Fukushima updates June 30

Like it or not, still an ongoing crisis with far-reaching effect.


Thursday, June 30, 2011

113 households identified as radioactive hot spots

By NATSUKO FUKUE
Staff writer

The central government on Thursday designated 113 households in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, as areas with radioactive hot spots and recommends that the people living there evacuate despite being outside the no-entry zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The areas include 113 households in the Ishida, Kamioguni and Shimooguni districts in the Ryozenmachi area, and the Aiyoshi district in the Tsukidatemachi area, where cumulative radiation is expected to exceed the government standard of 20 millisieverts a year.

In issuing the recommendation, the government said it took into consideration whether the households had pregnant women or preschool children whose health risks are higher than others.

"The government will offer full support to those who wish to evacuate," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

The central government is also coordinating with local officials on whether to add part of Minamisoma to the list as well, officials said…

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110630x2.html



TEPCO turns to president with experience fending off government officials
BY MAKOTO HARA SENIOR STAFF WRITER
2011/06/30

Tokyo Electric Power Co., fearing it could come under virtual state control, has turned to an individual with long experience in fending off central government bureaucrats.

The TEPCO shareholders' meeting on June 28 approved the promotion of Toshio Nishizawa as TEPCO president.

Nishizawa worked for many years in the Corporate Planning Department, a traditionally elite department in the company and one that entails working with bureaucrats.

Another elite TEPCO department is the Corporate Affairs Department, which seeks to develop close ties with politicians…

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106290220.html




Trace amounts of radioactive materials found in Fukushima kids' urine

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Trace amounts of radioactive substances were found in urine samples of all of 10 surveyed children from Fukushima Prefecture in May, where a crippled nuclear power plant is located, a local citizens group and a French nongovernmental organization said Thursday.

David Boilley, president of the Acro radioactivity measuring body, said at a press conference in Tokyo that the results of the survey on 10 boys and girls in Fukushima City aged between 6 and 16 suggest there is a high possibility that children in and near the city have been exposed to radiation internally.

The citizens group, the Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation, comprising parents in the prefecture, said the finding is "certainly" due to the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The group added it will urge the central and local governments to have all citizens in the prefecture undergo detailed tests soon using whole body counters...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110630p2g00m0dm106000c.html




M5.4 quake jolts Nagano Pref., injuring 11

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 jolted Nagano Prefecture and its vicinity in central

Japan on Thursday morning, with the number of injured coming to 11, including two with broken bones, the Japan Meteorological Agency and local police said.

The 8:16 a.m. quake measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7 in Matsumoto in the inland prefecture and 4 in Yamagata, also in Nagano, according to the agency. No tsunami warning was issued.

The focus of the quake was located in a fault straddling Niigata, Nagano, Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, according to the agency.

Matsumoto had aftershocks including a quake at 8:21 a.m. with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 and measuring 4 on the seismic scale and another at 2:11 p.m. with a preliminary magnitude of 3.9 and measuring 4, the agency said...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110630p2g00m0dm010000c.html




Circulation cooling system works again

The newly installed reactor cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has resumed working after a 5-hour suspension due to mechanical trouble.

The operator of the crippled plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, TEPCO, says a French-made water-decontamination device, which is part of the cooling system, stopped automatically on Thursday afternoon. An alarm system was set off within 10 minutes.

TEPCO says after repairing the device and doing test runs, it resumed operating on Thursday evening. The system that decontaminates and re-uses the plant's radioactive water is considered key to the stable cooling of the reactors...

...TEPCO is trying to find out why the alarm system was set off, and the cause of the other troubles. Since its start on Monday, the cooling system has suffered a series of problems including leaky piping.

Friday, July 01, 2011 01:40 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/01_02.html




Workers enter No. 4 reactor building

Tokyo Electric Power Company says debris scattered inside the No. 4 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is posing an obstacle to work to bring the crippled reactor under control.

Workers entered the fifth floor of the building on Wednesday for the first time since an explosion on March 15th.

Photos taken by the workers show that most of the ceiling, except for a small part of the framework, has collapsed. Debris, steel frames, and other various things blown by the force of the explosion are scattered all over the floor.

The radiation level inside the building was less than one millisievert per hour, which TEPCO says is permissible for workers to carry out operations there...

Thursday, June 30, 2011 20:04 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/30_31.html



TEPCO moves low level contaminated water

...The transfer from the plant's make-shift tanks started on Thursday afternoon to the barge called the "mega float." The barge is attached to a quay on the plant's premises.

The make-shift tanks have been almost full since Wednesday with low-level radioactive water pumped from the basement of the reactor Number 6 turbine building. The water is threatening to damage equipment and gauges and thus hamper cooling efforts.

TEPCO says the water is treated to lower the level of contamination before it is transferred to the barge. The utility also says it will do everything to ensure the stored water doesn't leak into the sea. The utility aims to pump around 8,000 tons of the water into the giant barge over three or four months.

The barge, 136 meters long and 46 meters wide, can hold a maximum of 10,000 tons of water. But the company says it has no final plan to dispose of the water stored in the barge.

Thursday, June 30, 2011 17:51 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/30_27.html

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NUCLEAR CRISIS: HOW IT HAPPENED

Government radiation data disclosure--too little, too late

The Yomiuri Shimbun
June 11, 2011

EXCERPT...

At 8:39 a.m. on March 12, about 18 hours after the earthquake, radioactive tellurium-132 was detected in Namiemachi, Fukushima Prefecture, six kilometers from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s damaged plant, according to the report from the agency.

The detection of Te-132 meant the temperature of nuclear fuel at the plant had shot up to more than 1,000 C. It also meant nuclear fuel pellets in the reactor cores had been damaged and nuclear material had leaked into the environment.

Seven hours later, a massive hydrogen explosion rocked the plant's No. 1 reactor.

Attempting to explain the delay in making the information public, agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said later, "We never meant to conceal the information, but it never occurred to us to make it public."