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

Nature:The total amounts of radioactively contaminated materials in forests in Fukushima, Japan
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Tepco is planning the first endoscope operation to reactor1
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Tepco is going to attach a freezing machine to water circulation system
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

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.. gotta keep the 'cold shutdown' myth alive..

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Fukushima Diani blackout because of lighting strike
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

MEXT not releasing nuke accident prediction info to Shiga Pref.
[link to mainichi.jp]

[snip]

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has not handed the Shiga Prefectural Government predictions on the spread of radiation for 2 1/2 months despite requests from the prefecture, it has emerged.

The predictions are produced by the government's high-speed emergency radiation effects-predicting system SPEEDI, and MEXT has announced it will provide such information to municipalities within 30 kilometers of nuclear plants, including Shiga Prefecture. A MEXT source explains the delay by saying, "It is because the passage of a bill on a new nuclear power regulating body is lagging."

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Yeah. They are not great at releasing that information..

Just ask the people of Namie.

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Review of Japan's nuclear policy suspended
The Japan Atomic Energy Commission has decided to suspend a review of the country's nuclear policy guidelines currently being conducted by an expert panel.

In a meeting on Tuesday, some of the panelists expressed concerns over the selection of some of the panel, which includes members from power companies and research institutes that are promoting nuclear power.

The experts also criticized a working group set up by the commission. The working group compiled a report on the country's nuclear recycling policy in mid-May following the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. It later came to light that the unreleased draft report was distributed in closed door sessions to people involved in the government and in the power companies who were promoting nuclear power.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Environment report urges nuclear decontamination
A government report says a more solid system to decontaminate the fallout from the nuclear accident last year must quickly be put in place.

The annual white paper on the environment referred to the effects of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for the first time.

It says the accident has made it clear that that pollution from nuclear substances is the largest problem concerning the environment.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Hosono regrets not having admitted nuclear meltdowns immediately
Nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono said Tuesday he regrets that the Japanese government did not admit the possibility of nuclear meltdowns at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant shortly after the disaster was triggered by the earthquake and tsunami in March last year.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Softbank unveils world's 1st smartphone capable of reading radiation
Softbank Mobile Corp. unveiled the world's first smartphone Tuesday capable of measuring radiation levels in a bid to respond to growing demand for dosimeters in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The Pantone 5 107SH, manufactured by Sharp Corp., is equipped with a sensor that can measure between 0.05 and 9.99 microsieverts per hour of gamma ray in the atmosphere, the mobile operator said, adding it will go on sale sometime in mid-July or later.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Thanks for the links, Sweden

Canadians consider nuclear waste storage near Lake Huron
[link to greatlakesecho.org]

[snip]

A proposal to store nuclear waste below the Canadian shore of northwest Lake Huron has drawn high criticism from environmental advocates.

Cumbow noted that some radioactive substances are very long lived, and that the threat will last for many thousands of years. The waste must be isolated from the food chain for as long as it is hazardous, she said. That is difficult to guarantee, especially since the containers for high-level waste are only guaranteed for 100 years, she said.

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The problem that won't go away..

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San Onofre: Bad Vibrations
[link to www.fairewinds.org]

Kansai Electric urges Prime Minister Noda to restart reactors
[link to japandailypress.com]

Tokyo researchers develop cloth to absorb cesium out of toxic water
[link to japandailypress.com]

Scientists Warn of Increased Nuclear Radiation Risks
[link to www.prnewswire.com]

Senator Wolf Decries Re-Licensing of Pilgrim Nuclear Plant
[link to barnstable-hyannis.patch.com]

[snip]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s responsibility is for public safety, not the profits of Entergy, the company that owns and runs Pilgrim, said Wolf. “To shortcut what has been a long, complicated review process, and re-license Pilgrim before that process is complete, sets a terrible precedent and is not in the public interest, even if it benefits the company and its shareholders.”

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley already has moved in federal court to challenge the NRC’s contention that information emerging from the Fukushima disaster in Japan should not be part of Pilgrim’s re-licensing hearings, which had been closed before the accident.

The Fukushima and Pilgrim reactors are the same design and age.

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Wolf gets it..

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Japan soon to decide on resumption of Ohi plant
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has suggested that he will decide to restart the Ohi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture on his own responsibility if the Prefecture and Ohi Town agree to it.

Noda met Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, Economy and Industry Minister Yukio Edano and Nuclear Crisis Minister Goshi Hosono on Wednesday night to discuss the resumption of the plant.

Noda said that nuclear plants remain important for the stability and development of the Japanese economy and society and that they need to be restarted as long as their safety can be secured.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Japan eyes smaller nuclear role but no exit strategy
[link to www.euronews.com]

[snip]

Some experts and lawmakers also want to set a target to exit nuclear power by 2050, if not earlier, but are meeting fierce resistance from those who want to throw the industry a lifeline.

A draft proposal of five energy mix options, with nuclear’s share ranging from zero to 35 percent, was presented at the panel’s meeting on Thursday. But the draft dropped a variation that would have set a 15 percent target for nuclear power by 2030 while having that share fall to zero two decades later.

“They (the secretariat) did not want to make it clear that this is an option because they don’t want to phase out the nuclear industry,” Takahashi said.

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Kansai Union head effectively accepts restart of Oi nuclear plant
The head of the Union of Kansai Governments said Wednesday that the body of governors and mayors in western Japan will accept the decision to be made by the government regarding the reactivation of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, effectively accepting the restart of two offline reactors at the complex.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, nuclear accident minister Goshi Hosono, industry minister Yukio Edano and Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura held a meeting in Tokyo on restarting the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at the Oi nuclear plant.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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1,200 more people join suit seeking Genkai nuclear plant's shutdown
Around 1,200 people joined a lawsuit Wednesday seeking the closure of Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to some 4,200, the largest for any lawsuit brought against a nuclear power plant.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Tepco Email: Possible re-criticality in Reactor No. 2
[link to enenews.com]

Author on Japan TV: It’s almost as if Tepco officials are aliens from another planet (VIDEO)
[link to enenews.com]

Been doing some reading.
Cracks in the reactors could have occurred when tepco flooded them with seawater. Reactors 1,2 and 3 were manufactured before the fix. Pre-1971. As far as I can tell from a quick look.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]


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wb

[link to www.phyast.pitt.edu]
[snip]

Pressurized Thermal Shock

The thick steel vessel housing the reactor is normally very hot because of the high temperature of the water inside (600°F). If, due to some malfunction, the inside is suddenly filled with cool water, the vessel experiences what is called "thermal shock." If it is then subjected to high pressure — producing pressurized thermal shock (PTS) — there is an increased tendency for the vessel to crack, rather than simply to stretch, if a small crack or imperfection already exists. The importance of PTS problems depends on quantitative details — how much of a thermal shock followed by how much pressure causes how much of an increased tendency to crack. Under ordinary conditions these quantitative details indicate that there is nothing to be concerned about. However, just as radiation can damage biological tissue, it can damage steel by knocking electrons and atoms out of their normal locations. This radiation damage to the reactor vessel aggravates its susceptibility to PTS.

Scientists recognized this problem over 20 years ago and they found a simple remedy for it — reducing the quantity of copper in the steel alloy from which the vessel is fabricated. This remedy was implemented in 1971, and all reactor vessels fabricated since that time have had no problems with PTS.

Reactor vessels fabricated before 1971 are kept under periodic observation to keep track of the problem. For many years, the NRC, burdened by other more urgent problems, put off considering PTS by adopting a very conservative screening criterion to indicate when further action on it would be undertaken. In 1981, time for action according to that criterion was only 1 or 2 years away in some reactors; hence, the NRC began to look into the problem in more detail by requesting information from various power plants.

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problem would be solved if they found somewhere to store their toxic legacy... oh hang on 50 years and they still shrug..... oops.....

Restart of Ohi plant may be declared next week
Japan's government says it hopes to announce the restart of Ohi nuclear plant as early as next week, if it can win the final consent of host municipalities.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Chernobyl Deaths Top a Million
Based on Real Evidence
[link to www.i-sis.org.uk]

Thermometers of reactor 2 indicate abnormal transition of temperature
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Nuke Plants' $8.3 Billion Loan: Who Will Pay?
[link to www.thefiscaltimes.com]

Kansai chiefs accept 'limited' reactor restart
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

[snip]

Kansai leaders, including vocal critic Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, reversed weeks of opposition Thursday to restarting two of the reactors at the Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, caving to intense corporate lobbying and central government pressure and removing one of the last major political obstacles to bringing the units back online.

Public opinion polls in early May showed most Kansai residents opposed the restart, and businesses surveys indicated service firms and small and medium-size companies could save sufficient amounts of electricity.

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Doesn't matter what the residents want.

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Alleged plan to pull No. 1 plant workers returns to haunt Tepco
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

AEC's dubious behavior
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

[snip]

It has surfaced that the Cabinet Offices's Atomic Energy Commission, in the course of its review of Japan's nuclear fuel cycle policy, has held a series of closed-door study meetings attended by insiders in the nation's nuclear power establishment. These meetings were separate from the official meetings held by the commission's subcommittee that is dealing with the issue.

It has also come to light that a report submitted to a May 8 meeting of the subcommittee by the commission had been changed to reflect the views supported by the nuclear power establishment. If true, the commission's act has completely destroyed any semblance of neutrality and transparency as well as further deepened distrust in the nation's nuclear policy.

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Fukushima Daini was submerged
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

570 Bq/Kg of Iodine 131 was measured in Gunma
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Back ground:Incineration of Radioactive and Mixed Waste
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Cesium fallout increases every 40 days
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

[snip]

The trend has been very clear especially since January of 2012.
In the daily conference of 5/31/2012, Tepco stated they are not going to corporate with the researcher to figure out the mechanism.

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