Fukushima Update: 11/03/2013

Isn't it amazing!  I have not heard anything for weeks over Radio NZ about Fukushima. As if there was a blackout of news!

US Energy Secretary “shocked” and “stunned” after being at Fukushima plant

• “Unprecedented” and “daunting” task ahead for Japan
• America has “direct interest” in Tepco doing things safely

ENENews,

3 November, 2013

Statement from U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz Regarding Fukushima, Nov. 1, 2013: 

“On Friday, I made my first visit to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. It is stunning that one can see firsthand the destructive force of the tsunami even more than two and a half years after the tragic events.[...] TEPCO President Hirose, and his dedicated staff [...] face a daunting task in the cleanup and decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi, one that will take decades and is being carried out under very challenging conditions. The TEPCO workforce is facing unprecedented challenges and is clearly focused on devising and implementing solutions. [...] It appears that spent nuclear fuel will begin to be removed from Unit 4 as scheduled in mid-November. [...] As Japan continues [...] the cleanup at the Fukushima site [...] the United States stands ready to continue assisting our partners in this daunting yet indispensable task [...]“

NHK WORLD, Oct. 31, 2013: Ernest Moniz [...] in his speech in Tokyo on Thursday [...] said the success of the cleanup of areas around the Fukushima plant and decommissioning of reactors have global significance. Moniz said the US has a direct interest in seeing the next steps are done efficiently and safely.

AP, Nov. 2, 2013: In a speech Thursday in Tokyo, [Moniz] said “the success of the cleanup also has global significance. So we all have a direct interest in seeing that the next steps are taken well, efficiently and safely.”

NHK, Nov. 2, 2013: Ernest Moniz spoke to NHK on Saturday in Tokyo, one day after visiting the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Moniz said he was shocked to see the scale of the damage that remains more than 2 and half years after the tsunami disaster and the nuclear accident. He said he also sensed how difficult work at the plant is with workers required to wear full face masks and other protective gear.

Watch the NHK interview HERE

Fukushima News 11/1/13: US Aid For Fukushima; Fuel Rod Removal Approved; Mega Quake Prediction

November 1

Fukushima News 11/3/13: US Will Aid In Removing Radioactive Tritium; IAEA To The Rescue

IAEA to send Fukushima probe team in end of Nov.

The head of the international nuclear watchdog says he will soon send a team of experts to Fukushima to investigate the contaminated water leaks at the crippled nuclear plant.

Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, met reporters in Washington on Friday.

Amano said he will dispatch the team at the end of November. He said it will look into the water issue as well as the progress of the decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Amano says Japan needs to cooperate with international organizations in addressing the nuclear plant's problems in order to regain the trust of the global community.

He said the team will include sea water analysts. He said he believes the visit may ease concerns of Japan's neighbors and other countries about the dangers of the radioactive water leaks.

Moniz: US can help remove tritium from waste water

The US Energy Secretary says his government and US companies could help Japan in removing hard-to-filter radioactive tritium from waste water at the country's crippled nuclear plant

Ernest Moniz spoke to NHK on Saturday in Tokyo, one day after visiting the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Moniz said he was shocked to see the scale of the damage that remains more than 2 and half years after the tsunami disaster and the nuclear accident.
He said he also sensed how difficult work at the plant is with workers required to wear full face masks and other protective gear.

In particular, he referred to the issue of processing radioactive waste water.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has been able to remove most of the radioactive materials from the processed water. The one exception is tritium, which emits beta rays with comparatively weaker energy.

Moniz said removal of tritium is a challenge. But he stressed that his department and US firms have experience in processing the material when they dealt with nuclear waste water in the past.

TEPCO accepts US offer to aid dangerous Fukushima cleanup

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-tepco-us...
http://enenews.com/professor-there-ar...
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/conte...
http://enenews.com/fox-news-wave-slig...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsHG6...
http://enenews.com/top-scientist-fuku...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...
http://enenews.com/study-iaea-website...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com...
http://enenews.com/former-diplomat-fu...
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/conte...

NRC's Operation Center Fukushima Transcript Audio Clips --March 18 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7bULc...

Air Force hopes to stick California city with radioactive waste dump
http://cironline.org/reports/air-forc...

Into thin air: The story of Plutonium Mountain
http://thebulletin.org/thin-air-story...

Tritium:
Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that occurs both naturally — from interactions of cosmic rays with gases in the upper atmosphere — and as a by-product of the operation of in nuclear reactors and tritium processing facilities. Tritium exposure can pose a health risk if it is ingested through drinking water or food, inhaled or absorbed through the skin in large quantities.
http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/readin...

2013 Doomsday Clock Symposium
Doomsday Clock Symposium November 14, 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science 1200 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005 Communicating Catastrophe Program
http://www.thebulletin.org/press-rele...



ENENEWS headlines

04:37 PM EST on November 3rd, 2013 | 30 comments

Deep M5 quake jolts eastern Japan — RT: Highly dangerous fuel rod removal “will not permit even the slightest tremor” at Fukushima plant

02:42 PM EST on November 3rd, 2013 | 39 comments

TV: “A new and disturbing development” around Fukushima — Worrying claims of ‘cancer cluster’ emerging — Specialists deeply concerned (VIDEO)

12:32 PM EST on November 3rd, 2013 | 15 comments

Former Diplomat: Fukushima disaster “to go on almost to infinity, I’m afraid” — Official: “It will never be resolved” if situation at plant continues — Bloomberg: Prime Minister told by his own party “Japan’s response is failing” (AUDIO)

10:48 AM EST on November 3rd, 2013 | 49 comments

Fox News: Wave of ‘slightly’ radioactive water from Fukushima predicted to reach U.S. in 2014 — Cancer Expert: Current exposure guidelines are “far too high… a very low dose of radiation is dangerous” (VIDEO)

09:22 AM EST on November 3rd, 2013 | 59 comments

Professor: There are fuel rods probably ‘fused’ in Fukushima Unit 4; Pool on bent legs, and lateral supports were not put in when first bult — AP: International concern about “catastrophic open-air meltdown” (AUDIO)

This the first I've seen of this, so I can't vouch for it

Fukushima Earthquake Day 8 of Martial Law in Japan

We are into a 8 day vigilance for Japan ,who suffered a 7.2 earthquake so devastating they blocked all of japan from the internet . After our oceans and earths biosphere have been radiated for 965 days . with death plumes gassing our loved ones around the Pacific . We hold no enmity towards Japan , just compassion, understanding and willingness to help if they will only swallow their prides and do the right thing before the death plumes destroy happiness forever .

The headline says it all!

Fuel removal of Reactor4 pool to start next week – No quake is allowed for 13 months

Fukushima Diary,

2 November, 2013

It’s too dangerous to touch, but it can’t be left untouched forever.

Tepco is going to start removing the fuel assemblies from reactor #4 pool next week.

They will take 13 months to remove over 1500 fuel assemblies one after one, which is over 5,000 times much as Hiroshima bomb (based on Cs-137).

They built 6 teams specially trained for this task. One team consists of 6 members. 1 member is from Tepco, but 5 members are from some other company, which Tepco conceals the name of and the reason of the concealment is also concealed.

The removed fuel is to be carried to the common usage pool. It’s not clear what to do with the fuel assemblies after transferring to the common pool.

Reactor4 spent fuel pool is covered with the crane building, so we cannot see the crane picking up the assemblies from live camera.

What makes it more dangerous than the daily fuel removal is the fact that the pool is full of debris.

They vacuum the small pieces of the debris over the assemblies but still it’s likely that the crane accidentally picks up a piece of debris when it grabs an assembly.

In that case, it’s possible that the assembly is dropped.

Tepco claims one assembly cannot reach the critical state. Even if it’s dropped on other assemblies, it wouldn’t affect the outside of the plant area.

Tepco’s statement has always been correct.

Even about the contaminated water issue, they announced it rains so heavily only once in ten years that the contaminated water tank dams overflow. Indeed, it overflowed every time a Typhoon hit Fukushima since this September.

As the emergency measures, Tepco is to warn the people around the plant area by using transceiver. This would save everyone like they did in 311.

The only thing we could do it to hope no earthquake to occur for the following 13 months. (It was just last week that M7.1 hit Fukushima.)

Fukushima Diary will try its best to keep the eyes and ears on reactor4.

Iori Mochizuki

This is Australian radio. There is NO mention of Fukushima on Radio New Zealand!

Australian Radio:

Process of dismantling Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant enters dangerous new phase

Prue Bentley speaks to former Australian diplomat and author Professor Richard Broinowski

To hear interview GO HERE