Japan hit by powerful earthquake

[*Shinzon*]

I read a couple of days ago (on Gizmodo) that some of the plants here have been leaking radioactive material for sometime into the water because of some piping that has apparently become faulty. Didn't really assume it was dangerously seriously as it was only on Gizmodo or one of those gawker sites lol.

[Kryssan]

The safety conference conducted by the IAEA concluded last week. There were lots of topics covered, and lots of information released though most of it is a review. Specifically regarding Dai-ichi, there was this 162 page report (link) on the IAEA's fact finding session in Japan.

IAEA Nuclear Safety Conference Concludes (link)

Crossposted:

The IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety concluded five days of deliberations at the organization's headquarters in Vienna on 24 June 2011. The Conference was called to identify lessons learned from the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan that was caused by an earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.


Under its President, Ambassador Antonio Guerreiro of Brazil, the Conference included an address by the IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and an opening day message from the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, presented by Mr. Sergio Duarte, High Representative for Disarmament. In subsequent plenary sessions, Ministers and heads of delegations delivered national statements.


The Conference adopted a Ministerial Declaration that called for improvements in global nuclear safety. The Ministers asked the Director General to prepare a draft Action Plan to address issues related to nuclear safety, emergency preparedness and response and radiation protection of people and the environment, as well as the international legal framework.


Director General's Action Plan


For his part, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano stated that the five-day Conference "achieved its main goal, which was to pave the way for an enhanced post-Fukushima global nuclear safety framework."


He said he was encouraged by the fact that his proposals for improving global nuclear safety enjoyed widespread support from Member States.


These five proposals were: to strengthen nuclear Safety Standards; to systematically review the safety of all nuclear power plants, including by expanding the IAEA's programme of expert peer reviews; to enhance the effectiveness of national nuclear regulatory bodies and ensure their independence; to strengthen the global emergency preparedness and response system; and to expand the Agency's role in receiving and disseminating information.


The Director General will now prepare a draft Action Plan on the way ahead, taking into consideration the views expressed by Member States. The Action Plan will be submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors and General Conference in September.


Working Group Summaries


The United Kingdom's Chief Inspector for Nuclear Installations, and the Team Leader of the International Fact-Finding Mission, Dr. Mike Weightman, presented the Mission findings. He also chaired the working group session on the preliminary assessment of the accident and actions for safety improvements.


Measures to strengthen emergency preparedness and response were discussed in the working group chaired by Alumanda de la Rosa, Director of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute.


The global nuclear safety framework was considered in the working group chaired by Richard Meserve, Chairperson of the International Nuclear Safety Group.
The Chairpersons' summaries of all of the working groups' deliberations can be accessed here.


Conference President Guerreiro said the summaries would prove useful for the Director General in preparing the report on the Ministerial Conference and the draft Action Plan, as requested by the Ministerial Declaration.


President's Summary


In his concluding remarks, the Conference President, Ambassador Antonio Guerreiro of Brazil, noted that a wide range of practical ideas for improving global nuclear safety in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi accident had been discussed.


Member States encouraged the IAEA to review and strengthen its Safety Standards in all relevant areas. They stressed the importance of systematic safety reviews of all existing nuclear power plants, with particular emphasis on external natural hazards.


The IAEA was encouraged to undertake more regular and systematic peer reviews of the safety of nuclear power plants, national emergency preparedness and response, as well as the nuclear regulatory framework.


There was a call for the IAEA's role in nuclear incidents and emergencies to be broadened to widen the scope of information and assessments shared with Member States, international organizations and the public. Member States noted the need to enhance the worldwide emergency preparedness and response framework, as well as the IAEA's role in that framework. Greater interaction between the major players in the nuclear arena - operators, regulators and vendors - was also considered important.


See Story Resources for more information.

-- By Sasha Henriques and Peter Kaiser, IAEA Division of Public Information

[Kryssan]

Another quick update:

A total of 104 concrete barrier plates have been installed at the seawater intakes of the Dai-ichi plants, in order to prevent the spread of further contamination into the sea. I'm not sure how many they're intending on installing, but it is already having a pronounced effect on the levels they're seeing at the sampling points.

Roughly 2% of the total contaminated water inventory on site has now been treated, and as of 2 July all the plants at Dai-ichi have started recirculating water vice just dumping water. The trend is looking good for minimizing the use of further water inventory and picking up the treatment of water instead. As of today, something like 13.5 thousand tons of water has been treated. The water treatment facilities they've built at the site are currently operating at 76% capacity, with the target being 80% for July and 90% following.

For reference, a total of ~98 thousand tons of contaminated water exists in the reactor and turbine generator buildings, with an additional ~22 thousand tons of water in storage facilities.

[*Shinzon*]

Shitty year for japan, another 7.0 hit.

(Reuters) - A strong earthquake jolted on Sunday the same area of northeastern Japan that was hit by a massive quake in March, but there was no sign of further damage along the coast or to the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials said.

The Japan Meteorological Agency lifted a tsunami alert for the region before noon after initially urging residents in the disaster area to stay clear of the coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the magnitude of the earthquake at 7.0 and said it had occurred at a depth of 18 km (11 miles) off the northeastern coast of Japan just before 10 am local time.

Four months ago, the same area was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami that left at least 21,000 dead and missing. The March 11 disaster cut power to the Fukushima power plant and triggered a radiation crisis.

"It started as a small side-way tremble, then it grew gradually stronger," said Nobuyuki Midorikawa, an official at Iwaki City, Fukushima prefecture.

"Having experienced that much devastation in March, this latest earthquake and tsunami alert made me feel we cannot let our guard down against tsunami," Midorikawa said.

Tokyo Electric Power said workers closest to the coast at the Fukushima power plant were briefly evacuated to higher ground before returning to work.

The utility said there was no immediate sign of further damage at the nuclear plant where workers have been struggling to keep an improvised cooling system operating to stabilize the reactors and control radiation. The cooling system was not interrupted by the quake, the company added.

Tokyo Electric said there was also no damage to the massive barge moored just offshore from the Fukushima nuclear power plant that has been used as a temporary storage depot for radiated water for any damage.

The March 11 earthquake that struck off the coast of northeastern Japan had a magnitude of 9.0 and caused a tsunami that caused extensive damage along the coast and measured about 14 meters at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The resulting loss of power at the Fukushima nuclear plant took out cooling systems and caused fuel in three of the plant's six reactors to melt down. Subsequent hydrogen explosions scattered radioactive debris over a wide area.

About 80,000 nearby residents have been forced to evacuate because of the radiation and Japan's government has come under fire for its handling of the disaster, putting pressure on unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign.

One concern has been the strength of the building supporting what remains of the No. 4 reactor at Fukushima, and a Tokyo Electric spokesman said the utility expects that the structure would hold up in an earthquake stronger than the one that struck Sunday.

[Kryssan]

Latest updates:

TEPCO is getting ready for the onset of that typhoon that is currently cruising towards Japan. We'll have to see how well their temporary measures hold, since the covers are obviously not yet installed on the buildings wrecked by hydrogen explosions.

Good news however in that radioactive buildup and release is continuing to dramatically fall and temperatures are also coming under a defined control method. The heat exchanger systems are online now, and while temperatures remain above cold shutdown they are on track according to their planner (highest temperatures for Units 1-3 as of the 18th at 113.2, 124.4, 137.2C respectively). The steam plumes in various areas have been markedly reduced.

Cooling systems at Units 2 and 3 for the spent fuel storage pools are restored to normal operations (temperatures at 37C and 32.7C respectively), Unit 4 has an external system now in place (recall earlier that they had issues using the normal systems due to the discovery of damage to the system, temperature at 88C). Unit 1 has water injection currently ongoing for the pool, but temperature instruments are still down with the external cooling system's additional heat exchangers probably being installed next month.

Been a few more industrial-hazard injury reports, but no new major developments concerning exposure records.

[Eaglestrike]

So Kryssan (or anyone else paying more attention to this than I am) what do you make of this video?



Who are the reps there and is there a valid reason for civilians near Fukushima to be worried about exposure?

I thought there wasn't really, outside of the evacuation zone and such, so...what?

[Kaylia]

"Even in the communist bloc, the soviet union evacuated people promptly at the chernobyl accident"
That's not true. A slow evacuation is the reason why so many people died to begin with. I'm not sure why he used that as an argument


There isnt much to say about this video other than the fact it was shitty PR done by an idiot. It's normal to be worried, but the population is unlikely to be in danger, especially if the test are done like they should be (and considering the events, I'm sure they are monitoring the area properly)

[Eaglestrike]

Yeah, for the most part I think the video is retarded, just wanted to know if there was any basis for their concerns other than media fear mongering.

[Kaylia]

If the numbers they gave us over the last 5 months are real, there is nothing to fear. Even if it went above the "legal limit" occasionaly for certain things (ie: in the water, or more recently, beef), these limits are still far under what we consider risky or statistically significant.

What people fear the most is something that would have been overlooked by scientist and everyone. It's not completely crazy to think that another human might have omitted to check something or might have underestimated another effect, but falling in that paranoia trap is always risky.


If there is a high level of radiation in the urine they wanted to test, then it's definitively worth looking into, but it didn't seem to be the case . They just brough a sample and wanted it tested when it was probably not the right press conference to ask for this.

[Silenka]

About that video, it's probably worth mentioning that the Japanese are even more stingy with responses in any sort of official capacity than Americans in those kinds of situations. While America (or other countries) might be quick on the draw with the safe 'no further comments on the subject' responses, the Japanese pretty much have a full-stop policy on answering anything in regards to what they might consider a grey area situation. If the guy answering questions says something wrong and has to answer to someone else above him, I think the repercussions for that are generally larger in Japan than than good old US of A, since it is a culture that loves putting up stony facades and only saying what you are absolutely sure of (whereas in America I think there is a bit of an expectation that people saying stuff about stuff are retarded). That probably accounts for a lot of the outside unease about the situation and the lack of information being shared with the public, it's to be expected for a culture that doesn't make a habit of reassuring people with pretty words and giving false expectations.

[Kryssan]

So, another update - though I wonder if anyone is still following this?

Japan's regulators are talking about rescinding some of the evacuation orders and making the ring about Fukushima tighter, to allow people to return to their homes more extensively - in some cases allow for permanent return. Radiation levels have dropped in most areas to <1 mSv/yr, though some areas remains as high as 20 mSv/yr. Last time I checked it was still in evaluation stages and is not yet implemented.

The steel girders for the frame of the Unit 1 weather/release containment building are now being placed. Construction is still on schedule to be completed by end of September.

Unit 1's fuel pool now has a circulatory cooling system vice injection. Additionally, they actually have temperature readings on the fuel pool now (the instrumentation had been damaged long before and actual temperature readout concerning the pool was unknown for a long time). Temperatures of the water in the pool were below 50C according to the new instrumentation installed, with temperature falling to ~42C over the next 24 hours after the circulation system was brought online. All other fuel pools of the damaged sites remain cool, with Unit 4 being the next hottest at 42C and Units 2/3 at 36/34C respectively.

Work related minor injuries continue, and some other oddities. No deaths/major/critical injuries reported however. I honestly had to look this one up: "traumatic right knee synovialis ecchymoma", something a worker was recently diagnosed with. I still haven't figured out exactly what it is or how serious it is, but my best guess is swelling and injury of the internals of the leg? Any medicos want to take that up? Fairly certain it's not related to radiation/contamination though.

The results I'm seeing from seawater monitoring are showing below minimum detectable levels of Iodine and Cesium now around the seawater of the plants. Sample frequency was increased recently to view the effects of their installed plates and blocks. Looking at the charts though, almost all levels of radioactive particulate in seawater have been below notification levels since late June/early July with concentrations lowering below detectable towards mid/end of July. Detectable and above notification limits of Cesium remain around the water intake channels of the plants (limits 40~90 Bq/L depending on nuclide, samples at up to 1400 Bq/L remain). Detectable (but not hazardous) levels of Cesium remain in the water around the turbine buildings and subdrains, with all other concentrations below minimum detectable (radioactive density prior to min-detect was less than 10Bq/cm3).

Air and dust particulate samples around the site are less than minimum detectable in almost all cases (there are some positive identifications of Cesium remaining, but concentrations are literally at the minimum detectable spec).

Of course, there is still plenty of water milling about inside the buildings (and some in the trenches? still looking for confirmation on that) but the water processing plant they built at Fukushima is slowly going through it all. Only issues they've really had with it are replacement of filters (which is honestly expected, given the stuff in that water).





Monetarily TEPCO has now taken a ~7 Billion USD loss I think? Given the reduction in nuclear capacity, ongoing relief and work efforts, and increased reliance on other fossil fuel plants to provide/make up for the energy production loss this number is only going to continue to rise.

[Eaglestrike]

If you have the time Kryssan, could you check out this group: http://blog.safecast.org/ and look at their data? They drive around Japan and take readings/map them/etc. and seem to claim Japan is lying about their numbers in many places.

[Kryssan]

I glanced over their site, I don't really see them claiming that the regulatory data is bad - they only claim that it isn't easily accessible or in large quantity (which I disagree with, but whatever; that is simply an opinion based point and these people aren't really hurting anything doing what they're doing).

The flaw in their data however is that they aren't analyzing for nuclides - all they're doing, and all they're asking people to do, is go around with geiger counters and take readings. This is... something like I'd expect to see as a class field trip research project back in primary school with regards to the acumen of their findings. Without knowing where the counts are coming from you can't really say one way or another what they're from and if they'd be something to be concerned over - you're getting irradiated all the time, like it or not, and some of their numbers looks suspiciously like background counts. Without analyzing for the radionuclide in particular they are failing to determine quality factors for anything they're actually reading, so again it's just some random numbers from a readout that with a high enough energy level emission or a high enough concentration of lower energy level emission material they can get 'high' readings.

It also doesn't help that they aren't using ion chambers/proportional counters - sensitivity they have, accuracy they do not. This is a rather elementary thing for radiation health as far as the Geiger-Mueller curve goes - I can understand their plight about useful radiation detectors given the crisis and the gouging that is no doubt going on with regards to supply/demand. It is far easier to acquire and use a geiger counter than it is to find, much less purchase and use a more accurate detector for a group of people not affiliated with a research team or corporation.

What I read on their site more interesting to me is that they're also going around and giving seminars to people regarding the issues at hand, and since I haven't seen details for anything they're saying/doing in regards to that I cannot comment on it.



In short, it's data, extra data, and as long as they're not standing outside with pickets claiming the government and/or regulators are out to get them and/or lying to everyone it can't hurt for them to feel like they're accomplishing something. Should already be noted though that they're not the first group to attempt this - there are earlier links in this thread alone to the Greenpeace action that did pretty much exactly what they're doing, not to mention everyone else with any name/claim in the vicinity who have the capability to do the same thing - and often these other groups have done more indepth determinations. I haven't put too much stock into any of it, in particular regarding who of these groups is collecting the most data or even the most useful data, as it is just too much stuff to sift through that doesn't have a proper classifier for its relevance.

[aduidarnenye]

Saw this story on Google news:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...174212622.html

In the five months since a devastating earthquake struck, Japanese police say they've received $78 million in missing cash and valuables that citizens have found in the rubble and promptly turned in.

Thousands of missing wallets contained $48 million in cash, and nearly 6,000 more safes turned in by volunteers contained an extra $30 million, the Japanese Police Agency told ABC News' Akiko Fujita. Most of the found money has been returned to its owners, after police used identifying documents in the safes to track them down.

"The fact that these safes were washed away meant the homes were washed away too," Koetsu Saiki of the Miyagi Prefectural police force told ABC News. "We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to."

Some wallets and safes were most likely pocketed, but the scale of honesty in the wake of disaster is still striking.

"The fact that a hefty 2.3 billion yen in cash has been returned to its owners shows the high level of ethical awareness in the Japanese people," Ryuji Ito, professor emeritus at Yokohama City University, told The Daily Mail.

[Olo401]

They ran that story on the nightly news tonight too.. Says a hell of a lot about them as a society.

[Kryssan]

Another short update:

As of 6 Sept, the only reactor not at cold shutdown levels is Unit 2. Both Unit 1 and 3 have been cooled less than 100C. Unit 2 is still hovering between 110~120C. TEPCO is evaluating the use of different cooling systems to the core to determine if they can find an efficient method that will keep the cores covered with water and cooled as well as allow for a reduction in injection rates.

Water level in the turbine buildings continues to drop, but only at the very slow measured pace of 1-5 cm per day. Unit 3 still has ~3 meters of water in depth for its turbine building - not sure about the other buildings.

Monitoring continues at the site and in the surrounding area conducted by IAEA, TEPCO, MEXT, et cetera; but the regulator agencies all maintain that radioactive emission from the site was terminated in July.

Construction continues on course for the installation of the reactor shroud building for the first unit, and should be completed per schedule. I have not seen any major news updates regarding decontamination efforts or an actual implementation of a reduction in the evacuation zone to allow permanent rehabitation.

There was an interesting comparator recently for showing the cost of nuclear power production in Japan - prior to the accident, nuclear power cost in Japan was at ~9 cent per kWh. Taking into account a compensation cost currently of 130 billion, nuclear power generation costs rise to ~11 cent per kWh. Cost of fossil fuel generation plants per kWh varied widely between 12~16 cent per kWh (over the study period of 5 years) and renewable power generation cost were at ~12 cent per kWh. For comparison, the last major study done in 2004 showed prices at the following rates: nuclear generation 7 cent per kWh, oil 14 cent per kWh, coal 7 cent per kWh, gas 8 cent per kWh, and hydro 16 cent per kWh. Mind you, this study is only for costs in Japan, not world costs or costs in US etc.

[BWYuko]

M6.2 two days ago, then another M6.6, 6.0, and 5.9 today so far. This aftershock sequence has been so relentless. Fortunately most of the subsequent activity has taken place well off-shore, in and around the area that subducted in March.

[Cletis]

They ran that story on the nightly news tonight too.. Says a hell of a lot about them as a society.

if you leave your wallet somewhere, they will bring it to the nearest koban, with their contact information and everything inside it. you're supposed to send a thankyou card/basket.

[BardonGaruda]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15001593

21 September 2011 Last updated at 09:26 GMT Help A powerful typhoon has struck disaster-ravaged Japan, bringing heavy rains and floods that have killed four people.

Typhoon Roke is on course to hit Fukushima, where engineers are still struggling to bring a nuclear plant under control after the March tsunami.

There are concerns that rain could force radioactive water into the sea.

Roland Buerk reports.

Footage courtesy of TV Osaka

Video says there are fears that heavy rainfall from the typhoon could cause the pools of radioactive water from the cooling operation at Fukushima could overflow.

[Salodin]

They still haven't covered those plants up already?