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

Last remaining pupil at Fukushima school hides his loneliness
FUKUSHIMA--Takashi Sato arrives at Onami Elementary School around 7:30 a.m., changes his navy uniform for a sky blue sweat suit, and starts his daily routine surrounded by empty classrooms and vacant hallways.

His constant smile and cheerful demeanor betray any sense of loneliness he may feel.

The 11-year-old is the only pupil at the school.

Forty-one children used to play in the yard at Onami Elementary School. But on March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, leading to meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, 57 kilometers southeast of the school.

As fears of radiation spread, the number of elementary school pupils in Fukushima Prefecture fell below 100,000, down nearly 19,000 from before the nuclear accident.

Onami Elementary School and another elementary school in the prefecture now have only one pupil.

More at: [link to ajw.asahi.com]

Methane hydrate to be test drilled in Sea of Japan

Japanese researchers are to start test drilling for methane hydrate in the Sea of Japan.

Natural Resources and Energy Agency officials said they were following up on March's successful extraction of the gas off the coast of Aichi and Mie Prefectures. That was the first extraction of this type recorded in the world.

Methane hydrate is a kind of natural gas locked in ice-like crystals on the seabed, often at great depth.

The officials said the test drilling will take place in the coming months off the coast of Niigata and Ishikawa Prefectures.

Researchers plan to assess the amount of methane hydrate in the area.

They said the reserves there could potentially supply Japan's domestic requirements for 100 years.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Iwate, Miyagi to dispose debris on schedule

Two prefectures affected by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami are expected to complete their removal of disaster debris on schedule by next March.

The total debris in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, including accumulated sediment along shorelines, is estimated at nearly 26-million tons.

The government wants to complete its disposal by the end of March 2014.

The process is going smoothly in Iwate and Miyagi, thanks to an Environment Ministry program that enlisted the help of other prefectures to deal with the waste.

In Fukushima, however, the cleanup is not going so smoothly in areas affected by radiation from the nuclear plant accident.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Whitebait fishing resumed after nuclear disaster

Fisheries cooperatives in Ibaraki Prefecture have resumed full-scale fishing of whitebait for the first time since the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011.

Boats belonging to the 3 cooperatives in northern Ibaraki, south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, set sail early Tuesday. They returned to port with a combined catch of about 5 tons.

Whitebait fishing was suspended after high levels of radioactivity were detected in sand lance caught soon after the nuclear accident.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Radiation level at Fukushima plant boundary could exceed limit: TEPCO

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex said Tuesday that the radiation level around the plant's boundary is expected to exceed a self-imposed limit due to steps taken to address recently discovered leaks in underground radioactive water storage tanks.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. set a target to keep the site-boundary dose below 1 millisievert per year, but it now expects the dose at one point in the southern area to rise to up to 7.8 millisieverts, company officials said.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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World Nuclear Power Reactors & Uranium Requirements

This table includes only those future reactors envisaged in specific plans and proposals and expected to be operating by 2030.
The WNA country profiles linked to this table cover both areas: near-term developments and the prospective long-term role for nuclear power in national energy policies. They also provide more detail of what is tabulated here.
[link to www.world-nuclear.org]
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Hahaha... made me lol...

Supreme Court allows protest-hit Indian nuclear plant

India's Supreme Court gave the green light on Monday to the commissioning of the nation's largest nuclear power plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, despite widespread protests.

"The plant has been set up for people's welfare," said the ruling on the Kudankulam plant.

"Necessary clearances have been taken by the government, and development of the nuclear power plant is important for India," it added.
[link to www.nuclearpowerdaily.com]
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Old news but still very important...

Highly radioactive debris recovered from atop crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactor

Workers at Fukushima Daiichi were working this week to remove rubble from atop the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 reactor building with remote-controlled cranes, when they discovered the radiation dose from a piece of debris they removed from the 5th floor of the reactor building was highly radioactive and releasing a dose rate over 540 millisieverts per hour.  The maximum allowable exposure for radiation workers in the U.S. is 50 millisieverts per year.
[link to enformable.com]
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here's his response...
Mochizuki Cheshire Iori
You can search on FD for the word of Deformation or mutation.

Fukushima closes 2 parking lots for emergency decontamination work
Two parking lots in the city of Fukushima were declared off-limits to the public on May 7 after high concentrations of radioactive cesium were detected in the exposed soil there.

Local authorities shut down the parking lots for emergency decontamination operations after a nonprofit organization found a maximum of 430,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium during a survey conducted between April 29-May 2 at the behest of local residents.

The Citizen’s Radioactivity Measuring Station also detected a maximum level of airborne radiation at 3.8 microsieverts per hour, above the benchmark for evacuation, at the two sites.

“It's the first time that soil with cesium levels exceeding 100,000 becquerels was found on the grounds of an urban area, not in sludge accumulated in ditches," said a city official in charge of decontamination work.

[link to ajw.asahi.com]

TEPCO to dump groundwater to ease crisis at Fukushima nuclear plan
After a series of blunders, miscalculations and unresolved problems, Tokyo Electric Power Co. adopted a new strategy to avoid a total collapse of its system for handling radioactive water at its crippled nuclear plant.

TEPCO is running out of storage space for water used in the nonstop process of cooling the melted and spent fuel at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Exacerbating the storage problem is the groundwater that keeps flowing into the plant’s buildings.

The company has dug 12 wells to the west of the reactor buildings, where it plans to pump up groundwater before it can enter the facilities and become contaminated.

“We would like to release that water into the ocean if we can gain the understanding of the relevant officials,” Toshihiko Fukuda, who heads TEPCO's Nuclear Quality and Safety Management Department, said at a May 7 news conference.

TEPCO officials will explain the plan at a meeting scheduled for May 13 of representatives of fisheries cooperatives in Fukushima Prefecture. If approval is obtained, the utility plans to start dumping the pumped-up water into the ocean the following day.

“We would like to cooperate in settling the situation by giving our approval once safety has been confirmed,” Tetsu Nozaki, chairman of the federation of prefectural fisheries cooperatives, said.

It would be the second time for water at the plant site to be released into the ocean.
[link to ajw.asahi.com]

more .. thankyou JP

[link to fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com.au]

Fire burning next to buried nuclear waste near St. Louis — Officials: Measurements of radioactivity ‘have not reached levels of concern’

[link to enenews.com]

Japan, France agree N.Korea should not go nuclear

Japan and France say the international community must keep sending a strong message to North Korea that it should not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Tokyo on Tuesday evening.
The ministers conferred on North Korea's removal of mobile missile launchers from its coastline.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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TEPCO eyes dumping groundwater from Fukushima plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to discharge some groundwater that has flowed into the premises of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, after finding that its radiation level is the same as in the rivers in surrounding areas, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.

At the Fukushima plant groundwater flows into reactor buildings and gets mixed with highly radioactive water that is accumulating inside. But TEPCO has created a dozen wells to pump out the groundwater before it seeps into the buildings and becomes contaminated.

As a trial, TEPCO has pumped out about 200 tons of groundwater using the wells. Its density of radioactive substances was "the same as rivers in surrounding areas," according to company officials.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Dominion News
Dominion Shuts Down Kewaunee Power Station Permanently

May 7, 2013

CARLTON, Wis., May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion (NYSE: D) today shut down its 556-megawatt Kewaunee Power Station permanently, ending almost 40 years of nuclear-generated electricity at the station located about 35 miles southeast of Green Bay on Lake Michigan.

Dominion announced last fall that it would close the station and decommission it because the company was unable to grow a Midwestern nuclear fleet to take advantages of economies of scale and Kewaunee's power purchase agreements were ending at a time of projected low wholesale electricity prices in the region.

"This decision was based purely on economics. The dedicated employees have operated the station safely and well," said David Heacock, president of Dominion Nuclear and chief nuclear officer of Dominion. "We will keep our focus on safety as we transition the station toward decommissioning."
[link to dom.mediaroom.com]
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As Price of Nuclear Energy Drops, a Wisconsin Plant Is Shut

WASHINGTON — The Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin shut down for the last time on Tuesday, but it is preparing to break new ground for the American nuclear industry.

It may go to sleep, Snow White-style, for 50 years, to be awakened when its radioactivity has subsided. Or it may be dismantled in the next decade or so. In either case, the responsibility and the expense, probably near $1 billion, will be borne for the first time by a for-profit company, not a regulated utility.

“Once these old nuclear reactors shut down — as we’re seeing now — it will take 60 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to decontaminate them,” Mr. Markey said in a statement. “Taxpayers should have assurances that these nuclear relics don’t outlive their corporate owners and their ability to fund nuclear cleanup costs, leaving ordinary Americans to foot the bill.”
[link to www.nytimes.com]
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...C.C :Aieshiteru:

sigh* which is????

They are finally responding to local requests.

I would venture to guess it is the same in the rivers due to widespread contamination. Thanks, Sweden for posting...you rock!

OK.... FD he has been busy last two days and some heavy stuff he has translated....

I've put together a summary here

[link to fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com.au]

and it's nice to see some solidarity still solid as a rock out there.. check the favourite sites :)

[link to www.fukushimafacts.com]

Last Edited by CitizenPerth™ on 05/08/2013 11:40 PM

No, by our Experience they control nearly always,
means when i call them (our Town-Office) and
tell them: "Ey, there is aHot-Spot" they nearly
always come and have a look!

Remember in the early days they found this
Hot Spot in Setagaya?

that's what they are saying given the facts........

Last Edited by CitizenPerth™ on 05/09/2013 07:16 AM

TEPCO to take off cover of No. 1 reactor building for fuel removal

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Thursday it plans to temporarily take off a cover placed around the damaged No. 1 reactor building to prepare for the removal of fuel in the spent fuel pool.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. installed the cover in October 2011 to prevent the further release of radioactive substances into the air, given that a hydrogen explosion destroyed the roof and walls of the building housing the stricken No. 1 reactor.

A TEPCO official said that dismantling the cover -- work which will start in the fall -- is expected to lead to a "slight rise" in the radiation level but the impact will be "little."
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Worst Week Since Fukushima: 4 Major Setbacks In 3 Days Are Latest Stumbles For U.S. Nuclear Power Industry

Reverse Renaissance? Experts Point to 6 Reactors on the Chopping Block and Passage of Anti-Industry Florida Law; Beleaguered Industry's Woes Start With Bad Economics ... and Go Downhill From There.

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Call it the "renaissance in reverse." Not only is the U.S. nuclear power industry mothballing plans for planned reactors in North Carolina and Texas, it also is now pulling the plug (or threatening to do so) on existing reactors in California. All of that and the passage of anti-industry legislation in Florida happened last week (April 28th-May 3rd), easily the worst single week for the U.S. nuclear power industry since the March 2011 meltdown of nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan.

Peter A. Bradford, adjunct professor at the Vermont Law School, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and a former utility commission chair in New York and Maine, said: "2013 is another year in which the pumps can't keep up with the rush of water aboard the 'nuclear renaissance.' It's no surprise that any utility executive with a modicum of concern for his customers' electric bills doesn't consider this to be the right time to build a new reactor. However, the closing of existing reactors in the face of market realities is something new, suggesting that US nuclear generation may actually have reached a peak a few years ago that it will not attain again in our lifetimes."
[link to www.nuclearpowerdaily.com]
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CALVERT CLIFFS: AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP

The reactor (Unit 2) automatically tripped at 2147 EDT. All control rods fully inserted on the trip and all systems responded as expected. Decay heat removal is to the main condenser. The plant is in its normal shutdown electrical lineup.

There are 6 other reactors down in Region 1:

Millstone 3, Nine Mile Point 1, Pilgrim 1, Salem 1, Susquehanna 1 and 2
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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[link to fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com.au]

Take Action at Fukushima: An Open Letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

Riveting and real....

The UN?

This will come with a high Price
and no Benefit for anyone!

There is No-One who know the Status of Daiichi than Tepco!

Only Fools and the real Stupids will call Ban Ki Moon for help!

UN=