"Continuing radiation leaks exposed the failure of the plant’s operator to contain the problem more than two years after a triple meltdown.... At least 300 tons of contaminated groundwater are thought to be flowing into the ocean from the plant each day, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.... Every day, roughly 400 tons of groundwater flows from surrounding mountains and seeps into reactor buildings.... Hundreds of tons of irradiated water flow daily into the sea.... tainted water that’s increasing by 400 tons a day."
Related: You Should Be Steamed About This Post
But then you will melt the wall of ice:
"Pumping coolant through underground pipes around critical buildings, freezing soil and creating a “seal” almost a mile long.... a $400 million wall of ice to surround the damaged reactor buildings.... the proposal calls for engineers to sink vertical pipes into the ground around the structures. Coolant would be cycled from on-site refrigerator units into the pipes, where they would form a frozen wall to keep contaminated water in and keep out freshwater flowing from nearby mountains. The government anticipates keeping the ground frozen for six years starting in July 2015.... ‘‘The proposal to freeze the earth is nothing but a cash cow for the contractor’’
So what and where is the power source is going to give them the ability to do this IN 2015(!!), especially in the summer?
Related: Slow Saturday Special: U.S. Nuclear Watchdog Fa$t A$leep
Must be why they were not shutdown like the parks.
"Japan plant likely leaked radioactive water" Associated Press, July 23, 2013
TOKYO — A Japanese utility said Monday that its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is probably leaking contaminated water into the sea, acknowledging for the first time a problem long suspected by experts.
Oh, so OVER TWO YEARS LATER the ma$$ media is "probably" telling the truth we were telling all along?
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Daiichi plant, also came under fire Monday for not disclosing earlier that the number of plant workers with thyroid radiation exposures exceeding threshold levels for increased cancer risks was 10 times what it said earlier.
The authorities LIED (gasp!)?
The delayed announcements underscored the criticisms the company has faced over the Fukushima crisis....
Company spokesman Masayuki Ono said at a news conference that plant officials have come to believe that radioactive water that leaked from the wrecked reactors is likely to have seeped into the underground water system and escaped into the sea....
In addition to being dumped from time to time, and it has been happening since the whole thing began.
--more--"
RELATED: Holy Fukushima – Radiation From Japan Is Already Killing North Americans
Radioactive Water From Fukushima Is Systematically Poisoning The Entire Pacific Ocean
This is a nightmare that has no end. Every single day, massive amounts of highly radioactive water from Fukushima is systematically poisoning the entire Pacific Ocean. The damage that is being done is absolutely incalculable. The mainstream media does not seem to want to talk about this.
They are no longer mainstream. We are.
"Japanese government to help stabilize nuclear plant" by Martin Fackler | New York Times, August 08, 2013
TOKYO — Japan’s prime minister directed his government Wednesday to step in to help stabilize the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, after continuing radiation leaks exposed the failure of the plant’s operator to contain the problem more than two years after a triple meltdown.
We were told they did a cold shutdown years ago! WTF?!!!!!!!
Calling recent revelations of new contamination flowing into the Pacific Ocean an “urgent issue,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the national government had to use its resources to help the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., bring the leaks under control. In a recognition of the magnitude of the problem, a government official said Wednesday that some 300 tons, or about 75,000 gallons, of contaminated groundwater is now believed to be flowing daily into the harbor.
It's actually more, but who wants to quibble over radioactive water seeping into the world's largest source of seafood. Wait until you see the catch in about five years (if we have that long).
Regulators said in the past week that a “chemical wall” built in June by the operator, also known as TEPCO, failed to contain the contaminated water, which appears to be flowing over the top of the barrier and into the Pacific. This newest problem comes after a series of mishaps this year that included spills of highly toxic water and a partial power failure caused by a rat.
Imagine the size of 'em now!
“This is not an issue we can let TEPCO take complete responsibility of,” Abe told Cabinet ministers. “We must deal with this at the national level.”
Isn't it a little late?
While Abe did not specify what his government would do, news reports quoted unidentified officials in the trade ministry, which has promoted the use of nuclear power, as saying that the government would probably help pay for a $400 million wall of ice to surround the damaged reactor buildings.
The plan calls for freezing the soil around the buildings to stop the flow of contamination into nearby groundwater, and thus end the leaks into the sea. Doing this would require an ice wall nearly a mile in length that would reach almost 100 feet into the ground. Officials said that an ice wall of such a scale had never been attempted, making it unlikely that TEPCO could pull off the feat alone.
Translation: the wall of ice idea was floated to freeze your worries about the GREATEST ENVIRONMENTAL TRAGEDY in WORLD HISTORY because the authorities are HELPLESS! If we survive this that is what historians like me will relate to the next generation.
“There is no precedent in the world to create a water-shielding wall with frozen soil on such a large scale,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference.
--more--"
Yeah, right, the government is going to fix it!
Related: Tainted water leaking at Fukushima power plant
Has been from day one.
"Nuclear leaks pose growing threat" by Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press, August 22, 2013
TOKYO — Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday said a leakage of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant could be the beginning of a new disaster — a series of leaks of contaminated water from storage tanks.
The plant operator has built hundreds of steel tanks to store massive amounts of radioactive water coming from three melted reactors, as well as underground water running into reactor and turbine basements.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Tuesday that about 80,000 gallons of contaminated water leaked from one of the tanks. It said it has not determined how or where the water leaked, but suspects it did so through a seam.
The leak is the fifth, and the worst, since last year involving tanks of the same design at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant, raising concerns that contaminated water could begin leaking from storage tanks one after another.
‘‘We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more,’’ Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a news conference. ‘‘We are in a situation where there is no time to waste.’’
The watchdog also proposed at a weekly meeting Wednesday to raise the rating of the seriousness of the leak to level 3, a ‘‘serious incident,’’ from level 1, ‘‘an anomaly,’’ on an International Nuclear and Radiological event scale of eight.
The watchdog urged Tokyo Electric to step up monitoring for leaks and take precautions.
At the meeting, officials also revealed that plant workers apparently have overlooked several signs of leaks, suggesting that their twice-daily patrols were largely just a walk. They have not monitored water levels inside tanks, obviously missed a puddle forming at the bottom of the tank earlier, and kept open a valve on an antileakage barrier around the tanks.
Just GOING THROUGH the MOTIONS, huh?
Tokyo Electric said the leaked water is thought to have mostly seeped into the ground after escaping from the barrier around the tank. It initially said the leak did not pose an immediate threat to the sea because of its distance — about 1,650 feet — from the coastline.
But Tokyo Electric reversed that view late Wednesday and acknowledged a possible leak to the sea after detecting high radioactivity inside a gutter extending to the ocean.
Translation; YOU WERE LIED TO!!!!!!!!
The company also said the tank may have been leaking slowly for weeks through a possible flaw in its bottom. That could create extensive soil contamination and a blow to plans to release untainted underground water into the sea as part of efforts to reduce the amount of radioactive water.
If you believe that water was untainted I have some of Saddam's nook-u-lar bombs to sell you.
The leaks have shaken confidence in the reliability of hundreds of tanks that are crucial for storing water that has been pumped into the broken reactors to keep melted radioactive fuel cool.
That is making the assumption that we had any confidence in them, which we never did.
The plant had multiple meltdowns after a quake and tsunami in March 2011 — a level 7 ‘‘major accident’’ and the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
Now the worst in history. Chernobyl was cloud; this is awful!
Of course, we were told a first there were no meltdowns.
--more--"
"Japan takes over disaster effort after leaks at Fukushima; Agency to draft plan for handling radioactive water" by Takashi Hirokawa | Bloomberg News, August 27, 2013
TOKYO — Japan’s government will take emergency action to curb radioactive water spills at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, wresting control of the disaster recovery from the plant’s heavily criticized operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Pffffft!
There is NOTHING THEY CAN DO so why don't they ju$t admit it?
‘‘From now on, the government will move to the forefront,’’ Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters Monday at Fukushima.
Oh, that is a relief!
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is led by Motegi, will work to draw up emergency measures over the next few weeks to deal with the contaminated water, the prime minister’s office said.
More than two years after the March 2011 nuclear disaster, Tokyo Electric’s recovery effort has taken a turn for the worse....
Oh, it JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE, huh?
Measures under consideration for the next one to two years include fencing off the reactors with what would be the world’s longest underground ‘‘ice walls.’’
These comprise coolant pipes, sunk as deep as 40 yards underground, to turn soil into permafrost. One wall would prevent water flowing from adjacent hillsides from coming into contact with reactors, the other would block radiated water from entering the ocean. The government is still working out how much this would cost, according to the prime minister’s office.
Or if it could even be done at all!
Motegi also gave Tepco until mid-September to restart a water filtration system known as Alps, which was taken offline on Aug. 8 due to corrosion.
I'll be looking for that information in my Globes.
The loss of Alps, one of two systems for filtering the water being used to cool the reactor’s fuel, adds to the contamination levels of water in the plant’s storage tanks, hundreds of which may be susceptible to leaks. Alps is designed to strip out radioactive contaminants such as strontium, linked to bone cancer.
So all that has been going into the water they are spraying to keep the places cool, and into the ocean it is going.
Tepco said Monday that it set up a headquarters to deal with the storage of contaminated water....
The tank that leaked had levels of beta radiation 8 million times the limit for drinking water under health ministry guidelines.
There are about 350 tanks of similar design to the leaky unit. Two others have had radioactive hot-spots detected on their seams. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has called the possibility of other tanks leaking the biggest concern at the Fukushima site.
An inspection of the leaking tank was inconclusive, according to utility official Noriyuki Imaizumi on Aug. 24....
Whatever.
The nuclear regulator is also concerned about hundreds of smaller tanks, Shinji Kinjo, who leads a disaster task force formed by the agency, said Monday.
Unlike the large tanks that hold most of the plant’s stored water, the smaller tanks aren’t surrounded by protective concrete barriers. Last week’s leak reached the soil because a drainage valve on one such barrier was open.
Makes it sound like the leaks aren't that big a thing, huh?
--more--"
"Japan nuclear leak’s severity raised" by Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press, August 29, 2013
TOKYO — Japan’s nuclear regulator on Wednesday upgraded the rating of a leak of radiation-contaminated water from a tank at a tsunami-wrecked nuclear plant to a ‘‘serious incident’’ on an international scale, and it castigated the plant operator for failing to catch the problem earlier.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority’s latest criticism of Tokyo Electric Power Co. came a day after the operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant acknowledged that the 300-ton leak probably began nearly a month and a half before it was discovered Aug. 19.
Folks, the thing has been leaking into the ocean since the day it happened. I don't know what makes one sicker, the radiation or the endless lies from authority.
In a meeting with agency officials and experts Tuesday night, the company said radioactivity near the leaky tank and exposure levels among patrolling staff started to increase in early July. There is no sign that anyone tried to find the source of that radioactivity before the leak was discovered.
They can't find the source because the place is still too damn hot.
On Wednesday, regulatory officials said the company has repeatedly ignored their instructions to improve their patrolling procedures to reduce the risk of overlooking leakages. They said the company lacked expertise and also underestimated potential impact of the leak because underground water is shallower around the tank than the company initially told regulators....
The power company acknowledged recently that only two workers were assigned to check all 1,000 storage tanks at the plant during their twice-daily two-hour walk, on which they did not carry dosimeters. In addition, the company said, the inspection results were not adequately recorded. The company said it will increase patrolling staff to 50 from the current eight.
WTF???!!!!??????
Earlier this week, Japan’s industry minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said the government would take over cleanup efforts and allocate funding for long-term containment of contaminated water.
The nuclear authority originally gave a Level 1 preliminary rating — an ‘‘anomaly,’’ to the tank leak. Last week the authority proposed raising that to Level 3 — a ‘‘serious incident’’ — and it made that change after consulting with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The IAEA’s ratings are designed to inform the international community, and changing them does not affect efforts to clean up the leak. The 2011 Fukushima disaster itself was rated the maximum of 7 on the scale, the same as the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
Except it is far worse than Chernobyl.
‘‘What’s important is not the number itself but to give a basic idea about the extent of the problem,’’ authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at a news conference after the agency’s meeting. ‘‘I’ve seen reports that this is a dire situation but that’s not true.’’
Sigh.
Don't the Japanese have some tradition where you plunge a sword into your gut by shaming yourself?
Leave it for Tanaka, will ya?
--more--"
"Ice wall may contain nuclear contamination; Japan considers freezing ground at Fukushima" by Jacob Adelman | Bloomberg News, September 01, 2013
TOKYO — Turning soil into virtual permafrost with refrigerated coolant piped through the earth was first used in the 1860s to shore up coal mines. Now it’s the newest idea for containing the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
What is going to power all the refrigerators?
At least 300 tons of water laced with radioactive particles of cesium, strontium linked to bone cancer, and tritium flow each day into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled atomic station in Japan. The plan to contain the health threat is to build an underground containment wall made of ice.
It is actually 400 tons, but who wants to quibble?
After repeated failures to hold back water contaminated by the 2011 disaster, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is running out of options to deal with what has been called an ‘‘urgent problem’’ by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Not really being treated like one, probably because there is really NOTHING THEY CAN DO!
Dealing with the water leaks is an ‘‘emergency,’’ the Nuclear Regulation Authority said. Japanese taxpayers already face a $112 billion estimated cleanup cost.
And that is ju$t a drop in the ocean!
Underground ice walls have been used to block radiation before, in an experiment at the former site of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which produced plutonium for atomic weapons, according to a report by Arctic Foundations Inc., an earth-freezing contractor based in Alaska.
Oh, it has been EXPERIMENTED WITH, huh?
Alaska is a LOT COLDER than JAPAN, isn't it?
‘‘It’s just sometimes it’s the only scenario that will really work,’’ said Joseph Sopko of Moretrench, a New Jersey contractor specializing in frozen-earth projects.
Meaning there is NOTHING they can DO!
The plan at Fukushima has drawbacks: It won’t be completed until 2015, and there’s no cost estimate yet.
I was told $400 million, so WTF?!!??!!
And all the tons of water accumulated in the interim? Into the OCEAN?!!
The wall of ice would run about a mile underground, the world’s longest continuous stretch of artificially frozen earth, according to Japan’s nuclear accident response office.
Maybe they will make the Guinness book of world records, huh?
Kajima Corp., the construction company that was the principal builder of the Daiichi nuclear plant, has been given until March 31 to complete a feasibility study of the project.
It was a GE design!
Highly contaminated water started to accumulate in basements of Fukushima buildings when crews began injecting tons of water into the reactors after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, knocked out power to cooling systems.
Groundwater then started leaking into the basements, adding to the volume of contaminated water. In turn, radiated water seeped into groundwater. At least 300 tons of contaminated groundwater are thought to be flowing into the ocean from the plant each day, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
It's actually more than that, but why keep repeating myself.
Kajima’s proposal calls for engineers to sink vertical pipes into the ground around the structures. Coolant would be cycled from on-site refrigerator units into the pipes, where they would form a frozen wall to keep contaminated water in and keep out freshwater flowing from nearby mountains. The government anticipates keeping the ground frozen for six years starting in July 2015.
‘‘We expect the walls will stem the flow of groundwater from the mountain side and also keep water inside the buildings from leaking,’’ said Tatsuya Shinkawa, director of the nuclear accident response office in the Agency for Natural-Resources and Energy.
Government officials have not released a cost estimate for the project.
‘‘The proposal to freeze the earth is nothing but a cash cow for the contractor,’’ said Richard McPherson, a California-based energy and defense consultant who has researched the nuclear accidents.
With taxpayers getting milked!
Kajima declined to comment on details of the project, indicating that it has yet to start the feasibility study.
The technique of freezing the earth was devised in the late 19th century by German scientist F.H. Poetsch.
It’s now commonly used for temporary reinforcement in tunnel building and other projects, such as the construction of the Second Avenue subway in New York and the Port of Miami tunnel, according to Sopko, who worked on the projects. Ground was also frozen during construction of the Interstate 90 connector tunnel for Boston’s Big Dig project.
And we know how well that overpriced pos turned out.
--more--"
"Japan may dump Fukushima water into sea" by Jacob Adelman | Bloomberg News, September 03, 2013
TOKYO — Tokyo Electric Power’s plan to manage radioactive water at its wrecked Fukushima plant may include a controlled discharge into the ocean once its toxicity is brought within legal limits, Japan’s nuclear regulator said Monday.
Yeah, adjust the measurements and then dump it!
Un-fucking-believable!
Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said the ocean dump could be necessary as the country’s government prepares to present its plan for handling tainted water at the site that’s increasing by 400 tons a day.
Managing the water used to cool melted fuel at the Fukushima plant’s reactors has become a fundamental challenge for the utility known as TEPCO, which has struggled to contain a series of leaks including the loss of about 300 tons of contaminated water from a storage tank two weeks ago.
So they are accumulating another 100 tons a day then? Where are they putting it?
‘‘It is important for us to understand the need to make difficult judgments in order to avoid larger problems in the future,’’ Tanaka told reporters in Tokyo.
He's talking about the future as if there is one.
Contaminant levels must be brought below accepted limits through filtration or other treatments before the water is discharged, he said.
Japan’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters may present its response to the water management crisis as early as Tuesday, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said, relaying comments Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga made to lawmakers. The government wants to present a ‘‘complete package’’ of steps to tackle the water problem, Suga said, according to Kato.
TEPCO’s challenge was further illustrated Sunday when the utility said it had found a new radioactive leak, capping its worst month since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused reactors to melt down.
The company said it had halted the contaminated water leak from a pipe near an area of high radiation levels discovered on Aug. 31.
And they expect us to believe their lying asses?
Of the hot spots found over the weekend, one recorded radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour around the bottom of a bolted-flange tank storing water used to cool melted reactor cores. That’s 18 times the level reported at the same spot on Aug. 22, TEPCO said.
That means the levels are SPIKING, meaning there must STILL BE FUSION REACTIONS going on BELOW the containment center.
The weekend’s findings probably reflect TEPCO’s beefed-up monitoring crews finding contamination that was missed earlier, former nuclear engineer Michael Friedlander said.
So they have been UNDERSELLING the seriousness of all this?
--more--"
Oddly, there was a photograph above that article in my printed paper:
"PATH OF DESTRUCTION -- Tornadoes tore through Koshigaya and other parts of eastern Japan on Monday, injuring dozens of people, destroying several homes and other buildings, and toppling utility poles and trees (Boston Globe September 3 2013)."
No need for a news article about that on the web.
"Japan to pay $500 million to freeze soil, find other ways to stop leaking Fukushima water" by Chico Harlan, September 03, 2013
SEOUL — The Japanese government on Tuesday pledged nearly $500 million to fight toxic water leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, part of an increasingly precarious cleanup job that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says requires “radical measures.”
So now the cost is up to $500 million.
Concerns about fast-accumulating contaminated water at the plant, nearly 21/2 years after an earthquake triggered a major nuclear accident, have pushed the government to invent on-the-fly solutions.
Translation: it has forced them to offer bullshit solutions to calm the public.
For example, part of the money announced Tuesday will go toward pumping coolant through underground pipes around critical buildings, officials said, freezing soil and creating a “seal” almost a mile long.
The announcement suggests mounting problems at Fukushima, where hundreds of tons of irradiated water flow daily into the sea. It also marks the government’s most direct attempt yet to take charge of a site operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), which has been criticized by regulators for lax oversight.
Yeah, government will fix it!
Pfffft!
The 2011 nuclear accident at Fukushima involved three reactor meltdowns and a massive release of radiation that forced the evacuation of 160,000 residents. The government has since declared the plant to be in a state of “cold shutdown,” meaning its reactor cores are stable.
Now I am steamed because that is a lie!
But analysts say that term belies the complex and environmentally damaging problems Japan could face during decades of cleanup.
The greatest challenge, for now, is the water. When a nuclear plant is operating as designed, irradiated water is contained. But the Fukushima plant — battered by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the enormous tsunami that followed, and now relying on makeshift equipment — has become a soggy mess.
Every day, roughly 400 tons of groundwater flows from surrounding mountains and seeps into reactor buildings, Tepco says. There, it mixes with highly toxic water used to douse and cool the crippled reactor cores.
Some of the water leaks into the sea, Tepco says, although the exact path — whether through cracks in buildings, or through pipes or trenches — remains unclear. Workers, speaking occasionally to the media, say they are in a perpetual fight to drain toxic water from areas where it should not be and store it in containers....
Before it is DUMPED into the SEA!
******************
Among other actions, Japan’s government plans to seal off reactor buildings and upgrade a system to remove radionuclides from the contaminated water that is on site.
At a meeting Tuesday, Abe and other Japanese officials said the central government, not Tepco, should take the lead in handling technically challenging problems at the plant, according to public broadcaster NHK. Abe said the latest steps will help provide a “fundamental solution to the problem of radioactive water, instead of reacting to each new problem as it comes up.”
Some analysts initially criticized the government for leaving the 40-year, $11 billion decommissioning job in the hands of Tepco, which was slow to admit the extent of the crisis during its initial weeks. Before the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, Tepco also ignored experts’ warnings about the Fukushima facility’s ability to withstand natural disasters.
Tepco has technical control of the site, but the government’s increased willingness to intervene could provide safety assurances days before the International Olympic Committee picks a host city for the 2020 Summer Games. Tokyo is widely seen as the front-runner, with Istanbul and Madrid also in contention.
Yeah, let's turn to something really important.
The chief of Tokyo’s 2020 bid wrote recently to IOC members, telling them that life in the city is “completely normal” despite the leaks 150 miles to the north, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
(Blog editor aghast in astonishment)
--more--"
Related: As Fukushima site oozes radiation, Japan steps in
The Globe's web version did a great cleanup job replacing the printed WaPo piece with a NYT pos.
"Fukushima leaks ‘not a concern’" by Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press, September 14, 2013
TOKYO — A former US nuclear regulator says cleaning up Japan’s wrecked Fukushima plant is a bigger challenge than the work he led at Three Mile Island and that ongoing radioactive water leaks are a minor part of that task.
SIGH!
Lake Barrett was appointed this month by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. as an outside adviser for the decades-long decommissioning process. He led the Three Mile Island accident cleanup for nearly a decade as part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
He said that the meltdowns in three of the reactors, massive radiation leaks, and the volume of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, on Japan’s northeast coast, make it a more complicated cleanup.
‘‘In comparison to Three Mile Island, Fukushima is much more challenging, much more complex a job,’’ Barrett told a Tokyo news conference.
Compared to the magnitude of that task, the leakage problem is a ‘‘very low health impact and not a concern,’’ he told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview later Friday. The attention on the contaminated water leaks is ‘‘out of proportion,’’ and is hurting the overall cleanup process by slowing things down, he said.
Yeah, don't worry about it and eat up!
The 1979 core melt accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania involved one reactor. All the radioactivity was contained in one building, where 8,000 tons of contaminated water were trapped.
In Fukushima, the catastrophe was precipitated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, whose aftermath are further adding to the difficulties of containing and cleaning up after the meltdowns of the three reactors. Moreover, buildings at the Japanese plant were destroyed or damaged by hydrogen explosions, which released massive radioactive elements into the air and sea.
If they were hydrogen explosions. The explosions we saw were dirty, not white.
But despite worries over the massive quantities of water needed to cool the reactors, the risk of radiation-contaminated water to public health is minimal, Barrett said.
Then scarf up that plate of sushi, guy.
--more--"
"Japan’s only nuclear reactor goes offline; But country aims to get nuclear power back soon" by Elaine Kurtenbach | Associated Press, September 16, 2013
TOKYO — Japan is once again without atomic energy as its only operating nuclear reactor goes offline Sunday for refueling and maintenance, and other plants remained closed for intensified safety checks after the 2011 meltdowns at the tsunami-stricken plant in Fukushima.
But despite signs the crisis in Fukushima is worsening, Japan’s commitment to restarting many of its 50 idled plants appears stronger than ever, more than a year after a previous government said it would begin to phase out nuclear power.
I guess the Japanese never learn.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office in December, says nuclear power remains essential, even with a surge in generation capacity from solar, wind, and other renewable sources, and that the world’s number-three economy cannot afford the mounting costs from importing gas and oil.
Like I have always said, all the renewables will not run an industrial or technological economy.
Four nuclear plant operators have applied to restart a dozen reactors under revised safety guidelines, though the pace will be relatively slow, with the first expected to come online early next year at the earliest. Inspections take about six months for each reactor, and obtaining consent from local governments may also take time.
Only two reactors have been operating in Japan since July 2012, both at Ohi in the west.
***************
The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the worst atomic accident since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, prompted a rethink of plans to raise nuclear capacity from one-third to more than half of total demand.
Try worst in all history!
Even with little to no nuclear power, Japan has managed to avoid power rationing and blackouts. Industries have moved aggressively to avoid disruptions by installing backup generators and shifting to new sources, such as solar power.
Apparently it is not good enough!
Recent disclosures that the Fukushima plant is still leaking radiation and struggling to handle contaminated water used to cool its reactors have raised alarm over whether the situation is as fully under control as Abe says.
Still, the government is considered likely to scuttle the commitment to end the use of nuclear power gradually, a pledge that was made a year ago under a different administration.
While surveys indicate the public remains opposed to nuclear power, the demonstrations by hundreds of thousands after the Fukushima disaster have diminished, perhaps sapped by the pain to the pocketbooks of Tokyo households now paying 30 percent more for electricity than before, with more rate hikes to come.
If you $ay so, corporate pre$$.
The issue is cost, and to a lesser extent, concern over a resurgence in climate-changing carbon emissions due to increased use of coal and oil to generate power.
SIGH!
Did someone fart?
Clean energy still only accounts for 10 percent of total consumption — most of it hydropower. Much of the new capacity approved has yet to come online.
Reliance on imported oil and gas has surged from about 60 percent of energy consumption to about 85 percent.
Gee, who benefits there?
--more--"
"Quake hits near Japan’s leaky reactors" Associated Press, September 20, 2013
DENVER — A 5.3-magnitude earthquake on Friday hit the Japanese prefecture that is home to the nuclear power plant crippled in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of about 13 miles under Fukushima Prefecture and about 110 miles northeast of Tokyo.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert.
The Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported that the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., observed no abnormality in radiation or equipment after the quake.
Would they tell us if there were?
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday ordered Tokyo Electric to scrap all six reactors at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant and concentrate on tackling pressing issues such as leaks of radioactive water.
The 2011 disaster caused the cores at three reactors to melt and damaged a fuel cooling pool at another. Officials have acknowledged that radiation-contaminated groundwater has been seeping into the Pacific Ocean since soon after the meltdowns.
The region lies on the ‘‘Ring of Fire’’ — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim. About 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur in the region.
--more--"
Sorry I was so slow in getting this post to you, readers.
And what's the radiation worry in my newspaper?
"Mars trip would pose radiation risk" by Alicia Chang | Associated Press, May 31, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Astronauts traveling to and from Mars would be bombarded with as much cosmic radiation as they would get from a full-body CT scan about once a week for a year, researchers reported Thursday.
That dose is enough to raise their cancer risk by about 3 percent, but experts caution that there are many uncertainties about the space environment’s effects on the body.
As plans for deep space exploration ramp up, radiation in space is a big concern. Earth’s magnetic field helps to deflect much of it here.
Not as much of a concern as the radiation being dumped into the sea here on earth!!
NASA aims to send a crew to orbit Mars by the mid-2030s....
Which will be privatized because the U.S. has no more space program.
--more--"
That reminds me, stay away from CT scans.
Radiation releases that can never be recalled:
"Japan marks 68th anniversary of Hiroshima bombing" by Shizuo Kambayashi | Associated Press, August 07, 2013
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Japan marked the 68th anniversary Tuesday of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima with a somber ceremony to honor the dead and pledges to seek to eliminate nuclear weapons.
I'm sorry my country did that to you, Japan.
Some 50,000 people stood for a minute of silence in Hiroshima’s peace park near the epicenter of the early-morning blast on Aug. 6, 1945, that killed up to 140,000 people. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed tens of thousands more, prompting Japan’s surrender to the World War II Allies.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, among many dignitaries attending the event, said that as the sole country to face nuclear attack, Japan has the duty to seek to wipe out nuclear weapons. He made no mention of the dilemma this resource-scarce country is facing over nuclear energy, nor of the tens of thousands of people displaced by risks from radioactivity from a nuclear disaster in Fukushima, in its northeast.
Most of Japan’s nuclear power plants were taken off- line after the massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 damaged reactors at a plant in Fukushima, causing meltdowns.
There are over 200,000 ‘‘hibakusha,’’ surviving victims from the atomic bombings, with an average age of nearly 79. Many gathered in Hiroshima to burn incense, bowing in prayer. In a ‘‘peace declaration’’ speech, Hiroshima’s mayor, Kazumi Matsui, described the pain of those who survived, only to be shunned as contaminated by the radiation.
May God forgive AmeriKa when she dies.
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In the meantime I will personally assume responsibility and issue a profuse and heartfelt apology for the two greatest single criminal
"Criticism on Nagasaki anniversary" by Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press, August 10, 2013
TOKYO — Nagasaki’s mayor criticized Japan’s government on Friday for failing to back an international nuclear disarmament effort as the country marked the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of his city.
Mayor Tomihisa Taue said Japan’s inaction ‘‘betrayed expectations of the global community.’’
Well, look at the new government they got.
Japan refused in April to sign an unconditional pledge by nearly 80 countries to never use nuclear weapons.
The document, prepared by a UN committee, is largely symbolic because none of the signatories possesses nuclear weapons.
Japan does not have nuclear weapons and has pledged not to produce any, although some hawkish members of the ruling party say the country should consider a nuclear option.
I'll bet that puts there neighbors at ease.
Taue said that as the world’s only victim of atomic bombings, Japan’s refusal to join the initiative contradicts its non-nuclear pledge.
‘‘I call on the government of Japan to return to the origin of our pledge as an atomic-bombed country,’’ he said at the peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 blast.
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Also see: The Worst Days in World History
