Kerncentrales Japan #31

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HOLLAND DOC: MY ATOMIC AUNT

maandag 11 maart 2013, 20.57 uur, TV Ned 2

Ooit waren ze fervente aanhangers van kernenergie, kerncentrales en hun managers. Nu, precies twee jaar na de nucleaire ramp van Fukushima, dreigt voor Tante Kunika en haar dorpsgemeenschap de totale ontluistering.

Regisseur Kyoko Miyake woont al meer dan tien jaar buiten Japan en keert nu terug naar Fukushima. Ze is benieuwd hoe het gaat met haar geboortedorp Namié, waar ze zich vooral de idyllische kindervakanties van herinnert met vriendelijke stranden en lachende buren.

Nu is Namié volledig verwoest door de tsunami en vanwege het stralingsgevaar zal het nooit meer herbouwd worden. Waarom zijn de mensen niet boos?

http://www.ikonrtv.nl/ikondocumentaire/documentaire.asp?oId=2736

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Recordhoeveelheid straling in vis bij Fukushima

In Japan is in de buurt van de beschadigde kerncentrale van Fukushima een hoogradioactieve vis gevangen. Dat melden diverse media. De vis bevatte een recordhoeveelheid radioactief cesium van 740.000 becquerel per kilo. Dat is 7.400 keer hoger dan de wettelijke norm voor menselijke consumptie, zo meldt het nieuwsagentschap Kyodo.

http://www.deredactie.be/(...)tralingvis_fukushima

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Tepco: “Losing faith” in leaking Fukushima tanks — But we don’t have anywhere else to put the radioactive water
http://enenews.com/tepco-(...)he-radioactive-water

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Op woensdag 10 april 2013 02:28 schreef Chokeme het volgende:
Ik vraag me af in welke mate Tepco of Japan verantwoording moet afleggen aan bijv. het IAEA, of is dit een volledig Japanse aangelegenheid? Van wat ik kan vinden is de enige toezichthoudende instantie de (Japanse en tevens falende) NRA? Ze maken er een puinzooi van in Fukushima en in het belang van de rest van de wereld zou het geen slecht idee zijn om daar in te grijpen.

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Motegi halts use of underground Fukushima pools
Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi says he plans to have the operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant halt the use of underground pools that have leaked large amounts of contaminated water. He says contaminated water in the leaked pools will be quickly transferred to steel tanks above ground.

Motegi was speaking at a Lower House committee session on Wednesday. He expressed regret over Tokyo Electric Power Company's slow response to the problem.

The minister said he will instruct TEPCO to accelerate the construction of additional above-ground storage tanks and complete them by the end of May. The new tanks are to accommodate contaminated water from the underground pools.

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Op woensdag 10 april 2013 15:16 schreef rubbereend het volgende:
Hoeveel overheidsgeld is er nu al ingepompt?

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Utilities gave money to group led by atomic energy commissioner even after Fukushima disaster

Power industry entities such as Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) have extended large sums of money to a nonprofit organization led by Etsuko Akiba, a commissioner of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), the Mainichi has learned.
http://mainichi.jp/englis(...)2a00m0na014000c.html

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Tepco snubs ¥10.5 billion cleanup tab.

The Environment Ministry requested ¥199.7 billion for decontamination work in the supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 and ¥372.1 billion in the fiscal 2012 budget. It is seeking a whopping ¥497.8 billion in the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts April 1.

http://www.japantimes.co.(...)up-tab/#.UWWumjf3TxU

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Many of them, including GE, Toshiba and Hitachi, are actually making money on the disaster by being involved in the decontamination and decommissioning, according to a report by Greenpeace International.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/03/13?print

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Study: 150,000 sq. kilometers of Pacific with Fukushima nuclear material — ‘Remarkable’ amount released in ocean

[...] Recently, large quantities of radioactive materials were released to the atmosphere and coastal waters following a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (NPP), which increased 137Cs concentrations in coastal seawater off Fukushima up to eight orders of magnitude above the global fallout background [...]

[...] the measured 137Cs concentrations in surface waters ranged from 1.8mBq L−1 to 3500mBq L−1, up to 3500 times higher than the global fallout background, although the cruise track did not go closer than 30 km from the coast. […] The elevated 137Cs levels covered an area of around 150 000 km2 (south of 38°N and west of 147° E). [...]

The contribution of 137Cs, 129I and 3H released from the damaged Fukushima NPP to the sea has been remarkable, as it has considerably influenced their concentrations in surface seawater as well as in the water column of the NW Pacific Ocean. [...]
http://www.biogeosciences(...)bgd-10-6377-2013.pdf

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New highly radioactive leak from pipe at Fukushima plant — Expert: Nuclear material may be flowing from “damaged pipes or drains” into Pacific

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said around 22 litres (six US gallons) of highly radioactive waste water leaked from a pipe as work crews were trying to empty a reservoir that itself had already sprung leaks.
http://enenews.com/new-hi(...)-drains-into-pacific

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Fukushima Nuclear Plant Cleanup May Take More Than 40 Years
"'A U.N. nuclear watchdog team said Japan may need longer than the projected 40 years to decommission the Fukushima power plant and urged Tepco to improve stability at the facility. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency team, Juan Carlos Lentijo, said Monday that damage at the nuclear plant is so complex that it is impossible to predict how long the cleanup may last.' Meanwhile, Gregory B. Jaczko, former Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said that all 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the United States have a safety problem that cannot be fixed and they should be replaced with newer technology."

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Japan's Radiation Disaster Toll: None Dead, None Sick
"This article discusses a recently-released U.N. Scientific Committee report which examined the health effects of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Their conclusion: 'Radiation exposure following the nuclear accident at Fukushima-Daiichi did not cause any immediate health effects. It is unlikely to be able to attribute any health effects in the future among the general public and the vast majority of workers. ... No radiation-related deaths or acute effects have been observed among nearly 25,000 workers involved at the accident site. Given the small number of highly exposed workers, it is unlikely that excess cases of thyroid cancer due to radiation exposure would be detectable.'

The article even sums up the exposure levels for the workers who were closest to the reactor: 'Of 167 exposed to more than the industry's recommended five-year limit of 100 mSv (a CT scan exposes patients to up to 10 mSv), 23 recorded 150-200 mSv, three 200-250 mSv and six up to 678 mSv, still short of the 1000 mSv single dosage that causes radiation sickness, or the accumulated exposure estimated to cause a fatal cancer years later in 5 per cent of people.' The report also highlights the minute effect it's had on the environment: 'The exposures on both marine and terrestrial non-human biota were too low for observable acute effects.'"

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Japanese Diplomat: We are facing global catastrophe over next 40-100 years because of Fukushima nuclear disaster (VIDEO)

Nathaniel White-Joyal, Host: It’s clear that the west coast of the United States will be affected by the radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Akio Matsumura, Diplomat: Let me clarify. We are facing global disaster — catastrophe — occurring. From that perspective, over 40 years, 50 years, or maybe 100 years. We cannot escape from this fact. For that we have to keep in mind. […] This radioactive material, or contaminated water, any cases, reach out to your west coast as well. If you are counting on Japan, I can assure you now they do not take serious action.

http://enenews.com/japane(...)clear-disaster-video

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Tritium soaring in water at No. 1 plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday that 600,000 becquerels per liter of tritium has been detected in groundwater at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

It’s the first time such a high level of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, has been measured in the plant’s groundwater, Tepco said.

The water, sampled Friday, came from an observation well about 6 meters west of the plant’s port. The well is the closest to the sea of the five wells used for radiation monitoring.

On July 1, the tritium level in the same well was 510,000 becquerels per liter, Tepco said.

The utility also said it had measured, on Wednesday, a seawater tritium level of 2,300 becquerels per liter — the highest so far — near the water intakes of reactors 1 to 4.

Tritium concentrations in groundwater have become denser on the north side of the intakes, but Tepco also said it has yet to determine whether the tainted water has been leaking into the sea.

A Nuclear Regulation Authority official recently said contaminated groundwater from the plant, which is being fed cooling water from outside, may be seeping into the ocean and that the matter must be addressed carefully because data is limited.

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Hero Fukushima ex-manager who foiled nuclear disaster dies of cancer

The former Fukushima supervisor of damage control works at the tsunami-devastated nuclear power plant has died of cancer. His decision not to follow a corporate order prevented Chernobyl-like explosions of overheated Fukushima reactors.

The ex-head of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Masao Yoshida, 58, died at a Tokyo hospital of esophageal cancer on July 9, 2013. Doctors have maintained repeatedly that Yoshida’s illness has had nothing to do with exposure to high doses of radiation. ( )

Yoshida is believed to have prevented the world’s worst atomic accident in 25 years after the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986.

After March 11, 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima nuclear plant, General Manager in the Nuclear Asset Management Department of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEPCO) Masao Yoshida remained in charge of the rectification of the consequences of the disaster for more than six months, barely leaving the station.

It was Yoshida’s own decision to disobey HQ orders to stop using seawater to cool the reactors. Instead he continued to do so and saved the active zones from overheating and exploding. Had he obeyed the order, the whole of north eastern Japan would possibly have been uninhabitable for decades, if not centuries.

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Fukushima radioactive groundwater readings rocket

TOKYO (AFP) - Toxic radioactive substances in groundwater at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have rocketed over the past three days, its operator said, admitting it did not know where the leak was coming from.

Samples taken on Monday showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 were more than 90 times higher than they were on Friday, at 9,000 becquerels per litre, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) revealed.

Levels of caesium-137 stood at 18,000 becquerels per litre, 86 times higher than at the end of last week, the utility said.

"We still don't know why the level of radiation surged, but we are continuing efforts to avert further expansion of contamination," a TEPCO spokesman stated.

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Op woensdag 10 juli 2013 14:20 schreef Perrin het volgende:

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[ afbeelding ]

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Op woensdag 10 juli 2013 20:20 schreef Ferdo het volgende:

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Zijn verstand zal op het moment van overlijden nog altijd gezonder zijn geweest dan dat van de hoogste baas.

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Japan atomic watchdog suspects Fukushima ocean leak

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's nuclear watchdog said Wednesday the crippled Fukushima reactors are very likely leaking highly radioactive substances into the Pacific Ocean.

Members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority voiced frustration at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which has failed to identify the source and the cause of spiking readings of radioactive materials in groundwater.

"It is strongly suspected that highly concentrated contaminated waste water has leaked to the ground and has spread to the sea," the authority said in its written review of TEPCO's recent announcements.

The giant utility that services Tokyo and its surrounding regions has said groundwater samples taken at the battered Fukushima Daiichi plant on Tuesday showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 were more than 110 times higher than they were on Friday.

TEPCO has failed to identify the exact reasons for the increased readings but has maintained that the toxic groundwater was likely contained at the current location, largely by concrete foundations and steel sheets.

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Op woensdag 10 juli 2013 14:20 schreef Perrin het volgende:

[..]

[ afbeelding ]

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Steam Detected at Damaged Fukushima Reactor

Remote camera footage Thursday showed steam escaping from the top of the No. 3 reactor’s primary containment structure, which houses its fuel vessel, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco. A worker who checked the footage Thursday morning noticed the steam, said Hiroki Kawamata, a spokesman for the operator.

Mr. Kawamata said officials were unsure what was generating the steam, and hypothesized that rainwater seeping into the containment vessel may have turned to vapor. Extremely high levels of radiation in the now roofless upper sections of the No. 3 reactor building destroyed in a hydrogen explosion that rocked the reactor during the early days of the 2011 disaster make it too dangerous for workers to approach.

But workers are standing by to inject boric acid into the reactor from the outside at any signs of further trouble, such as a rapid rise in temperature or radiation parameters, Mr. Kawamata said.

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Op donderdag 18 juli 2013 12:08 schreef Perrin het volgende:

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BBC: It’s boiling inside Fukushima Unit No. 3 — Reactor supposed to be in cold shutdown — Situation ‘worrying’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23419325

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Radio: Fukushima Daiichi has “contaminated the biggest body of water on the planet” — Radioactive leaks to harm marine and human life —
Whole Pacific Ocean likely to have cesium levels 5-10 times higher than at peak of nuclear bomb tests (AUDIO)
http://enenews.com/radio-(...)ear-bomb-tests-audio

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Japan gov’t intervening at Fukushima nuclear plant —
Will take over measuring radiation levels —
Top official “questioned accuracy of Tepco’s data on contamination”

http://enenews.com/govt-i(...)ata-on-contamination

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Official reveals contamination levels at Fukushima plant are likely higher outside reactor units than inside — ‘Serious threat’ if trenches leak a large amount of water

http://enenews.com/strang(...)nts-leak-groundwater

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The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) plans to pull together two dedicated teams to investigate water contamination and its impact on the ocean’s ecosystem, according to the the official.

“We still don’t know the root cause of the problems as they are more complicated than initially thought,” the NRA official said
http://enenews.com/afp-al(...)-are-more-complicate

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Op dinsdag 30 juli 2013 21:10 schreef Resonancer het volgende:
Hoeveel geld ze er ook tegen aan gooien, dit krijgen we nooit meer schoon.

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Zullen de metingen vast nog hoger uitvallen.

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Dat gaat rap.

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Fukushima clean-up turns toxic for Japan's Tepco

• Japanese public also in the dark over clean-up, say critics
• Utility says radiation makes it hard to reach all parts of facility
• Says trying to explain clean-up problems to the public
• Chair of third party panel blames incompetence, not deliberate policy

TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) - Two and a half years after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima plant faces a daunting array of unknowns.

Why the plant intermittently emits steam; how groundwater seeps into its basement; whether fixes to the cooling system will hold; how nearby groundwater is contaminated by radioactive matter; how toxic water ends up in the sea and how to contain water that could overwhelm the facility's storage tanks.

What is clear, say critics, is that Tokyo Electric Power Co is keeping a nervous Japanese public in the dark about what it does know.

The inability of the utility, known as Tepco, to get to grips with the situation raises questions over whether it can successfully decommission the Fukushima Daiichi plant, say industry experts and analysts.
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One of its biggest headaches is trying to contain radioactive water that cools the reactors as it mixes with some 400 tonnes of fresh groundwater pouring into the plant daily.

Workers have built more than 1,000 tanks to store the mixed water, which accumulates at the rate of an Olympic swimming pool each week. With more than 85 percent of the 380,000 tonnes of storage capacity filled, Tepco has said it could run out of space.

The tanks are built from parts of disassembled old containers brought from defunct factories and put together with new parts, workers from the plant told Reuters. They say steel bolts in the tanks will corrode in a few years.

Tepco says it does not know how long the tanks will hold. It reckons it would need to more than double the current capacity over the next three years to contain all the water. It has no plan for after that.

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TEPCO took no action about radioactive water leak for 2 years.

TEPCO's inaction is likely responsible for the spread of radiation.

http://ajw.asahi.com/arti(...)shima/AJ201308010053

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Revealed: The deeper they check underneath Fukushima plant, the higher contamination levels get — Now sampling over 40 feet below surface

http://enenews.com/reveal(...)0-feet-below-surface

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Asahi: Radioactive contamination ‘soaring’ in Fukushima groundwater — Strontium and other beta emitters up 4,500% in recent days; Cesium levels rise nearly 1,500% — Tepco says it doesn’t know why levels are spiking

http://enenews.com/huge-s(...)els-1500-tepco-video

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Tepco Press Conference: The situation at Fukushima is bleak — “This discharge is beyond our control”

http://enenews.com/tepco-(...)beyond-control-video

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Regering Japan grijpt in bij lek Fukushima
De Japanse regering grijpt in bij de beschadigde kerncentrale van Fukushima. De eigenaar van de centrale, Tepco, probeert het weglekken te stoppen maar slaagt daar op eigen kracht onvoldoende in.

Premier Shinzo Abe van Japan heeft het ministerie van Industrie woensdag opgedragen actiever eraan mee te werken dat er een einde komt aan het weglekken van radioactief grondwater uit de beschadigde kerncentrale van Fukushima in de Grote Oceaan.

Een afsluiting die het besmette grondwater bij Fukushima in toom zou moeten houden, vertoont gebreken. De centrale staat voor een nieuwe noodsituatie, meldde de Japanse toezichthouder op kerncentrales maandag al.

Abe zei niet of de regering extra geld uittrekt om de problemen met het radioactief grondwater beter te kunnen bestrijden.

De kerncentrale bij Fukushima werd in maart 2011 ernstig beschadigd door een aardbeving en een daaropvolgende tsunami.

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Fukishima Springs Water Leak
The Japanese Fukishima crisis took a turn for the worse this week as it was found a barrier built to contain contaminated water has been breached; a leak defined by 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium. This is yet another problem on top of a spate of errors plaguing the 2011 nuclear disaster site.

Nuclear regulatory official Shinji Kinjo has cited Tokyo Electric Power Company as having a 'weak sense of crisis' as well as hinted at previous bunglings by TEPCO as the reason one cannot 'just leave it up to Tepco alone.' If Nuclear energy is ever to move forward, these types of disasters need to be eliminated.

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Op woensdag 7 augustus 2013 15:30 schreef Bigs het volgende:
Ik denk dat we nu wel kunnen concluderen dat we beter maar gewoon kunnen stoppen met kernenergie voordat we de planeet helemaal onbewoonbaar maken. Het nieuws wordt alleen maar slechter.

Het lijkt onderhand wel of er ondergronds nieuwe kernreacties ontstaan. Zou dat mogelijk zijn?

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“Japan Gov’t in Chaos”: Completely out of control at Fukushima — Melted reactor cores contaminating Pacific with full range of radioactive material http://enenews.com/japan-(...)e-contaminants-video

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TV: Very likely some of Fukushima’s melted cores have moved into the earth — “It’s beyond containment right now”
http://enenews.com/tv-ver(...)ment-right-now-video

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Watch: Young kids play in ocean nearby leaking Fukushima plant — “Real cause for concern” over radiation levels in sand

http://enenews.com/tv-peo(...)-play-in-ocean-video

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Abe’s Japan Is Blind to Scary Nuclear Reality
Forget Abenomics. Ignore Shinzo Abe’s efforts to rejuvenate Japan’s diplomatic and military clout. Look past the quest to rewrite the constitution. History will judge this prime minister by one thing alone: what he did, or didn’t do, to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

It’s mind-boggling how disengaged Japan’s leaders have been since their “BP moment” -- the March 2011 near-meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. Abe’s predecessors Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda virtually ignored the radiation leaks and spent fuel rods sitting 135 miles (217 kilometers) from Tokyo. In December, Abe became the third prime minister to pretend all was well at Fukushima after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that flooded the plant.

[...]

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Insight: After disaster, the deadliest part of Japan's nuclear clean-up
TOKYO (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is preparing to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel from a damaged reactor building, a dangerous operation that has never been attempted before on this scale.

Containing radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima 68 years ago, more than 1,300 used fuel rod assemblies packed tightly together need to be removed from a building that is vulnerable to collapse, should another large earthquake hit the area.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) is already in a losing battle to stop radioactive water overflowing from another part of the facility, and experts question whether it will be able to pull off the removal of all the assemblies successfully.

"They are going to have difficulty in removing a significant number of the rods," said Arnie Gundersen, a veteran U.S. nuclear engineer and director of Fairewinds Energy Education, who used to build fuel assemblies.

The operation, beginning this November at the plant's Reactor No. 4, is fraught with danger, including the possibility of a large release of radiation if a fuel assembly breaks, gets stuck or gets too close to an adjacent bundle, said Gundersen and other nuclear experts.

That could lead to a worse disaster than the March 2011 nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant, the world's most serious since Chernobyl in 1986.

No one knows how bad it can get, but independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt said recently in their World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013: "Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date."

Tepco has already removed two unused fuel assemblies from the pool in a test operation last year, but these rods are less dangerous than the spent bundles. Extracting spent fuel is a normal part of operations at a nuclear plant, but safely plucking them from a badly damaged reactor is unprecedented.

"To jump to the conclusion that it is going to work just fine for the rest of them is quite a leap of logic," said Gundersen.

The utility says it recognizes the operation will be difficult but believes it can carry it out safely.

Nonetheless, Tepco inspires little confidence. Sharply criticized for failing to protect the Fukushima plant against natural disasters, its handling of the crisis since then has also been lambasted.

Last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the government to take a more active role in controlling the overflow of radioactive water being flushed over the melted reactors in Units 1, 2 and 3 at the plant.

[...]

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10 workers exposed to radiation at crippled Japanese nuclear plant; no injuries
IWAKI, Japan — Ten workers at Japan's crippled nuclear plant were exposed Monday to small amounts of radiation while conducting cleanup activities, the plant's operator said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it is still investigating how the workers were contaminated at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, but that it may have been from radioactive dust.

It said small amounts of radiation were found on the workers' faces and hair.

A powerful earthquake and tsunami destroyed power and cooling systems at the plant in March 2011, causing the release of large amounts of radiation. Makeshift equipment is being used to cool the reactors, and the plant has been plagued by blackouts and leaks of contaminated water.

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Op woensdag 14 augustus 2013 09:46 schreef Aether het volgende:
* knip *

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Op zondag 18 augustus 2013 23:34 schreef Woods het volgende:
Jammer weer dat er alleen maar naar de nadelen van kernenergie wordt gekeken. Er is dankzij kernenergie al joost mag weten hoeveel 'gevaarlijk' CO2 vermeden en schoon opgewekt.

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Weer groot lek bij kerncentrale Fukushima
Uit een opslagtank van de verwoeste Japanse kerncentrale Fukushima Dai-ichi is zo'n driehonderdduizend liter radioactief water gelekt.

Dat heeft de beheerder van de centrale, Tepco, dinsdag gezegd. Niet eerder lekte zoveel radioactief water uit opslagtanks bij Fukushima.

Het water is waarschijnlijk door een klep in een goot rond de opslagtank beland en deels in de bodem gesijpeld, aldus Tepco. Inmiddels is de poel die daarbij ontstond weggepompt, evenals het water dat zich nog in de tank bevond, zodat het elders kan worden opgeslagen.

Boven de poel is een stralingsniveau van honderd millisievert/uur gemeten - vijfmaal de jaarlijks toegestane hoeveelheid voor medewerkers van kerncentrales.