*** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and links

of course it is lower now..... prey-tell the move to the heavier elements?.. methinks not

S.Korean nuclear plant lost power for 12 minutes
A South Korean nuclear regulator says a reactor at a nuclear power plant in the country had no electricity for 12 minutes last month.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said on Tuesday that the accident took place at the number one reactor at the Kori plant in Busan.

The institute said electricity was lost for 12 minutes from shortly after eight thirty PM on February 9th when the plant was undergoing a regular inspection.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Verification of Ohi plant stress tests to be made
Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission will soon release, for the first time, its verification of the results of stress tests for nuclear reactors.

The government says the stress tests are prerequisites for resuming commercial operations. The government is saying that it will judge whether to resume operation of the nuclear reactors based on the results of commission's examinations.

The commission has been examining the test results on the No.3 and 4 reactors at the Ohi plant in Fukui Prefecture, currently halted for regular inspections.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Firefighters hold drill for no-entry zone
Firefighters in Fukushima have held a drill to prepare for fires in the no-entry zone around the crippled nuclear power plant.

The drill was held on Tuesday in Naraha Town, on the zone's border.

Fires in the zone are considered liable to spread out of control, as the local fire department is now based outside the area.

In the exercise, firefighters wearing protective suits and masks sprayed water while checking for radiation.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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sure they did.......

Did you see the stars & stripes article? They have the data but will not share...if all was well they would share the data.

A Fire in the Surrounding of the Plant would be indeed very bad,
a Training is well advised, afaik this is already the 2-3 Time they do so!

Because a lot of Radioactive Products are situated around
and the Trees, Bushes and Greens are dried out!

Our lovely and friendly Tepco Company provided a extra Chapter
with Photos for this Topic, please check the Tepco-Page!

xactly.. things are becoming more mainstream, yet unnoticed by the populous.... strange days, i'm glad i was born when i was.. we may be the last generation to see life as it is.... pyramids and the myans come to mind....

I watch the military stuff because of family that is on active duty. It really pisses me off. Wouldn't want to lose equipment but I guess people are expendable.

Nuclear Safety Commission ends stress test review
Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission has ended a series of meetings with independent experts to review the stress tests for halted nuclear reactors in central Japan.

The commission is expected to soon announce the results of its review, the first for any reactor in Japan.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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US nuclear regulator to step up safety measures
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will study additional safety measures for the country's nuclear power plants by the middle of this year.

Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko announced the plan during a speech near Washington on Tuesday.

Jaczko explained the new safety rules announced last week requiring power plants to improve their facilities to deal with emergencies, including power outages.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Noda seeks local support for reactor restart
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pledged to seek public support for restarting nuclear reactors in the country after the Fukushima nuclear plant accident last March.

Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission will soon announce results of its review of stress tests on the 2 halted reactors at the Ohi nuclear plant in central Japan.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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oh yeah... for the insane.. nice yeah?

yeah, but the manufacturing industry is screaming for power...
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IAEA concerned about aging nuclear plants
The International Atomic Energy Agency says it's concerned about the safety of the world's nuclear power plants as 80 percent are more than 20 years old.

The UN nuclear watchdog sent a draft of its annual report to member countries. The final report will be made public at its general assembly in September.

The draft says 80 percent of the 435 facilities in operation were more than 2 decades old at the end of last year.

Forty-three percent are between 20 and 29 years old. Thirty-two percent are 30 to 39 years old, and 5 percent are older than 40 years.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Radiation high near suppression chambers
High levels of radiation have been detected near suppression chambers of 2 of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The radiation levels are too high for workers to continue inspections.

Decommissioning the plant's crippled reactors involves filling the reactors and their containment vessels with water and extracting melted fuel.

To do this, workers must pinpoint and repair damage to the containment vessels and the suppression chambers.

At the No.2 reactor building, workers opened the door to the suppression chamber and detected a maximum radiation of 160 millisieverts per hour.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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US, Britain urge Iran to abandon nuclear program
US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have agreed to step up pressure against Iran to abandon its nuclear development program.

The 2 leaders told the news conference at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.

Obama said the window for a diplomatic solution is shrinking.

The remark reflects his concerns over comments by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.

Netanyahu said his country cannot wait much longer for international efforts to stop Iran's nuclear development.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Tons of debris waiting to be processed
Japan's Environment Ministry has briefed local governments across the country in a bid to persuade them to take debris left behind by the March 11th disaster.

Officials from 23 local authorities travelled to the tsunami-devastated town of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture for Thursday's briefing.

Tokyo was the first local government outside the disaster zone to accept some of the estimated 22.5 million tons of debris left behind. Only 6.7 percent of the total has been disposed of so far, partly due to concerns about radiation.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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and it is worse than that, will post when we finish real raw data analysis

Japan's nuclear regulator opposed int'l standards
Japan's nuclear regulator has admitted that it strongly opposed a suggestion 6 years ago that international safety standards be applied in revising the guidelines for a nuclear accident.

The nation's Nuclear Safety Commission made the suggestion to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in 2006. The commission wanted to review the guidelines in line with the International Atomic Energy Agency's review of safety standards in an emergency.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Govt. makes formal request for debris disposal
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has officially asked regional authorities to help dispose of the huge quantity of debris from last year's earthquake and tsunami.

The prime minister on Friday sent a letter based on a special law to 35 prefectures and 10 major cities.

The disaster created more than 220 million tons of rubble in the 3 worst-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima alone. Only around 7 percent of it has been incinerated or buried.

Some local authorities are asking the central government to act more assertively to address residents' concerns over contamination from the Fukushima nuclear accident.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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your vigilance is appreciated

Camera inserted in Fukushima No.4 reactor
Debris from a hydrogen explosion and large volume of floating objects were observed inside the Number 4 reactor of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company used an underwater camera to survey the reactor on Thursday.

It is the first such attempt since the reactor building was damaged by a hydrogen explosion 4 days after the earthquake and tsunami last March.

TEPCO plans to start removing 1,535 fuel rods from the pool by December next year and temporarily keep them on the plant premises.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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oh, that will help...... fuck sakes.....

Wonder where they will store them? Thanks for the updates, I haven't found much lately. You guys beat me to it!

Holes in radiation decontamination law leave some Fukushima residents in doubt

Snip

The Ministry of the Environment has drawn up guidelines based on the new law on special measures for the handling of radioactive contamination, but these guidelines do not take indoor decontamination into account. The reason for this, a ministry representative explains, is because the special measures law was drafted with "environmental" contamination in mind.

However, one worker in the prefecture who has been involved in the decontamination of public facilities says that a considerable amount of indoor decontamination work needs to be done. He says that when readings are taken on top of lockers, near carpets and in other places where it is easy for dust to gather, tens of thousands of counts per minute (cpm) are sometimes measured. This is far above the government standard for decontaminating humans or objects, which stands at 13,000 counts per minute (a dosage of about 0.1 microsieverts per hour).

"Any places connected with the air outside, such as ventilators or the cracks between windows will contain radioactive materials, without fail," the worker says. "If these materials are left there, it could result in internal radiation exposure. Indoor decontamination should be made compulsory."
[link to mdn.mainichi.jp]

Long-term nuclear evacuees should get 6 mil. yen each: gov't panel
[link to mdn.mainichi.jp]

Japan using overseas food aid to help dispel contamination fears

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan and the U.N. World Food Program exchanged notes Friday on using certified-safe food products from disaster-hit eastern Japan as overseas aid as a way to dispel fears over radioactive contamination.

Using 1 billion yen in a supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 ending this month, the WFP will procure canned fish products made in Aomori, Iwate, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures and provide Cambodia and four other developing countries with these products for school lunches and other purposes, Japanese officials said.
[link to mdn.mainichi.jp]

Island off Miyagi hit by 43-meter tsunami
A Japanese scientist says a tsunami about 43 meters high hit an island off Miyagi Prefecture after the earthquake on March 11th of last year.

University of Tokyo Associate Professor Yoshinobu Tsuji has been conducting a survey of tsunami damage in Japan's northeast.

He determined that the tsunami reached a height of 43 meters at the deserted island called Kasagaijima.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Wow, that picture is incredible. It just missed going over the whole top of the island.