8.8 earthquake hits Japan

NHK updates:

Radioactive level halved at reactor water intake

The operator of the quake-damaged nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan says levels of radioactive iodine in seawater samples taken near one of the plant's crippled reactors are down by more than half from the previous day.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company says the level of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in samples collected near the water intake of the No. 2 reactor was 63 becquerels on Wednesday.

The figure is 1,600 times the state limit, but marked the first decline in 3 days.

Highly contaminated water had leaked into the sampling area, where iodine-131 at a level 7.5 million times the limit was detected on April 2nd.

On Wednesday, the level of cesium-134 was 430 times the limit, and that of cesium-137 was 300 times the limit. Both figures were nearly the same as on the previous day.

Levels of radioactive substances detected in samples taken near the facility had nearly leveled off.

Iodine-131 at a level 2.5 times the standard was found in samples taken some 30 meters north of the plant's No. 5 and 6 reactors.

The company says changes in readings are seen as being within a margin of day-to-day volatility. The firm says it will continue monitoring the situation.

Sampling tests farther from the plant were prevented by bad weather.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 20:15 +0900 (JST)


Gov't warns of risk from quake-caused subsidence

Japan's land ministry has found that areas of land below-sea-level in the Sendai plain, Miyagi Prefecture, have increased 5-fold after the March 11th earthquake.

It warns that these areas are highly vulnerable to flooding from high tides and typhoons.

The ministry on Thursday released the findings of its aerial probe using an ultra-sensitive, laser-equipped camera to check subsidence across the Sendai plain.

The areas below sea level, shown in blue on the released map, spanned 16 square kilometers.

Before the quake, the plain had only 3 square kilometers of such low-lying areas.

The map also shows, in green, areas lying at full-tide levels. The amount of such areas has increased to 56 square kilometers from the pre-disaster total of 32 square kilometers.

Colored yellow are areas lying below the highest-ever tide level recorded in 1980. These areas have grown to 111 square kilometers from the pre-quake total of 83 square kilometers.

Many river banks and seawalls were damaged by the disaster. The ministry is calling on residents in these areas to be on the alert, and is sandbagging the broken banks.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 17:54 +0900 (JST)


Reassessment on nuclear power plants'quake-safety

Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission has asked the government to reassess the quake-resistance of the country's nuclear power plants.

At an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, the commission said that the string of aftershocks since the March 11th quake was caused by large tectonic shifts.

The commission said that a fault line about 50 kilometers from the troubled Fukushima plant previously believed to be inactive moved during an April 11th aftershock.

The commission decided to ask the industry ministry's Nuclear Safety Agency to reexamine the fault lines and geographical changes where plant operators have so far said the risk of earthquake damage was low.

The commission also wants the government to check for faults near nuclear power plants if aftershocks occur with unusual frequency.

The Nuclear Safety Agency is to follow up by instructing power companies across the country to reassess quake-resistance.

The assessment will likely take several years. Attention is focused on whether local municipalities will allow power companies to operate the plants while the reassessment is underway.

The assessment will also likely affect the start of operations at new nuclear power plants and the construction of new ones.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 19:05 +0900 (JST)


TEPCO worker may have inhaled radioactive material

The Tokyo Electric Power Company says a female employee who was exposed to radiation levels of more than 3 times the safety limit at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may have inhaled radioactive substances when indoors.

The woman, in her 50s, was in charge of material management at the plant.

She was found to have been exposed to 17.55 millisieverts of radiation. This is more than triple the 3-month limit for a female worker, which is set at 5 millisieverts.

Closer examination has revealed that the woman suffered 13.6 millisieverts of internal radiation exposure.

The woman was in a building which was contaminated by high-level radioactive substances following a hydrogen explosion on March 12th. She may have inhaled some of the airborne radioactive material as she wasn't wearing a protective mask.

TEPCO has apologized for its lack of precautions against internal radiation exposure. Two more female workers who were in the same building may have also exceeded their exposure limit.

The government's nuclear safety agency has demanded that the utility find out why this happened and draw up prevention measures.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 10:48 +0900 (JST)


TEPCO: Water isn't leaking from No. 4 reactor pool

Tokyo Electric Power Company now says it is unlikely that water is leaking from the spent fuel rod pool of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's No.4 reactor.

Water is being injected into the pool to replace coolant that is evaporating due to the high temperature of its 1,535 spent fuel rods.

Despite sporadically injecting 140 to 210 tons of water a day, the company says the water level in the storage pool is still 10 to 40 centimeters lower than estimated.

TEPCO initially believed that the pool could have suffered damage in an explosion soon after the March 11th quake and tsunami disaster.

But the company said on Wednesday that it now believes that the water has been evaporating at a rate in line with calculations by experts.

The storage pool is to be reinforced by July.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 04:02 +0900 (JST)


TEPCO to rid 200,000 tons of radioactive water

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it aims to begin disposing of highly radioactive water starting in June.

The contaminated water is hampering efforts to reactivate the cooling systems in the plant's reactors.

On Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced it would set up the treatment system to eliminate radioactive materials.

The utility firm says 87,500 tons of contaminated water has accumulated in the No.1 to 4 reactors.

It estimates that up to 200,000 tons of highly contaminated water will be produced by the year end if all the water used to cool the reactors becomes highly radioactive.

The company says it plans to start installing the system in early May and begin operating in June.

It hopes to dispose of 1,200 tons of highly contaminated water per day once the system is in place.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 04:02 +0900 (JST)


Japan's industrial output marks record plunge

Japan's industrial production marked a record plunge in March due to the impact of last month's earthquake and tsunami.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry said on Thursday that industrial output stood at 82.9 against the base of 100 for 2005. This was a drop of 15.3 percent from the previous month.

The decline was the largest since record-keeping began in January 1953. It also far exceeded the previous record of 8.6 percent logged in February 2009 following the Lehman shock.

The sharp drop is due to the damage to factories caused by the natural disaster, disrupted supply chains and the suspension of auto production. All 16 sectors in the ministry's survey marked falls.
Speaking at a news conference, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano called the industrial data shocking. He said the quake had directly hit manufacturing bases, badly affecting Japan's corporate output.

Yosano said people are working hard to restore supply chains, and that they should be back to normal sooner than originally expected.

The ministry says it expects the index to rise in April and May as factories gradually resume production in disaster-hit areas.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 15:07 +0900 (JST)


Japan's household spending marks record drop

Japanese household spending marked the largest decline on record in March in the wake of last month's quake and tsunami.

The Internal Affairs Ministry says households of 2 or more people spent an average of 293,181 yen, or about 3,600 dollars, in March. That's down 8.5 percent year-on-year in real terms.

There were drops in spending on a wide range of items including vehicles, clothes, travel and dining out.

But spending rose on rice, instant noodles, canned food and masks, indicating that people stocked up on food and emergency supplies following the earthquake.

Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano told reporters that people across Japan have been refraining from having fun out of consideration for those affected by the recent disaster. He called on the Japanese to continue to take part in the economy as usual.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 16:50 +0900 (JST)

I'm afraid this crisis will hamper Japan's economy for decades to come. I wouldn't be surprised if Germany surpasses Japan on the economy within the next year or so.

Latest from NHK:

TEPCO developing device to decontaminate seawater

Tokyo Electric Power Company is developing a device to remove radioactive substances from seawater. It hopes to install it in the Pacific Ocean near the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant at the end of May.

TEPCO says it will fill a metal container with zeolite, a mineral that absorbs radioactive materials. The company will use a pump to continuously inject seawater into the container.

Radiation levels have remained high in the waters around the Fukushima plant even after TEPCO managed to plug a leak of contaminated water 4 weeks ago. On Saturday, 5,800 times the national limit of radioactive iodine was detected in samples collected near a water intake for the Number 2 reactor.

TEPCO says it can't deny the possibility that contaminated water is still leaking and it will continue to closely monitor the situation.

The utility has already set up silt fence barriers and thrown sandbags containing zeolite into the sea.
It hopes to set up the new device inside a silt fence to decontaminate the seawater.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011 02:13 +0900 (JST)


Tent to stop radioactive leakage

Preparations are under way to stop radiation from leaking from one of the reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi so restoration work can begin at the damaged nuclear plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company employees prepared on Tuesday to install a tent at the entrance of the No.1 reactor building. It's supposed to prevent radioactive material from leaking into the environment when workers go in and out of the building.

The tent is 1.5 by 1.3 meters wide, and 2.2 meters high. It looks like a cabin made of flame-resistant sheets and boards. The pressure inside it will be higher than in the reactor building, so air won't leak outside.

TEPCO workers will start installing the tent on Wednesday. When it's in place, they will enter the Number 1 reactor building as early as Thursday for the first time since a hydrogen explosion occurred there in March.

The first job for workers will be to install polyester tubes in the building to purify the radioactive-tainted air. Then they will fill reactor one's containment vessel with water to steadily cool it down.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011 02:12 +0900 (JST)


Radiation forecast data released

The Japanese government has released data projecting the spread of radioactive substances from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The science ministry uses a computer system called SPEEDI to predict how radiation will spread depending on weather and geographical conditions.

On Tuesday, the government released about 5,000 bits of data showing hourly predictions from March 11th. The information appears on the websites of the Nuclear Safety Commission and other entities.

The data was calculated on the assumption that radioactive substances are being released at a rate of one becquerel per hour.

The data for 10 p.m. on March 15th, when an explosion occurred at the No.2 reactor, shows radiation flowing out of the screen to the northeast.

Such data had been withheld for fear of causing panic.

Goshi Hosono, secretary general of the joint task force set up by the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, apologized on Monday for the delay in releasing the data.

He said that he now believes that panic can be avoided if proper explanations are offered. Hosono promised to release data promptly in the future.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011 16:06 +0900 (JST)


Shareholders call for nuclear plant closures

NHK has learned that shareholders of five electric power companies in Japan are calling for the utilities to decommission their nuclear power plants in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

About 400 stockholders of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the Fukushima plant, submitted official documents in support of the proposal.

Shareholders of at least four other power companies --- Kansai Electric, Chugoku Electric, Kyushu Electric and Tohoku Electric -- have made similar proposals.

On Monday, a group of 232 stockholders of Tohoku Electric submitted documents calling for the company to abolish its nuclear power plants.

The group says the potential risks of nuclear power generation are too great for any single company to afford.

The group urged the utility to decommission its nuclear power plants and to end its investment in the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing businesses.

The power companies are expected to examine the proposals and submit them to a vote at their annual shareholders' meeting. The meetings are typically held by the end of June.

Attention is now focused on what decisions will be made at the meetings amid growing public concern about nuclear power generation.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011 12:09 +0900 (JST)

TEPCO checks radiation levels in seabed near plant

Radiation levels 100 to 1,000 times above normal have been detected in the seabed near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, conducted its first contamination analysis of the seabed near the plant using samples from 2 points 20 to 30 meters deep on Friday.

Samples collected about 15 kilometers north of the plant contained 1,400 becquerels of cesium-137 per kilogram and 1,300 becquerels of cesium-134.


Samples taken around 20 kilometers south of the plant contained 1,200 becquerels each of cesium-137 and cesium-134 per kilogram.

The samples from the 2 points were also found to be contaminated with iodine-131.

TEPCO says it's difficult to evaluate the readings as there are no official limits for these substances, but it will continue monitoring the radiation levels and their impact on seafood.

Another survey carried out by the science ministry on the same day detected no radioactive substances in samples from the seabed roughly 50 kilometers south of the plant.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011 02:13 +0900 (JST)

GDP statistics make no distinction between goods and services produced to replace lost ones and those that constitute genuine new additions to wealth. It's the old stock vs flow distinction; for example: new housing, infrastructure, medical and other goods and services in Japan will be added to their GDP even though they wouldn't be needed if the country hadn't sustained such terrible damages. So Japanese GDP statistics are likely to remain above Germany's for a while - even before allowing for changes in yen to euro exchange rates and costs of Japanese governament debt.

A ray of hope: by accelerating processing speed of satellite computers we may be able to predict such massive earthquakes 3 to 4 days in advance:


http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26773/?ref=rss

Summary of today's recovery news from NHK:

No.1 reactor has 4.2 meters of contaminated water

Workers have confirmed that more than 4 meters of highly radioactive water has flooded the basement of one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, sent workers inside the No.1 reactor on Friday as part of preparations to install a cooling system to stabilize the reactor core.

TEPCO suspects that the reactor's fuel rods have melted down, creating holes in a pressure vessel and damaging the reactor's containment vessel.

Contaminated water is apparently leaking from the holes. Under a revised plan announced this week, the utility plans to decontaminate the water and circulate it to cool the reactor core.

Two workers who went into the building on Friday morning stayed there for about one hour, and confirmed that water in the basement was roughly 4.2 meters deep. That's slightly more than a week ago, when TEPCO first confirmed the existence of water there.

4 other workers later took over and spent about 90 minutes on the ground floor using a gamma camera to measure the spread and densities of radiation.

TEPCO plans to use the findings to decide how to install the cooling system and set procedures for workers to follow.

Health office to monitor nuclear plant workers

Japan's health ministry has set up a special office to monitor the health of workers at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

After the accident at the Fukushima plant in March, the ministry raised the state limit for radiation exposure for workers at the plant to 250 millisieverts -- 2.5 times the previous limit.

About 30 workers have already been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts as the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, struggles to contain the disaster.

The new office will compile data on radiation exposure for workers for long-term monitoring purposes, and inspect daily work schedules in advance.

Health Minister Ritsuo Hosokawa told reporters on Friday that the workers and their families must be concerned about radiation exposure, and that the office will closely monitor their conditions.



Govt approves plan to resettle quake evacuees

The Japanese government has decided on a package of relief measures for evacuees of the March 11 disaster. They will be implemented over the next 3 months and funded by the recently-enacted extra budget.

The plan was approved at a meeting of the government's disaster taskforce on Friday. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said many of the evacuees are voicing frustration at the slow progress of the government's responses.

He instructed Cabinet ministers to do their utmost so that people can quickly feel their lives are returning to normal.

The relief measures include the removal of debris from residential areas by the end of August.

The government will speed up the construction of temporary housing by sending land ministry officials to secure plots of land. It aims to close most of the evacuation shelters by mid-August.

Breached embankments along rivers will be reinforced by July to prevent flooding during the rainy season.

Friday, May 20, 2011 11:34 +0900 (JST)


TEPCO suffers massive net losses

Tokyo Electric Power Company has posted a record loss due to the huge recovery costs from its damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the March 11th disaster.

TEPCO says its net loss amounted to around 15 billion dollars for the fiscal year ended in March. The loss is the largest since the company started in 1951.

The utility reported extraordinary losses of over 12 billion dollars, due to efforts to stabilize the stricken nuclear reactors at the plant.

TEPCO also announced it will sell off its real estate and recreational facilities to raise about 7 billion dollars as part of a compensation fund for people affected by the nuclear disaster.

The company also says it will streamline its business by about 6 billion dollars, by cutting labor costs and research and development.

Further measures the company announced include scrapping the 4 crippled reactors -- Numbers 1 through 4 -- and giving up a plan to build 2 more reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Friday, May 20, 2011 16:25 +0900 (JST)

TEPCO president to step down in June

The president of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Masataka Shimizu, will step down to take the blame for the nuclear accident in Fukushima.

TEPCO's executive board decided on Friday that Shimizu should resign in June when the company holds its shareholders' meeting.

As the utility's president, Shimizu is being held responsible for the enormous damage caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, including the forced evacuation of many residents.

Shimizu will be succeeded by Managing Director Toshio Nishizawa, who is 60 years old. Nishizawa previously served as the head of the utility's planning division.

TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata will remain in his post to lead the efforts to bring the nuclear plant under control.

Thanks for the update.

Fukushima prepares for heavy rain

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is preparing for an approaching powerful typhoon by piling up sandbags and moving cranes to a safe place.

Japan's Meteorological Agency says heavy rain is expected in the area around the power plant beginning on Sunday night. In some areas, torrential rain and strong wind are expected from Monday to Tuesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Company is piling up sandbags around electric facility buildings and sealing the doors to keep rainwater out.

The company says if rain and wind become intense, all operations except for patrolling will stop.

The level of contaminated water in the turbine buildings of the Number 2 and 3 reactors and tunnels has been rising.

The company says it will closely monitor the level to prevent contaminated water from overflowing and seeping into ground water and the sea.

The utility is also studying ways to stop radioactive substances deposited on debris and buildings from being washed away by rain and flowing into the sea via gutters.

Sunday, May 29, 2011 10:08 +0900 (JST)

Typhoon Songda hits Amami islands

Powerful Typhoon Songda is sweeping through the Amami islands in southern Japan and moving to the northeast.

Japan's Meteorological Agency says that as of 2:00 AM on Sunday, Japan Time, the typhoon was located 60 kilometers west-south-west off Amami Oshima Island and was moving northeast at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour.

Typhoon Songda has an atmospheric pressure of 950 hectopascals, and is packing winds up to 144 kilometers per hour near its center. Stormy winds over 90 kilometers per hour are blowing within the area 150 kilometers south and 110 kilometers north from the center.

Gusts of 199 kilometers per hour were observed in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, late on Saturday, and over 155 kilometers per hour in Okinoerabu Island in Kagoshima early on Sunday.

Weather officials issued a warning for strong winds and high waves, together with possible landslides and flooding.

Sunday, May 29, 2011 09:15 +0900 (JST)


Cooling systems restored for fuel pools

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has now successfully restored cooling systems to the spent fuel pools of reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4.

On Saturday, TEPCO injected about 5 tons of water to the spent fuel pool of reactor 1 on a test basis. It was the last system to be restored.

The power company is also working to install new water-circulating systems that will more efficiently cool all the fuel pools. The new systems for reactors 1 through 4 are scheduled for completion by July.

Sunday, May 29, 2011 05:08 +0900 (JST)


Soil decontamination tests start in Fukushima

The Japanese government has started experiments aimed at removing radioactive material from farmland around the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Agriculture ministry officials on Saturday explained the experiments to people in Iitate Village. They are designed to test several ways of decontaminating soil.

One experiment would be to swamp rice paddies with water in the hopes that it would wash away radioactive substances.

Another idea would be to plant sunflowers and amaranthus that are known to absorb radioactive substances from the soil.

Agriculture minister Michihiko Kano told participants that he hopes the methods will be effective in decontaminating farmland and that, if any prove to be effective, they will be introduced immediately.

The minister and officials later sowed sunflower and amaranthus seeds at experiment sites.

The plants will be tested in August to measure how much radioactive material has been absorbed.

Saturday, May 28, 2011 22:21 +0900 (JST)

Might there be a successful no confidence vote today?

No official word yet, but it is expected. Here's the latest news briefs from NHK:

Parties to submit no-confidence motion against Kan

Two opposition parties are expected to jointly submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan as early as Wednesday. The motion is likely to be put to a vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki and New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi intend to hold a meeting on Wednesday to make a final decision on the matter.

Members of the Democratic Party led by Kan have also criticized his handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the reconstruction effort after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. If at least 81 Democrats cast "yes" votes, the motion will clear the House of Representatives.

In a speech in Tokyo on Tuesday, Tanigaki said Japan will never rebuild itself if Kan remains in office. He said it is the opposition's responsibility to challenge Prime Minister Kan who has lost the confidence of the public.

Former Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa and legislators close to him have not ruled out the possibility of joining the opposition parties in supporting a no-confidence motion against Kan. Senior Vice Internal Affairs Minister Katsumasa Suzuki says he thinks many Democrat legislators want to change the current situation by supporting the motion.

On Tuesday night, former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama met Kan and suggested that the Prime Minister may need to step down if he is to avoid splitting the Democratic Party. Kan said his role is to tackle the disaster and other matters and he wants to see the party stand together to defeat the motion.

Groups of legislators close to Kan and former Democratic Socialists say they will oppose the no-confidence motion, emphasizing the need to hurry the reconstruction process. Many who support Kan are insisting that the Prime Minister should dissolve the House of Representatives if the motion passes the chamber.

Kan is pursuing a 2nd supplementary budget for the current fiscal year and plans to extend the Diet session to seek its passage. The session is due to close on June 22nd.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011 07:35 +0900 (JST)


High levels of strontium detected at Fukushima

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected high levels of a radioactive substance that tends to accumulate in human bones.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it took soil samples on May 9th at 3 locations about 500 meters from the No.1 and No.2 reactors and analyzed them.

The utility detected up to 480 becquerels of radioactive strontium 90 per kilogram of soil. That's about 100 times higher than the maximum reading recorded in Fukushima Prefecture following atmospheric nuclear tests carried out by foreign countries during the Cold War era.

TEPCO reported detecting 2,800 becquerels of strontium 89 per kilogram of soil at the same location.

This is the second time since April that radioactive strontium has been found inside the plant compound.

The substance was also detected in soil and plants more than 30 kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear power station in March.

When people inhale radioactive strontium, it accumulates in bones. Scientists say that strontium could cause cancer.

Tokyo Electric Power says it believes that radioactive strontium was released from the damaged plant and it will continue to monitor radiation levels.

An expert on radioactive substances says he thinks radioactive strontium may continue to be detected around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. But he says the strontium levels that might be detected in soil will be far lower than those of the radioactive cesium released in the accident by a factor of several thousand.

Yoshihiro Ikeuchi of the Japan Chemical Analysis Center says strontium tends to accumulate in bones, like calcium. But he also says its levels in the air are thought to be lower than those for soil and even if people inhale the substance, no health problems will be caused by such internal exposure to radiation.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011 02:59 +0900 (JST)


Utilities report 342 faults near nuclear plants

Japan's electric power companies have reported 342 faults and geographical changes near nuclear power plants that they previously did not consider to be risks.

The companies filed the reports with the industry ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

An aftershock of the March 11th earthquake on April 11 th is known to have shifted a fault about 50 kilometers from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The fault had been believed to be inactive.

The agency instructed the utilities to reassess their plants' earthquake resistance and reexamine faults and geographical changes where plant operators had said the risk of earthquake damage was little or none.

The utilities said previous studies had located 342 faults and geographical changes but that they had not taken them into account in assessing their plant's earthquake resistance.

These locations are said to have posed less risk because they have been inactive for more than 120,000 years or have not been regarded as faults as a result of erosion.

The agency will assess the companies' reports and conduct field studies if necessary. The utilities are to reconsider the possible risks these faults may pose to their plants.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011 10:32 +0900 (JST)


IAEA: Japan underestimated tsunami impact

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency will submit a summary of its report to the Japanese government on Wednesday after concluding its investigation into the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

The 18-member team inspected the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and other nuclear facilities beginning May 24th.

The draft of the IAEA summary report says Japan took the best possible measures immediately after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, but it underestimated the danger of tsunami. The draft says it is hard to expect that Japan could have done more than it did soon after the accident occurred, with all safety systems lost and with insufficient manpower and lighting.
But the draft says Japan underestimated the impact of the tsunami and failed to respond to waves that were higher than had been expected.

It also says the chief characteristic of Japan's worst nuclear accident is that 4 reactors were exposed to the risk of meltdowns.

The report calls on Japan to revise its current process of dealing with a severe nuclear accident. This process is based on the assumption that lighting and electricity would be available in such an accident.

The team criticizes Japan for failing to ensure the independence of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, despite the advice given 3 years ago by the IAEA that the agency should be separated from the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.

The team will submit a full report to an IAEA ministerial meeting that will open on June 20th in Vienna.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011 07:35 +0900 (JST)


1,100 children lost parents in March 11th disaster

A Japanese non-profit group says over 1,100 young people lost parents in the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

The scholarship organization Ashinaga says that as of Monday, 1,101 people had applied for one-time payments from its fund for disaster orphans.

The number is nearly twice that for similar payments after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in western Japan.

Of the latest applicants, 75 lost both parents, 632 lost only their fathers and 394 their mothers.

Ashinaga says it has raised over 20 million dollars since the disaster.
The payment for junior high school students and younger children is about 6,000 dollars. High school students and graduates preparing for university entrance examinations can receive nearly 10,000 dollars, and university and vocational school students around 12,000 dollars.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 20:39 +0900 (JST)


Fukushima cleanup could cost up to $250 billion

A private think tank says the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could cost Japan up to 250 billion dollars over the next 10 years.

The estimate is part of the Nuclear Safety Commission's ongoing survey of opinions on the disaster from nuclear and other experts.

Kazumasa Iwata, president of the Japan Center for Economic Research, gave the estimate on Tuesday.

He said the costs of the accident could range from nearly 71 to 250 billion dollars. The figure includes 54 billion to buy up all land within 20 kilometers of the plant, 8 billion for compensation payments to local residents, and 9 to 188 billion to scrap the plant's reactors.

Iwata said a drastic review of the government's nuclear energy policy is necessary to fund the cleanup.

He said the government could channel about 71 billion dollars to the necessary fund over the next decade by freezing research and development projects linked to the nuclear fuel cycle.

Another 150 billion could come from Tokyo Electric Power Company's reserve fund, and the government's nuclear energy-related budgets.

The Nuclear Safety Commission plans to continue interviewing experts over the coming months, and to incorporate outside ideas in future debates on nuclear energy.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 17:28 +0900 (JST)


TEPCO begins live video stream from Fukushima

TEPCO has begun live-streaming video of the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant through the company's website.

The real-time footage comes from a camera installed about 250 meters northwest of the No.1 reactor.

The No.1 to No.4 reactors can be seen in the webcast.

TEPCO had until now been uploading still pictures shot from the southern side of the plant once every hour.

It began the video service on Tuesday in response to many requests for live images of the reactors.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 12:50 +0900 (JST)

Here's the link to the live-streaming on Tepco's site:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/f1-np/camera/index-e.html

No.1 reactor vessel damaged 5 hours after quake

Japan's nuclear regulator says the meltdown at one of the Fukushima reactors came about 5 hours after the March 11th earthquake, 10 hours earlier than initially estimated by the plant's operator.

The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on Monday issued the results of its analysis of data given to it by Tokyo Electric Power Company.

The report says the fuel rods in the Number 1 reactor began to be exposed 2 hours after the earthquake due to the loss of the reactor's cooling system in the tsunami. Its fuel rods may have melted down 3 hours later, causing the damage to the reactor. This means the meltdown occurred about 10 hours earlier than TEPCO estimated last month.

The nuclear agency also says a meltdown damaged the Number 2 reactor about 80 hours after the quake, and the Number 3 reactor 79 hours after the quake.

The agency's analysis shows that the Number 2 reactor damage came 29 hours earlier than the TEPCO estimate, and the Number 3 reactor damage came 13 hours later than in the utility's assessment.

The agency says the total amount of radioactive iodine 131 and cesium 137 released from the Numbers 1, 2 and 3 reactors for the 6 days from March 11th is estimated at 770,000 terabecquerels.

That is about twice the figure mentioned in April when the agency upgraded the severity of the accident to the highest level of 7 on an international scale.

The agency attributes the discrepancies to the assumption that radioactive substances might have been released from the Number 2 reactor containment vessel as well as from its suppression chamber.

Monday, June 06, 2011 21:03 +0900 (JST)

More hydrogen produced than TEPCO's estimate

Japan's nuclear safety agency says about 800 to 1,000 kilograms of hydrogen was produced in each of 3 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant soon after the March 11th earthquake.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency studied data provided by Tokyo Electric Power Company last month.

The agency says about 1,000 kilograms of hydrogen was produced at the No. 1 reactor when the fuel rods began to be exposed 2 hours after the quake and the metallic fuel containers oxidized one hour later.

The same phenomenon took place at the No. 3 reactor some 43 hours after the quake, resulting in the production of 1,000 kilograms of hydrogen.

Hydrogen explosions blew the top off the No. 1 and 3 reactor buildings.

A smaller explosion at the No. 2 reactor damaged the suppression pool. The agency has not determined the cause of the blast, but calculates that about 800 kilograms of hydrogen was formed there 77 hours after the quake when fuel rods were damaged.

The agency's calculations are 1.3 to 2.3 times more than TEPCO's original estimate.

The agency says the hydrogen is likely to have damaged the reactor buildings and containment vessels.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011 05:40 +0900 (JST)


Highly radioactive debris found at Fukushima plant

Highly radioactive debris is still hampering the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant from bringing its reactors under control, almost 3 months after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

On Monday, a piece of debris about 5 centimeters in diameter with radiation levels of 950 millisieverts per hour was removed from the west side of the Number 3 reactor building. It had been found on Saturday.

In May, debris with a radiation dose of 1,000 millisieverts per hour was discovered in the area, while rubble contaminated with 900 millisieverts per hour was found in April.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has so far removed about 280 containers of radioactive debris, but radiation levels still remain high near the reactor building that was badly damaged by a hydrogen explosion.

TEPCO is also struggling to handle highly radioactive water. More than 100,000 tons of contaminated water is believed to have accumulated in the basements of the reactor and turbine buildings.

TEPCO plans to begin a decontamination process on June 15th. Preparations are under way. The utility tested a device on Monday that will filter radioactive sediment from the water.

Monday, June 06, 2011 19:56 +0900 (JST)

"outside experts today have concluded that the experts running the Fukushima plant have been massively wrong for many weeks about a key bit of factual information...IE all is normal"

"In other news the nuclear fuel is sitting at the bottom of the containment chamber, and is eating its way through....the hope is that the fuel does not make it because given all of the water leaks and thus high levels of radioactivity near the reactors we cant actually get to them and do anything about it. Further complicating matters we dont have much of a clue even after a couple of months what is going on with the spent fuel pools that our idiot design team placed right next to the reactors. We will get back to you at some point with a realistic assessment of what we are dealing with here, but dont hold your breath in that please. Thank you!"

And your knowledge about nuclear power plants is what, exactly? You could have designed the power plant to withstand the tsunami of an 8.8 earthquake? WOW! You must really be smart.

Where and when is the next big earthquake-tsunami?

Plutonium detected in Fukushima plant soil

The operator of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant says tiny amounts of plutonium have been detected in samples of soil in the plant's compound.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, announced on Tuesday that an independent research institution has analyzed soil samples taken on May 30th at 3 locations.

The utility said plutonium was detected in samples collected near a recreational ground 500 meters from the Number One reactor. Plutonium was also detected in samples from near a waste disposal facility, also 500 meters from the reactor.

The utility said all the amounts of the detected plutonium are too small to pose risk to human health.
This is the third time that plutonium has been detected in soil samples at the plant since the nuclear accident began on March 11th. TEPCO said the levels of plutonium detected within the compound following the accident were about the same as those detected in Japan after atmospheric nuclear tests carried out by foreign countries during the Cold War era.

The utility said the level of plutonium-238 detected near the recreational ground was 0.19 becquerels per kilogram and the figure is down from the 0.26 becquerels detected in April.

Once plutonium is taken into human lungs and other organs, it can stay in the body for a long period of time and carries the risk of causing cancer.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011 22:35 +0900 (JST)


Over 2 million Japanese on welfare

The number of people on welfare in Japan has surpassed 2 million for the first time in 59 years.

According to the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry, 2 million 22,333 people received welfare benefits in March.

The figure is close to the record high of 2.04 million set in 1951, when Japan was reeling from postwar turmoil.

In March and April, 757 people applied for welfare benefits, mostly after losing jobs or property due to the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan. The figure does not include applicants from parts of Miyagi Prefecture where data were unavailable.

As a result of the new applications, 549 households were newly entitled to welfare benefits. More than half of the households are in Fukushima, where the nuclear power plant accident occurred.

Many people in disaster-hit areas are receiving unemployment benefits after losing their jobs. Expiration of their benefits and lack of improvement in the employment situation could lead to a sharp rise in the number of welfare applicants.

The ministry says that to stop the rise, it will call on companies to employ people from the areas. The ministry adds that it will strengthen its reemployment assistance for people who've lost jobs.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011 18:02 +0900 (JST)

TEPCO announces revised reactor cooling plan

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has released a revised plan that sets a one-month target for cooling down the reactors. Measures to control workers' exposure to radiation were also added for the first time.

Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Company briefed reporters on Friday. It was the utility's 2nd monthly review of a roadmap that was originally released in mid-April.

Under the revised plan, TEPCO says it hopes to cool the disabled reactors by decontaminating radioactive water and reusing it as coolant. The utility says pools of spent fuel will also be cooled to stable levels during the same timeframe.

The revised roadmap features a new section on radiation control and improving working conditions at the plant ahead of the summer season. This follows recent revelations of workers being exposed to radiation levels above the government-mandated safety limit.

The new section calls for stricter controls on working hours, automatic recording of workers' exposure levels, and installing more equipment to measure internal exposure. TEPCO says it will also employ more doctors around the clock and increase the number of rest facilities.

The revised plan calls for further study on ways to prevent groundwater contamination at the plant. The utility says it will attempt to safely store radioactive waste that is produced during the processing of contaminated water.

Friday, June 17, 2011 19:48 +0900 (JST)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michio_Kaku

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38924

Three-Month Update of Fukushima Accident and the Flood of New Information Coming Out
Michio Kaku on June 17, 2011, 6:18 PM

It has been over 3 months after the tragic accident in Fukushima, Japan, and a flood of new information has been coming out.

1. After months of stonewalling and low balling figures, the utility finally admitted what many US physicists already suspected, that there was most likely a 100% core melt at all three reactors. Physicists in the West, given the meager data fed to the media by the utility, have run independent programs on their computers and have concluded that the accident was much, much worse than the government has been reporting. The new figures, although shocking, now agrees with assessments made in the US.

2. If 3 reactor cores suffered 100% core melts, then why didn't we have three China Syndrome type accidents? Why didn't we see three Chernobyl accidents happening simultaneously? The answer is that, at the very last minute, sea water was flushed into the three cores, stopping the melted uranium from melting through the entire containment structure and releasing vast amounts of radiation into the environment. The utility, however, resisted flooding the reactors with sea water, since it would reduce the reactors to junk, while the utility wanted to salvage the reactors for future use. Apparently, the reactor operator disobeyed direct orders. He was ordered to delay any plans to flush the cores with sea water. Instead, he did it anyway, going against his superiors. He should be considered a hero. Any delay back then might have led to an unimaginable tragedy.

3. The utility, under pressure, also admitted that twice as much radiation leaked out as previously suspected, on the order of about 700 trillion bequerels of radiation (or roughly 20% of the radiation that poured out of the reactor at Chernobyl.) Yet the utility, until the last minute, kept insisting that the accident was no worse than Three Mile Island.

4. The reactors are continuing to release radiation. This was a mystery at first, since, if the core melting was under control, then water should not be in direct contact with melted uranium. Many suspected, therefore, that the uranium completely melted and even melted right through the vessel as well. This direct contact between water and melted uranium is probably the main source of radiation still leaking from the reactors.

5. Four hot spots have been identified outside the evacuation zone, causing further evacuations of residents of the area. In one district, 8,000 school children were given radiation counters as they went to school, since radiation levels could be 20 times higher than normal in school yards. Parents, going against Japanese tradition, have criticized the government and utility heavily.

6. Estimates for the clean up vary. Toshiba corporation estimated it would take 10 years. The Hitachi Corp estimated, however, that it would take 30 years. One nuclear engineer estimated that it might actually take 100 years. Remember that it took 14 years to clean up Three Mile Island, where there was no breech of containment. It has been 25 years since Chernobyl, and that accident still has not ended. So 30 to 100 years are not unreasonable guesses for the amount of time the cleanup will take.

7. The utility wanted to go into cold shutdown, so the reactors no longer produce boiling water, by the end of this year - This now seems impossible. The utility has now admitted that it might take until next year at the earliest. Actually, the reactors are like ticking time bombs. Before they go to cold shutdown, there could be another earthquake, a big break, or worker evacuation, in which case the accident starts all over again. So it is a race against time, to reach cold shutdown before the accident begins again.

Meanwhile, with Germany and Switzerland calling for phasing out nuclear energy entirely, and Japan calling for a moratorium, the shock waves from Fukushima will continue to rattle the commercial nuclear market.

Professor Tetsuo Matsui of the University of Tokyo is a world authority; he just concluded that the nuclear reactions duly stopped on the day of the Richter 9 earthquake and the 5-meter high tsunami waves that crashed into Fukushima, but somehow - not yet clear exactly how - re-ignited 12 days later:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26738/?fb_ref=blog
See the blue dot near the top left corner of the graph? These are the isotopes generated by the re-ignited nuclear fires on day 12 (days are on the horizontal axis, radioactive isotope ratios on the vertical - logarithmic - axis). The good news is isotopes emissions seem to have stopped at about day 5o. The following abstract is from Professor Matsui's article, most recently revised version (direct link: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1105/1105.0242v2.pdf):

The reports I have read have it that no one knows where the reactor material is...we hope it is all still contained and not going anywhere, but there is no way to tell since humans can't go near the reactors and robots have so far mostly failed as well. All of the flooded areas and humidity are a big problem.

Who is "we"? Professor Matsui had full access to all data collected by cameras and radiation sensors placed inside the reactors and fuel rod cooling pools and in a vast perimeter (ground, air, freshwater, wastewater, seawater) around the plant, as well as to all reports of the Japanese government investigators, the plant operating utility (TEPCO), the manufacturer (GE), the French utility supplying the nuclear fuel, and he's the director of the Institute of Physics at the University of Tokyo. If he says the nuclear reactions stopped on day 50 - and that's exactly what his article says, if you read it - then as far as most of the rest of us are concerned they have; you got a report to the contrary, send him an e-mail, I'm sure he'll be very interested in it.

Separately: the height I posted for the tsunami wave was a typo (sorry) it was 15 meters, not 5 - that's over 50 feet. To understand the force of a 50-foot wall of water moving inland, look at this picture of what is now known as "The Lone Pine". It was part of a grove with more than 70,000 pine trees:

Full article on "The Lone Pine" posted elsewhere on this forum: http://able2know.org/topic/139617-101#post-4660359

7.1 earthquake today in NE Japan.