becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substances, including strontium, in the water. [...] The tank is located near the Number-4 reactor. [...]

NHK Newsline, Oct. 2, 2013: Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have discovered another leak of highly radioactive water from a storage tank. It is believed the water may have reached the ocean by way of a drainage system.

Watch the NHK broadcast here

Fukushima Nuclear Regulators Fail, Radioactive Tuna Study, Decontaminaton Study

News program discusses recent reports of nosebleeds in Japan, shows ENENews article
Professor: International consortium of scientists needed to take this on (VIDEO)

At 9:00 in

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Host: I hate to bring up unverified reports — especially when they come from just one or two sources — but as we try and wrap our heads around what this means for the people living there […] we see unverified reports of nosebleeds and other awful symptoms that are being reported coming out of the area. […] Here’s the tweet and they link to some video. I just want you to try and contextually for us what the effects are, if not the nosebleeds.

Timothy Mousseau, Professor of Biological Sciences at University of South Carolina: What’s required here is a concerted, open, internationally-based consortium of scientists to really take this on, to develop a methodology to keep track of these reports, keep track of what’s going on. At the moment, there’s a few narrowly defined efforts to track the workers and some of the children, but it’s really been very, very narrow — and certainly not open to the international community, unless permission is given. So, at the moment we’re not learning a whole lot because there’s’ not a lot of data being collected and the data that’s being collected is being held close to the chest.

See also: Thousands in Japan reported to be suffering massive and recurring nosebleeds in recent days -- Gundersen: Japan doctors tell us, "We know our patients have radiation illness" but forced to keep it secret (VIDEO)

Watch the interview here

NHK: ‘Mystery’ radiation spike at Fukushima

• High levels of strontium in water that leaked into soil
• Many times above gov’t limit Overflow from Tepco pumping it in wrong container (PHOTO & VIDEO)

ENENews,

2 October, 2013

NHK World News, October 2, 2013: High radiation levels in rainwater overflow [...] The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has detected high levels of radioactive substances in water that overflowed from a storage container on Tuesday. [...] 4 tons of the tainted water seeped into the ground before workers halted pumping. [...] [Tepco] says it found 390 becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substances, believed to be mostly strontium [...] much higher than the government limit for releasing strontium-tainted water into the ocean, which is set at 30 becquerels per liter. [...] The officials explain the overflows occurred because the rainwater was transferred into the wrong container. [...]

NHK Newsline, October 2, 2013: [...] They say workers at Fukushima Daiichi may have been pumping it into the wrong container. [...] The crews may have transferred it into the wrong tank leading to an overflow. [...] [The level] was 13 times higher than the government’s safety limit for releasing tainted water into the ocean. For some reason the level of radiation in the rain water had doubled since measurements taken just after the storm. Plant managers are looking into what caused the spike.

Watch the broadcast here

Japan Professor: ‘Really shocked’ they found contaminated fish by U.S. coast

Urgent situation to get samples, but stopped by Customs — They need to understand just how critical this is (VIDEO)

Title: Joint Tuna Survey in Pacific


Source: NHK Newsline


Date: Sept. 30, 2013


h/t MissingSky101, MsMilkytheClown1

At 1:15 in

Professor Hideo Yamazaki, Kinki University: We estimated concentration levels to be so low they wouldn’t be detectable in the U.S., but the fact they found contaminated fish off the coast of the U.S. really shocked us […]

NHK: Researchers at Stanford University in April sent twenty 3-gram slices of tuna to Japan, but Customs agents at Kansai International Airport stopped them. They said proper documentation was missing. […]

Yamazaki: This is an urgent situation. We need Customs officials to understand just how critical this is, and facilitate the timely transportation of materials that need to be studied.

Watch the broadcast here

NHK: ‘Mystery’ radiation spike at Fukushima

• High levels of strontium in water that leaked into soil
• Many times above gov’t limit
• Overflow from Tepco pumping it in wrong container (PHOTO & VIDEO)

ENENews,

2 October, 2013

NHK World News, October 2, 2013: High radiation levels in rainwater overflow [...] The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has detected high levels of radioactive substances in water that overflowed from a storage container on Tuesday. [...] 4 tons of the tainted water seeped into the ground before workers halted pumping. [...] [Tepco] says it found 390 becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substances, believed to be mostly strontium [...] much higher than the government limit for releasing strontium-tainted water into the ocean, which is set at 30 becquerels per liter. [...] The officials explain the overflows occurred because the rainwater was transferred into the wrong container. [...]

NHK Newsline, October 2, 2013: [...] They say workers at Fukushima Daiichi may have been pumping it into the wrong container. [...] The crews may have transferred it into the wrong tank leading to an overflow. [...] [The level] was 13 times higher than the government’s safety limit for releasing tainted water into the ocean. For some reason the level of radiation in the rain water had doubled since measurements taken just after the storm. Plant managers are looking into what caused the spike.

Watch the broadcast here

[Column] Tepco’s contaminated water system started collapsing

Fukushima Diary,

2 October, 2013

It’s been only 2 years and 6 months. However, Fukushima decommissioning is already falling apart.

It’s starting from the contaminated water storage. As long as they keep giving water to the reactors, it must increase. Now it’s already beyond Tepco’s capacity.

Having the third typhoon season after 311, the contaminated water system is starting to be collapsed.

I cannot even imagine what would happen, but I listed up the three potential results. All of them are likely.

1. Simultaneous leakages

The cause of 300m3 leakage hasn’t been identified yet. They have 350 tanks of the same type in the plant. According to the makers, some of them don’t even last for 5 years. However, there is no spare storage. All we could do is just to pray.

Even only for a Typhoon, Tepco required 2,100 workers. If those tanks (in Plural) start leaking at once, they are not capable to treat them. This is the water version of 311 Ⅱ. 

2. Lack of the storage

At least 400m3 of contaminated groundwater flows to the plant. However, Tepco doesn’t have a plan to construct the new welded tanks after this October.

It takes 2 months to build the tank, but it is estimated they will run out of the storage this November ~ December. They can’t even find the land to build the new tanks.

3. Past radiation measurement readings might be all false

NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) has been pointing out Tepco’s radiation data doesn’t make sense. It shows no rational trends, and Tepco has no logical explanation for that. NRA plans to send inspectors to the analyzing site.

Whether Tepco was intentionally trying to downplay the contamination level, “a part of (I hope not ALL)” their past data may be thought to be false based on the wrong means of analysis.

Iori Mochizuki