Aibanhamano

Fukushima Watch: More Cooling Problems? Wall Street Journal (blog) Fukushima Daiichi, of course, is known for its more serious cooling issues–which involve keeping the temperature down at its crippled reactors by flooding them with tons of water every day. The good news is that so far, the contamination doesn't seem ... and more »

Following up this article..[Severe exposure of workers] Tepco revised the contamination reading “10 Bq/cm2 → 19 Bq/cm2 on face and head” [URL]

The Fukushima worker Happy11311 commented on Twitter that those workers didn’t wear protective clothing when they were exposed to the radioactive mist.

 

<Translate>

The workers were exposed to THE mist while waiting for the bus to the entrance management gate. This Tepco bus allows you to wear only normal clothes and surgical mask. So these exposed workers didn’t wear the proper protective clothing.

<End>

ミストを撒いてる免震棟前のバス停は、正門にある入退域の出入り管理所とを往復するバスの待合い場所で、東電バスに乗る場合は一般服とサージカルマスク限定なんだ。だから身体汚染した作業員は誰も装備付けてないはずなんだ。

— ハッピー (@Happy11311) August 12, 2013

 

 

Iori Mochizuki

Truth is not truth because everyone believes in it. It’s the truth because it’s consistent and can’t be rebutted.

_____

Français :

Le travailleur de Fukushima : “Les travailleurs gravement exposés ne portaient pas de vêtements de protection”

 

Article lié : [Exposition sévère de travailleurs] Tepco a revu à la hausse ses relevés sur la figure et la tête : “10 Bq/cm² → 19 Bq/cm²”

Le travailleur de Fukushima Happy11311 a déclaré sur Twitter que ces travailleurs ne portaient pas de vêtements de protection lorsqu’ils ont été exposés à la bruine radioactive.

<Traduction>
Ces travailleurs ont été exposés à LA bruine alors qu’ils attendaient dans le bus à la porte de gestion des entrées. Ce bus de Tepco n’autorise que les habits normaux et les maques de chirurgie. Ces travailleurs ne portaient donc pas les vêtements de protection appropriés.
<Fin>

ミストを撒いてる免震棟前のバス停は、正門にある入退域の出入り管理所とを往復するバスの待合い場所で、東電バスに乗る場合は一般服とサージカルマスク限定なんだ。だから身体汚染した作業員は誰も装備付けてないはずなんだ。
— ハッピー (@Happy11311) August 12, 2013

Ce n’est pas la vérité parce que tout le monde y croit. C’est la vérité parce que c’est cohérent et irréfutable.

"300 tonnes of highly contaminated water is leaking everyday from Fukushima I Nuke Plant! The government official in charge of the nuclear accident in the Ministry of Economy admitted!"

This bad news is all over the world, for a change. Even a financial analyst is talking about it (the groundwater has morphed into highly contaminated nuclear waste water in his article).

Is it? Did he?

Reporter: So, uh... you say 300 tonnes of contaminated water per day is leaking into the ocean. What is the basis for your estimate? How did you calculate? Any monitoring data or anything?

Tatsuya Shinkawa, in charge of dealing with the Fukushima nuclear accident at the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry: Uh... The amount of water that will be drawn is going to be 100 tonnes for each well, as we learned from TEPCO at our hearing.

Reporter: Amount of water to be drawn? So, what you're saying is a mere assumption?

Shinkawa: Yes it is, in that sense.

Reporter: I don't quite understand your logic that the entire 100 tonnes of water [per well] is contaminated.

Shinkawa: Naturally, the groundwater flows from the mountainside. If the amount of water to be drawn is 100 tonnes, we supposed those 100 tonnes must have been leaking.

Reporter: How do you know all the water is contaminated?

Shinkawa: At least the water that comes to this particular area may be contaminated, we think.

Watching the video of the August 7, 2013 press conference by the Nuclear Disaster Response Headquarters of the Japanese national government where it all started (at Yasumi Iwakami's IWJ archive), I just have to laugh so hard that my sides start to hurt. The above dialog is from about 55 minutes into the 2-hour video.

Probably more than 80% of the press conference was about "300 tonnes of contaminated water". Toward the end, both Mr. Shinkawa and the reporters were too tired to realize they were just repeating themselves over and over again.

Probably due to fatigue, Reuters' reporters wrote in their article (8/7/2013):

"Shinkawa described the water as "highly" contaminated."

I watched the entire press conference, and didn't hear him say that.

Probably due to fatigue also, almost all Japanese newspapers and news agencies simply wrote what Shinkawa said as truism, except for Tokyo Shinbun whose reporter doubted the wisdom of basing the countermeasures on such a flimsy assumption.

Here's one-page document that Mr. Shinkawa distributed to the press:

Oh well. The horse is out of the barn. The powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has spread baseless rumors around the world.

I'm starting to believe it is deliberate. The Agency of Natural Resources and Energy wants TEPCO to be able to dump uncontaminated groundwater drawn upstream into the ocean, but the talk with the fisheries associations in Fukushima has stalled after the detection of radioactive materials from the observation holes in the embankment in June.

Here's the bargain the Agency could use with the fishermen: Do you want the leak of "300 tonnes of contaminated groundwater" to continue? Or would you rather have us release uncontaminated groundwater drawn upstream, and keep the contaminated groundwater in tanks?

An anonymous reader writes "AOL is closing or plans to sell nearly half of the 900 'hyperlocal' news websites operated by its money-losing Patch Media subsidiary (TechCrunch is also owned by AOL). Hundreds of staff layoffs are believed to be imminent. AOL acquired Patch in 2009, soon after ex-Googler Tim Armstrong took over as CEO; Armstrong was also a co-founder of Patch. During a tough conference call last Thursday Armstrong told Patch editors: 'Something at Patch has been missing for some time and that's leadership – leadership with a capital L'. Armstrong then demonstrated his grasp of Donald Trump's management style by firing an employee during the meeting for taking a picture. At 1:18 of the NY Post's sound clip from Jim Romensko: 'Leaking information Patch isn't going to bother me. I'm not changing direction'. At 2:00: 'Abel [Creative Director Lenz], put that camera down. Abel, you're fired. Out.' Armstrong later explained that 'The reason I fired Abel is I don't want anyone taking pictures of this meeting' and that, much like a sports team, AOL couldn't afford to have people 'giving the game plan away'."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is just too ... (I can't even come up with the right word to describe).

Amateurish, maybe. Pathetic, maybe. And sad.

Because radioactive materials started to get detected in June this year in observation holes along the embankment in orders they didn't expect, TEPCO hastily decided in early July to inject waterglass in the soil of the embankment to create an impermeable wall in the ground. Since it is hot during the day at the plant, they made the workers work at night in full protection gear, from 7PM to 7AM, in the area with high radiation.

According to the articles below, we now know what many of us may have been suspecting all along. The idiom "Haste makes waste" exists for TEPCO.

It turned out that injection of chemicals to create the impermeable wall was too successful. It not only stopped the flow of groundwater, but raised the groundwater level significantly. So now, the groundwater is probably going up and over the hastily built underground impermeable wall, and through the porous, top part of the embankment into the open culvert.

The embankment is artificial, built on top of a natural sandy beach which had existed before the plant was built. There is no way to inject chemicals to solidify the top 1.8 meters. Even if it is possible, the water will simply go around the sides.

(The opening sentence of Nikkei's article below is wrong, though. There is no highly contaminated water leaking from the plant, yet. The highly contaminated water is mostly in the underground trenches, where it has been since 2011. Some may be leaking into the groundwater flowing from the west and that groundwater may be leaking into the open culvert.)

From Nikkei Shinbun (8/3/2013):

福島第１の汚染水、地下の遮水壁越え海に流出か

Contaminated water from Fukushima I Nuke Plant may be leaking into the ocean over the underground impermeable wall

東京電力福島第１原子力発電所から高濃度に汚染された水が流出している問題で、地下の「遮水壁」を乗り越えて海に漏れ出ている可能性が高いことが２日、明らかになった。原子力規制委員会の作業部会で、更田豊志委員らが指摘し、東電も認めた。魚など海洋生物などへの影響が懸念されるため、規制委は東電に緊急対策を指示した。

Regarding the problem of highly contaminated water leaking from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, it was revealed on August 2 that it was highly likely that the contaminated water is going over the underground "impermeable wall" and leaking into the ocean. Nuclear Regulatory Authority's working group met on August 2, and commissioners including Toyoshi Fuketa pointed out the possibility and TEPCO admitted to the possibility. As there are worries over the effect on marine creatures including fish, Nuclear Regulatory Authority ordered TEPCO to come up with emergency countermeasures.

　東電は地下の汚染水が海に流出するのを防ぐため、７月上旬から護岸沿いに水ガラスと呼ぶ特殊な薬液を注入して土を固め、遮水壁をつくる工事を進めていた。遮水壁は地下1.8メートルよりも深い部分に設置されている。

In order to prevent the underground contaminated water from leaking into the ocean, TEPCO has been injecting special liquid called waterglass [sodium silicate solution] along the embankment to solidify the soil and build an impermeable wall since early July. The wall is set deeper than 1.8 meters from the surface.

　作業部会は地下水の水位が最近になって上昇し、遮水壁の上端部を越えた可能性が高いとの結論に達した。壁で地下水をせき止めたのが原因とみられる。地下水は壁を乗り越えるほか、横からも漏れる恐れがある。

The working group came to the conclusion that because the underground impermeable wall stopped the flow of groundwater, the level of groundwater rose recently, and went over the top of the wall. Not only the groundwater could go over the impermeable wall but go around the wall and leak from the sides of the wall.

　東電は遮水壁の近くに井戸を掘り、地下水をくみ上げて水位を下げる工事に着手。今月末までの完成を目指す。地下水は山側から１日に100トンほど流れ込んでおり、これを超す量をくみ上げる必要がある。水の保管方法などは今後検討する。

TEPCO will start digging wells near the impermeable wall to draw groundwater and lower the water level. The company hopes to finish by the end of this month. Groundwater is flowing in from the mountain side (west) at the rate of 100 tonnes per day, and TEPCO needs to draw more than that amount. Storage of the water thus drawn will be discussed later.

(Diagram from Nikkei Shinbun, English labels are by me.)

Now, what is the point of drawing the contaminated groundwater along the embankment? In haste? Particularly when the levels of cesium, all-beta, and tritium in the open culvert have not risen in a significant manner? Do they even stop and think?

They have to somehow stop the groundwater upstream, before it reaches the space between the turbine buildings and the embankment and gets contaminated.

According to an article by Mainichi Shinbun that only appeared in Fukushima local edition (7/24/2013), the embankment was a landfill:

この一帯は原発建設時の１９６０年代に埋め立てられたもので、東電は「なぎさに泥岩、砂岩を積み上げてできた土地」と説明する。

This area was reclaimed in the 1960s when the plant was being constructed. TEPCO explains that the land was made by piling up mudstones and sandstones on the beach.

And just like anything else - from removing fuel rods from the spent fuel pools to removing the corium from the broken reactors - TEPCO has been made to promise the wells will be dug "ahead of schedule", starting this weekend, according to Yomiuri Shinbun (8/6/2013).

The Yomiuri article makes no mention of what will happen to the water drawn from the wells.

What's the point of drawing the water "ahead of schedule" when you don't even know what to do with it?

I am more convinced that construction of the impermeable wall in the ocean by driving sheet piles in the open culvert with vibratory hammer has caused the leak by disturbing the underground trenches and joints that were already damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The trenches and shafts were filled with highly contaminated water from April/May 2011 leak from the turbine buildings for Reactors 2 and 3.

TEPCO did not want to deal with the highly contaminated water, and instead decided to inject waterglass, thinking that would stop any water from flowing into the ocean.

My guess is that by hastily injecting waterglass TEPCO wanted at least few weeks of non detection or low detection of radioactive materials from the observation holes, so that they could somehow proceed on releasing the uncontaminated groundwater drawn from upstream into the ocean.

For now, TEPCO cannot release any water, and groundwater keeps flowing from west to east without any hindrance.

The photo below is from July 16, as workers injected waterglass in an effort to stop the groundwater (from TEPCO's Photos and Videos Library 7/17/2013):

So Nuclear Regulatory Authority finally butted in, formed its own committee and started ordering TEPCO to do something (probably wrong "something", again, but...) over the groundwater saturating the embankment at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant because of TEPCO's ill-conceived underground impermeable wall.

I was wondering why it took NRA until very recently to actively participate in dealing with the accident, until I read independent journalist Ryuichi Kino's tweet just now. It is because Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is in charge of decommissioning the plant:

福島第一の現場で何かが行われているのか、何を基準に工法や、工事の優先順位を決めているのか、この判断理由が外からはまったく見えない。事故収束作業の管理監督をしているのは資源エネルギー庁を事務局とする廃炉対策推進会議だけども、エネ庁はコストの確認をしていない。

What is going on at Fukushima I Nuke Plant? Who decides what method of construction to use on what criteria, and who decides which construction to be given the priority? From outside, the decision-making is completely opaque. The entity in charge of managing and supervising the works to control the plant is the Council on Decommissioning Measures with the Agency of Natural Resource and Energy [under Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry] acting as the secretariat, but the Agency does not know the cost of works at the plant.

The Council was set up by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as of February 8, 2013, and so far has had 5 meetings. The members are (information from TEPCO):

• Chairman: Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry

• Deputy Chairman: Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry

• Council members: President of TEPCO, Director General of JAEA, President of Toshiba, President of Hitachi

• Secretary: Advisor to Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in charge of energy and technology

• Observer: Nuclear Regulatory Authority/Nuclear Regulatory Agency

Nuclear Regulatory Authority/Nuclear Regulatory Agency is just an observer, which in case of Japan has a privilege to sit in the meeting and literally "observe" the meeting but not say much (or at all).

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) had to relinquish NISA (Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency) in September last year when the new nuclear regulatory body (NRA) was created. Or so I thought.

Reuters' article from yesterday quoting Mr. Kinjo, who is the observer to this Council, fails to mention that it is still good old METI in charge of decommissioning work.

Kino says the Secretary to the Council is a career bureaucrat, and the current one was rotated into this position in June this year. Just a part of career stepping stone for bureaucrats at the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry is ex-McKinsey consultant Toshimitsu Motegi, who just dispensed consulting advice to "the parties concerned" regarding Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.

For politicians and bureaucrats, it's "Après moi, le déluge". Literally.

(UPDATE) And just to show it knows something about contaminated water, the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy under METI just declared that 300 tonnes of contaminated water is flowing out to the ocean every day from Fukushima I Nuke Plant, according to Kyodo News.

============================

There may no line of command and they may be "blind", but that doesn't stop Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and its Minister Toshimitsu Motegi from using the "crisis" over the contaminated groundwater at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant for money grab.

As Japanese and foreign media's coverage of "highly contaminated" groundwater that may have gone over the top of the underground impermeable wall into the "ocean" (open culvert outside the water intakes inside the plant harbor) without much raising the radioactivity in the seawater there reaches a crescendo, Motegi and his Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry which (surprisingly) still retains the main role in Fukushima I Nuke Plant decommissioning ride to the rescue.

According to the Japanese papers (Asahi, Nikkei, Jiji and others) are reporting on August 7 that:

• Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will ask for at least 40 billion yen from the fiscal 2014 national budget for the construction of the frozen impermeable wall to surround the reactor buildings and turbine buildings at Fukushima I Nuke Plant to stop the groundwater from entering the buildings;

• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will formally instruct Minister of Economy Toshimitsu Motegi to hurry up with countermeasures to deal with the contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuke Plant during the meeting of Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters [yes, it still exists] in the afternoon of August 7;

• "There is no precedent in the world to build such an extensive frozen wall like this", says Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, "So the national government should step forward to carry out the project".

Fiscal 2014 starts in April 2014. Some urgency. And the national government wants to take credit because it will be the first ever in the world (their favorite - "No.1! Number One!"). Or at least so in their mind.

That indicates to me that METI and Motegi are using the problem of contaminated groundwater that may be slowly saturating the space between the turbine buildings and the seawall and potentially destabilizing the underground trenches as a tool to grab money for themselves, to show the Ministry is still powerful and influential in distributing goodies to their buddies (in this case minimum 40 billion yen to Kajima to build the frozen wall).

Nikkei Shinbun makes a curious put-down on Nuclear Regulatory Authority:

昨年９月に経産省から独立して発足した原子力規制委員会は当初、廃炉作業から距離を置き、官庁の監督体制も弱まった

Nuclear Regulatory Authority, which was created separate from Ministry of Economy, Trade in Industry in September last year, distanced itself initially from the decommission work, and the regulatory oversight by ministries weakened.

As if NRA had any choice, and as if it was because of NRA that the oversight weakened.

The tenor and timbre of the Japanese papers are:

Finally! National government is doing something! and it will be Ministry of Economy in charge. Isn't it wonderful?

Nuclear Regulatory Authority's Kinjo said in the Reuters' article that TEPCO's "sense of crisis is weak". The same can be said about METI and Abe's government. For that matter, it can be said about the entire populace.

Normalcy bias has been pervasive and strong in Japan from the day one of the nuclear accident.

Yahoo! News

Exclusive: Japan nuclear body says radioactive water at Fukushima an ... Yahoo! News TOKYO (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country's nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

東電、福島第一の地下水くみ上げ作業前倒し 読売新聞 東電、福島第一の地下水くみ上げ作業前倒し. 福島第一原子力発電所で放射性物質に汚染された地下水が海に流出している問題で、東京電力は５日、岸壁の止水工事の影響で水位が急上昇している地下水のくみ上げ作業を、前倒しして今週末に始めることを明らかにした。

Japan nuclear body says radioactive water at Fukushima an 'emergency' Reuters TOKYO (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country's nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

Pacific at risk from Fukushima's toxic water Stuff.co.nz ANTONI SLODKOWSKI AND MARI SAITO. Last updated 15:27 06/08/2013. Reuters. Radioactive contaminated groundwater from the Fukushima plant has likely breached an underground barrier and could rise to the surface, Japan's nuclear watchdog says.

The Guardian

Fukushima emergency declared as radioactive water spills over The Guardian Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain, according to the country's nuclear watchdog. The contaminated groundwater had breached ... Fukushima radioactive water leak an 'emergency'BBC News Watchdog warns of Fukushima 'emergency'Aljazeera.com Radioactive water leaking into Pacific Ocean in new Fukushima 'emergency'ABC Online The Verge -RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty -RT (blog) all 74 news articles »

Radioactive groundwater threat at Fukushima ABC Online ELEANOR HALL: Heading overseas now and Japan's nuclear watchdog has warned that radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima power plant is likely to be seeping into the sea. The operator of the plant has apologised, saying it's taking various ...

At 8:00 AM 8/6/2013, the “steam” was observed coming up from reactor3 again.

Tepco published the press release and videos.

This is a follow-up report on the statuses of steam found wafting through the air near the central part of the fifth floor (equipment storage pool side) of Unit 3 on July 18.

Although the steam has not found since 12:05 PM yesterday (August 5), at around 8:00 AM today (August 6), we found steam coming again from near the central part of the fifth floor (equipment storage pool side) of Unit 3 by a camera.

The plant status and the monitoring post readings at 8:00 AM are as follows, and no abnormality has been found.

- Reactor water injection, cooling of the spent fuel pool:
Continuing stably
- Monitoring post readings, continuous dust monitor amounts:
No significant change was found
- Temperature of RPV/PCV:
No significant change was found
- Pressure of dry well:
No significant change was found
- Noble gas monitor:
No significant change was found
- Weather condition:
Air temperature 26.3℃, humidity 92.0%
* The weather condition is as of 8:00 AM.

We will continue to monitor the status closely.

 

 

 

http://photo.tepco.co.jp/index-j.html

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1229513_5130.html

 

Iori Mochizuki

Truth is not truth because everyone believes in it. It’s the truth because it’s consistent and can’t be rebutted.

_____

Français :

Le réacteur 3 fume encore / Publication des vidéos

 

Le 6 août 2013 à 08:00, la “vapeur” est encore observée au-dessus du réacteur 3.

Tepco publie un communiqué de presse et des vidéos :

Voici un rapport de suivi sur l’état de la vapeur s’élevant dans les airs près du centre du cinquième étage (côté piscine de stockage des équipements) de l’Unité 3 ce 18 juillet.

Bien que la vapeur n’ait pas été vue depuis 12:05 hier (5 août), aujourd’hui (6 août) vers 08:00, on a vu que la vapeur sortait à nouveau à proximité du centre du cinquième étage (côté piscine de stockage des équipements) de l’Unité 3 aujourd’hui (5 août) vers 07:30, elles ont été observées par une caméra. .

L’état de la centrale les relevés des bornes de surveillance sont à présent (à 08:00) les suivants et ne présentent rien d’anormal :

- Injection d’eau dans le réacteur, refroidissement de la piscine à combustibles usagés:
Continus et stables
- Relevés des bornes de surveillance, quantités de poussières surveillées en continu :
Aucun changement significatif
- Température des RPV/PCV :
Aucun changement significatif
- Pression dans l’enceinte sèche :
Aucun changement significatif
- Gestion des gaz rares :
Aucun changement significatif
- Injection d’azote :
Aucun changement significatif
- Conditions climatiques :
Température de l’air 26,3 ℃, humidité 92,0 %
* Les conditions climatiques sont celles à 08:00.

Nous maintenons notre surveillance étroite de l’état.

http://photo.tepco.co.jp/index-j.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1229513_5130.html

Ce n’est pas la vérité parce que tout le monde y croit. C’est la vérité parce que c’est cohérent et irréfutable.