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Fukushima
News 10/22/13: Tepco Tests Radioactive Ice Wall; Cesium Detected Off
Fukushima Plant
From yesterday -
Japan Journalist: Melted nuclear fuel sank into the ground under Fukushima reactors
Irradiated
groundwater is flowing into ocean through sea-bottom springs, it’s
too late to do anything about this
22 October, 2013
Kyunghyang
Shinmun (Major
daily newspaper in South Korea -Source),
Oct. 21, 2013: Japan‘s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, promoting Tokyo
as the site for the 2020 Summer Olympics, said to the International
Olympic Committee: “Some may have concerns about Fukushima. Let me
assure you, the situation is under control. It has never done and
will never do any damage to Tokyo.” [...] To [journalist Hirose
Takashi], Abe‘s words were a bald-faced lie. And he decided to make
this lie known to the world, especially the world of sports. He has
written A Letter to All Young Athletes Who Dream of Coming to Tokyo
in 2020, and to Their Coaches and Parents: Some Facts You Should
Know. [...] to conceal from them the truth about Tokyo today is not
merely unkind; it is criminal. [...]
Excerpts
from Hirose’s letter:
[...] Inside Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors #1 – #3 the pipes
(which had circulated cooling water) are broken, which caused a
meltdown. This means the nuclear fuel overheated, melted, and
continued to melt anything it touched. Thus it melted through the
bottom of the reactor, and then through the concrete floor of the
building, and sank into the ground. [...] for two and a half years
TEPCO workers have been desperately pouring water into the reactor,
but it is not known whether the water is actually reaching the melted
fuel. [...] Only the fact that irradiated water is leaking onto the
surface of the ground around the reactor is reported. But deep under
the surface the ground water is also being irradiated, and the ground
water flows out to sea and mixes with the seawater through sea-bottom
springs. It is too late to do anything about this. [...] It’s a sad
story, but this is the present situation of Japan and of Tokyo. I had
loved the Japanese food and this land until the Fukushima accident
occurred.
Japan
Diplomat: Concern fuel rods in Unit 4 pool are damaged
- “Have they moved”?
- Transfer process could go on for decades, not months
22 October, 2013
Japan
diplomat Akio Matsumura,
Oct. 21, 2013: [...] One issue has stood apart from the rest since
the first reports emerged on March 11, 2011: the 400 tons of spent
fuel atop the damaged structure of Reactor No. 4. In the next month,
TEPCO will [start the] transfer [...] TEPCO’s transfer process is
complicated by extreme circumstances: A lack of information of the
state of the assemblies inside the pool creates several unknowns.
(Are the assemblies damaged? Have they moved inside the pool?). [...]
TEPCO claims they will finish the transfer of all 1,533 spent fuel
assemblies by the end of 2014, but like that of Prime Minister Abe,
the confident face put forth by TEPCO has a thin link to reality. We
have and will continue to see dependence on technological solutions
undermined by circumstance, error, and nature. A timeline of decades
rather than months is more realistic. [...]
Additional
concerns regarding Unit 4 reported in recent weeks:
Fukushima
plant “braces for super-typhoon”
- Officials admit “tough situation” could occur
- Cesium levels already spiking in ocean
22 October, 2013
Asahi
Shimbun,
Oct. 22, 2013: FUKUSHIMA WATER CRISIS: TEPCO still looking for
solutions as typhoon approaches [...] Typhoon No. 27 is expected to
hit the Japanese islands next weekend. [...] [Noriyuki Imaizumi,
acting general director of TEPCO’s Nuclear Power & Plant Siting
Division] said he expected a “tough situation” if the rainfall
from the typhoon is similar in scale to the Oct. 20 downpour. [...]
Xinhua, Oct. 22, 2013: [Tepco] said Tuesday it had detected radioactive cesium one kilometer off the coast of the facility, as it braces for a super-typhoon approaching having failed to take adequate measures when a typhoon struck last week. [...] radioactive cesium-137 were detected at a level of 1.6 becquerels per liter [1,600 Bq/m³] in water samples taken from the adjacent Pacific Ocean, marking the second time such radioactive materials have been found in the sea since surveys began in August. [...] the latest spike in radiation levels in and around the plant — including in the ocean — controvert Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s repeated statements that the situation at the Fukushima plant is “under control.” [...] the utility has been unable to confirm why cesium levels were rising at the particular spot surveyed, according to the plant’s officials Tuesday. [...] More workers may be drafted in ahead of the impending typhoon that’s threatening to sideswipe Japan’s eastern seaboard [...]
AP:
Japan cancer surgeon in fear of what’s to come after Fukushima
disaster
“A
terrible thing has happened, but people don’t realize it at all”
22 October, 2013
Associated
Press,
Oct. 22, 2013: Japan
mayor offers Fukushima kids home in his town [...]
A generation ago, Dr. Akira Sugenoya performed lifesaving cancer
surgery on more than 100 children after the 1986 Chernobyl
catastrophe. Today, as mayor of a central Japanese city, he’s
trying to avoid a repeat of his own history. [...] “If my fears
turn out to be unfounded, nothing would be better news,” Sugenoya
said [...] The Japanese government has detected 44 confirmed and
suspected cases of thyroid cancer among 217,000 youngsters, 18 and
under, checked in Fukushima prefecture. Thyroid cancer among children
is generally rare, estimated at only one in a million. [...] Yuri
Hasegawa, a 45-year-old Fukushima mother, is so worried [...] In her
backyard and other areas, “The Geiger counter starts going beep,
beep, beep, beep,” she said. “The beeps are coming so fast. [...]
If we could see it, we wouldn’t be living here.” [...] [Sugenoya
said,] “A terrible thing has happened, but people don’t realize
it at all.”
Belarusian
Telegraph Agency,
Oct. 21, 2013: A delegation from Japan got interested in Belarus’
practices in providing year-round rehabilitation and recuperation
services for children and the youth at the education and
rehabilitation center Zubryonok, Education Minister of Belarus Sergei
Maskevich said [...] There are no year-round rehabilitation
facilities for children in Japan yet. Over the last years Belarus has
welcomed several groups of children. Japanese children from the
Fukushima-affected areas took part in a special rehabilitation
program [...]
Tepco
can reduce retained rainwater only by a few cm a day / Two more
Typhoons to hit
22
October, 2013
Two
more Typhoons are coming to Japan from this weekend.
In
order to stop the leaked contaminated water spreading from the tanks,
Tepco surrounds each tank area by local dams (30cm deep).
However
the dams retain rainwater to be the mixture of rain and contaminated
water and it overflows the dams every time it rains heavily.
The
overflowed “rainwater” cluelessly end up flowing to the sea.
Due
to the recent series of Typhoons and heavy rains, the dams are nearly
full. However they can reduce the retained “rainwater” only by a
few cm per day, according to Tepco.
11
dams overflowed and the contamination level of the overflowed water
from 6 of them exceeded the safety level on 10/20/2013.
It
was because they couldn’t clear the rainwater caused by the
previous Typhoon before the heavy rain.
(cf,
11 tank area dams overflowed due to the heavy rain / Radioactive
density exceeded safety level in 6 of them [URL])
Tepco
may repeat the same accident with the next Two Typhoons. They stated
“The situation is very severe”, but has no countermeasures.
Back-up
tanks of 4,000 tonnes are already nearly full with two more Typhoons
coming
22
October, 2013
Two
more typhoons are coming to cause heavy rains to Japan from this
weekend.
However,
the back-up tanks are already nearly full. Tepco didn’t announce
the exact storage rate of the tanks.
Tepco
is supposed to pump up the “rainwater” retained in the tank area
dams. The back-up tanks are to stock the pumped water.
The
total capacity is 4,000 tonnes.
According
to the site, they are transferring the water from the back-up tanks
to the turbine buildings but it is not sure if they can complete it
before the two Typhoons are coming.
Tepco
admitted the collapse and subsidence in Fukushima plant area / “but
the damage scale not verified”
22
October, 2013
Following
up this article.. Fukushima plant area had collapse and subsidence
due to the last Typhoon / No press release [URL]
On
10/21/2013, Tepco admitted it was true. Regarding the reason why they
didn’t announce it to the press was because there was no damage to
the facilities or human workers.
However
on the other hand, they stated the scale of the damage hasn’t been
verified yet.
Radioactive
Rainwater Overwhelms Fukishima Nuclear Plant
Real News,
22 October, 2013
22 October, 2013
Heavy
rains have overwhelmed containment tankers at the crippled Fukushima
Daiichi plant
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