With
a Plant’s Tainted Water Still Flowing, No End to Environmental
Fears
For
months now, it has been hard to escape the continuing deluge of bad
news from the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant.
24
October, 2013
Even
after the company that operates the plant admitted this summer that
tons of contaminated groundwater was leaking into the Pacific Ocean
every day, new accidents have added to the uncontrolled releases of
radioactive materials. This week, newly tainted rainwater overflowed
dikes. Two weeks before that, workers mistakenly disconnected a pipe,
dumping 10 more tons of contaminated water onto the ground and
dousing themselves in the process.
Those
accidents have raised questions about whether the continuing leaks
are putting the environment, and by extension the Japanese people, in
new danger more than two and a half years after the original disaster
— and long after many had hoped natural radioactive decay would
have allowed healing to begin.
Interviews
with scientists in recent weeks suggest that they are struggling to
determine which effects — including newly discovered hot spots on a
wide swath of the ocean floor near Fukushima — are from recent
leaks and which are leftovers from the original disaster. But
evidence collected by them and the plant’s operator, the Tokyo
Electric Power Company, or Tepco, shows worrisome trends.
The
latest releases appear to be carrying much more contaminated water
than before into the Pacific. And that flow may not slow until at
least 2015, when an ice wall around the damaged reactors is supposed
to be completed. Beyond that, although many Japanese believed that
the plant had stopped spewing radioactive materials long ago, they
have continued to seep into the air.
“This
has become a slowly unfolding environmental misery,” said Atsunao
Marui, a geochemist at the Geological Survey of Japan who has studied
contaminated groundwater flowing from the plant. “If we don’t put
a stop to the releases, we risk creating a new man-made disaster.”
Even
the most alarmed of the scientists who were interviewed did not
extend their worries about the new releases to human health. With
more than 80,000 residents near the plant evacuated almost
immediately after the disaster, and fishing in nearby waters still
severely restricted, they say there is little or no direct danger to
humans from the latest releases. But, they say, that does not rule
out other impacts on the environment.
And
while the air and water releases are a small fraction of what they
were in the early days of the disaster, they are still significantly
larger than what would normally be permitted of a functioning plant.
Both
Tepco and the government say the largest continuing problem, the
water releases, is not a cause for concern, because the radiation is
diluted in the vast Pacific, limiting any potentially dangerous
effects to the plant’s artificial harbor. But while scientists
agree that dilution has made radiation levels outside the harbor, and
even some places inside, low enough to pass drinking water standards,
they say there are worrisome problems that may be the result of new
leaks.
Besides
the discovery of widespread radioactive hot spots, the government’s
fisheries agency said that more than 1 in 10 of some species of
bottom-feeding fish caught off Fukushima are still contaminated by
amounts of radioactive cesium above the government’s safety level.
The
latest concerns began in June, when Tepco announced a sharp rise in
the amount of radioactive contaminants, including strontium 90, found
in groundwater near two of the ruined reactors. The company says the
source of the increased contamination appears to be highly
radioactive water that had been trapped since the accident in
conduits around the reactor buildings and had slowly found its way
out.
The
planned ice wall is meant to contain this water, as well as to sever
the flow of groundwater that pours daily into the damaged reactor
buildings while following its natural course from mountains behind
the plant down toward the sea. (That water, which becomes sullied by
radioactive materials from the melted nuclear fuel, is captured and
stored in a cityscape of tanks.)
The
magnitude of the recent spike in radiation, and the amounts of
groundwater involved, have led Michio Aoyama, an oceanographer at a
government research institute who is considered an authority on
radiation in the sea, to conclude that radioactive cesium 137 may now
be leaking into the Pacific at a rate of about 30 billion becquerels
per year, or about three times as high as last year. He estimates
that strontium 90 may be entering the Pacific at a similar rate.
Dr.
Aoyama notes that those amounts would be much smaller than the amount
of cesium 137 alone released into the Pacific during the accident
itself, which he estimates at up to 18 quadrillion becquerels. Still,
other scientists suspect that the new releases are having measurable
effects beyond the harbor.
Blair
Thornton, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo’s
Underwater Technology Research Center, helped find the hot spots,
spread across at least 150 square miles of the ocean bottom offshore
from the plant. He said they appeared to be formed when radioactive
particles like cesium and strontium, which are heavier than water,
collect in low points like trenches.
Radiation
levels there should naturally weaken over time, Dr. Thornton said, as
sea currents deposit new sediments on top of toxic particles. The
fact that radiation levels are still up to hundreds of times as high
as they are in other areas of the sea floor raises the possibility
that the spots are being blanketed in new contamination from the
plant, he said. The other possibility, Dr. Thornton said, is that
radioactive particles released by the original accident bonded to mud
on the sea bottom and are not disappearing as quickly as expected.
In
either case, researchers say, the hot spots are a concern because
shrimp and small fish tend to gather in depressions on the ocean
floor for protection. If the radioactive materials are entering their
bodies, those particles could work their way into the food chain,
requiring that fishing be suspended for longer than local fishermen
had hoped.
The
hot spots could explain why cesium-contaminated fish are still being
caught off Fukushima, some scientists say. While the number of such
fish has been steadily falling, it has not dropped as quickly as
expected.
“Obviously,
there is some continuing source of cesium 137,” said Jota Kanda, an
oceanographer at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and
Technology. “We are not sure exactly what is happening, but we are
seeing a bigger than expected effect on the environment.”
Less
attention has been paid to the continued airborne releases of cesium
from the site’s crippled reactors, whose layers of protection were
damaged or destroyed. The plant still emits 10 million becquerels per
hour into the atmosphere, according to Tepco. While the amounts of
airborne emissions dropped sharply after the accident, which spewed
radioactive materials across a wide swath of northeastern Japan, they
have held steady since February 2012, Tepco said.
Tepco
has tried to stop these continuing releases by taking steps like
erecting a cover over one damaged reactor, but it acknowledges that
radioactive materials still escape through tiny gaps in the cover, or
through damaged ventilation systems and cracks in the reactor
buildings. So long as such air and water releases continue, experts
warn, there will be no end to Fukushima’s slowly unfolding
environmental damage.
“These
aren’t levels that are going to directly affect human health,”
Masashi Kusakabe, a researcher at an institute that has monitored
cesium in the ocean for the government, said, referring to releases
into the Pacific.
“But
that doesn’t mean that therefore these releases are good or
acceptable,” he said. “There is no precedent for what is
happening, so we are on untrodden ground.”
NYTimes Experts: Fukushima is having bigger effect on environment than we expected, we don’t know what’s happening
Radioactive releases from plant spiking this year — “Worrisome problems”
New
York Times,
Oct. 24, 2013 (Emphasis
Added):
For months now, it has been hard to escape the continuing deluge of
bad news from the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant. [...]
[Scientists] say there are worrisome
problems that may be the result of new leaks.
[...] [Tepco] says the source
of the increased contamination appears to be highly radioactive
water that
had been trapped since the accident in conduits around the reactor
buildings and had slowly found its way out.
Michio
Aoyama,
oceanographer at a Japanese government research institute:
The magnitude of the recent spike in radiation, and the amounts of
groundwater involved, have led , to conclude that radioactive cesium
137 may now be leaking into the Pacific at a rate of about 30 billion
becquerels per year [Actually PER DAY], or about three
times as high as last year.
He estimates that strontium 90 may be entering the Pacific at a
similar rate.
Blair
Thornton,
associate professor at University of Tokyo’s Underwater Technology
Research Center:
hot spots [are] spread across at least 150 square miles of the ocean
bottom [...] Radiation levels there should naturally weaken over time
[...] The fact that radiation levels are still up to hundreds of
times as high as they are in other areas of the sea floor raises the
possibility that the spots are being blanketed
in new contamination from the plant [...]
particles could work their way into the food chain [...]
Jota
Kanda,
oceanographer at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology:
“Obviously, there is some continuing source of cesium 137. We
are not sure exactly what is happening, but we are seeing a bigger
than expected effect on the environment.”
[...]
Radioactive
Debris in Pacific Ocean: Fukushima Radiation is Tearing up the West
Coast of the US and Canada
Ethan
A. Huff
28
October, 2013
As
cleanup crews gear themselves up to begin the treacherous task of
removing 400 tons of spent fuel from the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor
No. 4 in the coming weeks, reports continue to flood in showing that
radiation from the stricken plant is still causing major
environmental damage all over the world.
Particularly
on the West Coast of the U.S., a multitude of strange animal deaths,
high radiation readings and other recent anomalies suggest that the
Fukushima disaster is far from over. It is simply ludicrous, in other
words, for anyone to suggest at this point that these Fukushima woes
are dwindling, as fresh evidence suggests that quite the opposite is
true.
A
recent report by Michael Snyder over at TheTruthWins.com highlights
28 signs that the U.S. West Coast is still being torn up by nuclear
radiation from Fukushima. Many of these signs include strange
illnesses and mass deaths among sea creatures and other animals, as
well as high radiation readings from dozens of monitoring stations.
“Every
single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the
Pacific Ocean,” writes Snyder about this one major sign. “That
means that the total amount of radioactive material released from
Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in
our food chain.”
Radioactive
debris mass the size of California still impacting West Coast
Another
obvious sign is the recent mass migration of radioactive debris the
size of California across the Pacific Ocean. BBC News in the U.K.
reported last year that literally millions of tons of radioactive
debris had begun traveling across the Pacific Ocean, and that some of
it had already impacted Hawaii and even the West
Coast.
There
has also been a series of strange animal deaths recently, including
masses of sea lions, sockeye salmon and other sea creatures washing
up on the shore. Many of the polar bears, seals and walruses observed
along the Alaska coastline have also been found to have major fur
loss and open sores, both of which are indicative of radiation
poisoning.
Then
we have the scientific reports that claim radioactive water will
continue to impact the U.S. West Coast for many years to come,
potentially doubling in strength over the next five or six years.
Plankton, bluefin tuna and other sea life collected between Hawaii
and California are already testing high for radiation, and these
levels are expected to continue increasing.
“Look
at what’s going on now: They’re dumping huge amounts of
radioactivity into the ocean — no one expected that in 2011,”
stated Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of
California-Santa Cruz recently to Global Security Newswire. “We
could have large numbers of cancer from ingestion of fish.”
Initial
Fukushima radiation release more than 100 times larger than
Chernobyl, confirms study
There
will most certainly be a major uptick in cancer rates due to the
Fukushima incident, as the Japan Meteorological Agency’s
Meteorological Research Institute estimates that some 60 billion
becquerels of radioactive
cesium and strontium are being dumped into the Pacific Ocean every
single day. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) also admits that
as much as 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have been
released into the Pacific since the disaster began.
Those
who still say that the Chernobyl disaster was worse than Fukushima
may also want to consider that a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
study conducted in October 2011 concluded that Fukushima had already
released up to 100 times more radiation into the environment than
Chernobyl at that time. Today, this amount is likely astronomically
higher, especially when you take into account all the airborne
radioactive plumes that have been detected billowing across the ocean
and over U.S. soil.
Sources
for this article include:
NRA
to Tepco: Get a grip on No. 1 before thinking of restarts
28
October, 2013
FUKUSHIMA
– Hirose said the safety screening process for the
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa units was not among the topics discussed with
Tanaka.
The
NRA did not open the Tanaka-Hirose meeting to the media, except for
the beginning, to allow them to engage in what it called “frank
discussions.”
Tepco,
which continues to struggle with the massive buildup of radioactive
water at the Fukushima plant, filed for NRA safety assessments for
idled reactors 6 and 7 at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in September.
But
a formal safety screening meeting for the reactors, usually held in
public, has not convened, meaning the assessment process has yet to
enter full swing.
Tepco
is desperate to curtail the heavy costs it’s paying to buy fuel for
thermal power generation in place of atomic power.
ALPS
unit resumes tests
Following
a suspension of about four months, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said
Monday it resumed test operations at one of the three high-tech water
filtering at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The
start of the Advanced Liquid Processing System, or ALPS, which
removes most radioactive materials from tainted water at the plant,
follows the resumption of another ALPS unit in September.
The
daily water processing capacity at the plant now stands at 500 tons,
with each unit capable of cleaning 250 tons.
Tepco
began using the system in March but halted it in June when corrosion
was discovered inside one of the tanks where contaminated water was
being stored. A senior official at the Nuclear Regulation Authority
suggested Monday that Tokyo Electric Power Co. improve its management
of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant before restarting any
reactors at its huge complex in Niigata.
Referring
to two reactors at the seven-unit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant Tepco is
seeking to restart, NRA Secretary-General Katsuhiko Ikeda told
reporters, “The NRA will decide whether to go ahead with the safety
assessment by seeing how the situation at Fukushima No. 1 improves.”
He
made the comments after joining a rare meeting Monday between NRA
Chairman Shunichi Tanaka and Tepco President Naomi Hirose to discuss
ways to get a grip on the radioactive water leaking at Fukushima No.
1.
Tanaka
was quoted by Ikeda as telling Hirose: “I want you to take drastic
measures (to improve the situation) and respond, based on a long-term
perspective.”
Clearing
NRA safety checks is required before Tepco can restart the
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors, a move that would improve the firm’s
tough business predicament resulting from the Fukushima disaster.
The
repeated flows, spills and leaks of radioactive water plaguing
Fukushima No. 1 have led NRA commissioners to doubt Tepco’s
management adequately grasps the situation of the workers at the
plant or whether the utility has the wherewithal to ensure the safety
of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors.
Tepco
has submitted an analysis of the recent water spills and measures it
plans to prevent further incidents. This includes transferring about
20 workers from Kashiwazaki-Kariwa to Fukushima No. 1, but the steps
didn’t impress the NRA.
At
Monday’s meeting at the NRA building in Tokyo, Tanaka told Hirose
to improve the working environment at the Fukushima plant, such as by
reducing radiation levels.
“Work
efficiency is not good when wearing full-face masks . . . and
especially communication is difficult. I expect radiological
countermeasures to be taken at the site to end this kind of
situation,” Tanaka reportedly said.
Hirose
separately admitted to reporters that there are still many areas
where workers have to put on such masks and that he hopes to secure
enough staff to deal with the stricken plant, where three reactors
suffered core meltdowns
Fukushima
News 10/28/13: NRA Urges "Bold" Fukushima Action; Nuclear
Waste Disposal Challenged
TEPCO
must address ‘institutionalized lying’ before it restarts world’s
biggest nuclear power plant – governor
Tokyo
Electric Power Co must give a more thorough account of the Fukushima
disaster and address “institutionalized lying” in the company,
before it will be permitted to restart the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant,
according to a local governor.
RT,
28
October, 2013
If
they don’t do what needs to be done, if they keep skimping on costs
and manipulating information, they can never be trusted,” Niigata
Prefecture Governor Hirohiko Izumida told Reuters on Monday, adding
that these limitations need to be overcome before the plant is
restarted.
Hirohiko
Izumida (Image from h-izumida.jp)Hirohiko Izumida (Image from
h-izumida.jp)It is up to Izumida to approve plans to restart the
reactor at the TEPCO-run Kashiwazaki Kariwa – the world’s biggest
nuclear complex, located on the Japan sea coast, north-west of Tokyo.
His personal commission would examine both the causes and handling of
the disaster at Fukushima and lay them alongside existing regulatory
safeguards to ensure a similar crisis could not reoccur.
However,
he declined to mention to the wire agency when he would be launching
his review and provided no agenda. “If they cooperate with us, we
will be able to proceed smoothly. If not, we won't,” he said in
response to questioning on the subject.
If
Japanese nuclear safety regulators do lend their approval to the
restart plans, Izumida remains able to essentially block TEPCO’s
plans for the plant as the facility requires the backing of local
officials, allotting Izumida some leverage.
“Safety
is our utmost priority and we are not acting on an assumption of
nuclear restarts," said TEPCO spokesperson, Yoshimi Hitotsugi.
“We want to work on this issue while gaining the understanding of
the local population and related parties.”
Izumida
suggested that TEPCO should be fully stripped of responsibility for
decommissioning the destroyed Fukushima reactors, and the company
subjected to a taxpayer-funded bankruptcy program. Presently, the
company remains primarily concerned with funding the process, along
with the frequently-occurring and very immediate issue of
contaminated water leaking rather than overall nuclear safety.
“Unless
we create a situation where 80-90 percent of their thinking is
devoted to nuclear safety, I don't think we can say they have
prioritized safety,” he said.
The
decommissioning of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant itself will be
a long and arduous process – expected to take 30 years – and has
already sparked controversy in the country.
Reuters
investigations have identified widespread abuses at the plant, among
them the involvement of illegal brokers. Over 6,000 staff are
involved in the project. “The workers at the plant are risking
their health and giving it their all,” said Izumida.
However,
wage-skimming has been a habitual practice. Izumida offered to make
the workers participating in the clean-up public employees.
TEPCO
aims to restart Kashiwazaki Kariwa next April. If all of its reactors
became operational again, the company could potentially save $1
billion on a monthly basis in fuel costs.
(FILE)
A general view of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
nuclear power plant in Kariwa village, Kashiwazaki 18 July 2007. (AFP
Photo / Kazuhiro Nogi)(FILE) A general view of Tokyo Electric Power
Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Kariwa village,
Kashiwazaki 18 July 2007. (AFP Photo / Kazuhiro Nogi)
The
TEPCO-run Fukushima Daiichi power plant was disrupted in March 2011
by a massive earthquake and tsunami which wreaked havoc at Fukushima
and sparked a nuclear crisis in which meltdowns occurred in three
reactors. It was considered to be the world’s worst nuclear
accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and has since cost
TEPCO some $27 billion in losses.
Since
then it has suffered frequent spillages of water containing
radioactive substances. In August, one storage tank leaked over 300
tons of contaminated water. TEPCO first admitted that the Fukushima
plant was leaking radioactive substances in July after months of
denial.
In
September, a senior utility expert at Fukushima, Kazuhiko Yamashita,
said that the plant was “not under control.” TEPCO downplayed his
comments, saying that he had only been talking about the plant’s
waste water problem – not the facility as a whole.
“There
are three things required of a company that runs nuclear power
plants: don't lie, keep your promises and fulfil your social
responsibility,” Izumida concluded.
Fukushima
Container & Bright Flashing Light - Was Fuel Removed During
Typhoon Francisco?
I
recorded this live at the time of Typhoon Francisco. The time period
of 11:37 has
been omitted from Tepco's video archive
@http://www.youtube.com/user/fuku1live....
In fact, Tepco has omitted videos for the hours
between 11:00-13:00 on
10/25/13.
It's very strange that the cranes would be moving anything during high winds and the visibility is poor due to the rain on the camera lens.
Radioactive
Reality (28 October 2013) Radiation readings spiking to record levels
‘Nuclear
Slaves’ at Fukushima: Workers have debts paid off, forced to stay
as ‘indentured servants’ — Foreign workers may soon be needed
at plant, reveals official
Voice
of Russia, Oct.
27, 2013: “Nuclear
slaves” discovered at Fukushima
[...] An in-depth journalistic investigation uncovered that thousands
of unemployed Japanese were tricked into working underpaid and highly
dangerous jobs on the site of Fukushima’s nuclear disaster. [...]
Yakuza act as enforcers who keep the “nuclear slaves” from
complaining or leaving their jobs. [...] Reuters reports that “labor
brokers” [...] resort to “buying” laborers by paying off their
debts and then forcing them to work in hazardous conditions until
their debt to the “labor broker” is paid off. Such “employment
schemes” are commonly referred to as “indentured
servitude”
and are a form of slavery [...] Lake Barrett, a former US nuclear
regulator and an advisor to Tepco, told the news agency that existing
practices won’t be changed for Fukushima decontamination: “There’s
been a century of tradition of big Japanese companies using
contractors, and that’s just the way it is in Japan. You’re not
going to change that overnight just because you have a new job here,
so I think you have to adapt.”
Asahi,
Oct. 28, 2013: TEPCO President Naomi Hirose talked about the plan
with Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA, as the utility is facing
mounting criticism over its handling of the situation. [...] Hirose
explained that it is getting difficult for the utility to secure
sufficient manpower at the plant and that it was grappling with tasks
the company was not familiar with.
Reuters,
Oct. 28, 2013: [TEPCO] must give a fuller account of the Fukushima
disaster and address its “institutionalized lying” [...]
“If they don’t do what needs to be done, if they keep skimping on
costs and manipulating information, they can never be trusted,”
Niigata Prefecture Governor Hirohiko Izumida told Reuters [...] A
former economy and trade ministry bureaucrat who has emerged as a
leading critic of [Tepco], Izumida said he would launch his own
commission to investigate the causes and handling of the Fukushima
crisis [...] Izumida also called on the government to make more than
6,000 workers involved in decommissioning at Fukushima public
employees. […]
AP,
Oct. 28, 2013: [TEPCO president Naomi] Hirose acknowledged that TEPCO
is having trouble finding a stable pool of workers at the plant [...]
TEPCO has acknowledged that more than 700 employees have left the
company in the last year alone. [...] TEPCO Vice President Zengo
Aizawa said [...] that uncertainty remains over the long-term
decommissioning process. “We are not sure about our long-term
staffing situation during the upcoming process of debris removal,
which requires different skills,” Aizawa told a news conference.
Asked if the company may have to consider hiring foreign workers, he
said TEPCO is open to that idea even though it’s not an immediate
option. [...] [Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA] called on Hirose
to implement sweeping steps to safeguard workers from high doses of
radiation and other troubles […]
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