Fukushima n-power plant prepares for typhoon Vongfong

[bananas]

Source: Business Standard

The accident-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant is bracing itself for the arrival of powerful typhoon Vongfong that made landfall in southern Japan Monday and could reach the plant Tuesday, authorities said.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Monday said it had installed gutters on the upper part of the tanks storing contaminated water from the plant and reinforced and increased their height to prevent any overflow of the water due to the expected rainfall.

As a precautionary measure against the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan this year, employees would be patrolling the plant facilities at all times in order to prevent overflows or an increase in the contaminated water that accumulates in the basements, the company said.

<snip>

Japan's Meteorological Agency Monday said the super typhoon, that is advancing at 35 km per hour, made landfall in the morning in Kyushu and was expected to arrive in Tokyo early Tuesday from where it would head northeast to the Fukushima plant.

<snip>

Vongfong comes barely a week after the Phanfone typhoon ravaged the Japanese archipelago and left nine people dead, three of them in Okinawa, and three missing.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/fukushima-n-power-plant-prepares-for-typhoon-vongfong-114101300652_1.html

---

The recent Phanfone typhoon caused increased leaks of radioactive material at Fukushima.

[bananas]

1. Tritium up tenfold in Fukushima groundwater after Typhoon Phanfone

"In addition, materials that emit beta rays, such as strontium-90, which causes bone cancer, also shattered records..."

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/10/12/national/tritium-surges-10-fold-in-groundwater-at-fukushima-nuclear-plant-typhoon-effect-suspected/

Tritium up tenfold in Fukushima groundwater after Typhoon Phanfone
JIJI Oct 12, 2014

The radioactive water woes at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant got worse over the weekend after the tritium concentration in a groundwater sample surged more than tenfold this month.

A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday that heavy rain caused by Typhoon Phanfone probably affected the groundwater after the storm whipped through Japan last week.

Some 150,000 becquerels of tritium per liter were measured in a groundwater sample taken Thursday from a well east of the No. 2 reactor. The figure is a record for the well and over 10 times the level measured the previous week.

In addition, materials that emit beta rays, such as strontium-90, which causes bone cancer, also shattered records with a reading of 1.2 million becquerels, the utility said of the sample.

<snip>

[Generic Other]

2. This is pretty frightening!

The Center has recorded sustained winds of 155 knots (178 mph) and gusts up to 190 knots (219 mph), with wave height reaching 50 feet. It is expected to intensify to 305 km/h (190 mph) in the coming hours.

Sustained winds of over 150 mph classify a tropical storm as a super typhoon. Vongfong is the sixth Pacific storm to be so designated this so far in 2014, but is the strongest this year.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/08/world/asia/typhoon-vongfong-japan/

http://enenews.com/japan-times-monstrous-supertyphoon-course-smash-japan-weekend-cnn-could-be-hypothetical-category-6-cloud-field-stretch-across-entire-among-strongest-storms-weve-nbc-waves-already-high-50-ft-phot

And yes it comes from ENENews. For the ones who want to push their heads in the sand and deny the validity of the information, it won't make the bad news blow away just because you call this source of news names.

[bananas]

3. Those images aren't showing

Probably to reduce bandwidth costs, enenews checks the referer header, so that images on their site won't embed on other sites.

[Generic Other]

4. Odd I can see them

Thanks will fix my links.

[bananas]

5. They're in your cache.

When you went to the enenews.com website, they were loaded into you browser cache.
If you could link to the articles it would be really good.
Thanks!

[Art_from_Ark]

8. As someone who has been through numerous typhoons,

(in fact, Vongfong just passed through here earlier this morning), I can say that there is a huge difference between typhoons when they are near Okinawa/Kyushu, and the same typhoons by the time they make it up here, between Tokyo and Fukushima-- especially in October, when the ocean waters around Fukushima have cooled off considerably.

Winds here barely made it up to 30 mph, and those were just gusts, with sustained winds much weaker than that. Yahoo Japan weather shows that when the typhoon passed through the Fukushima Dai-ichi area, winds didn't even exceed 10mph. The typhoon had to pass over much land, including high mountains, on its trek up here and there, and that, along with the cooler ocean water, weakened it considerably.

[Generic Other]

10. So you are safe

My mother said it would be nothing by the time it got to you. But the size of that eye makes me nervous. I lived through a few typhoons in Guam. And these huge superstorms seem like something more of a threat. I keep thinking they are getting worse because of the climate changing.

Glad to hear you are safe and dry. I wish we could say the same about Fukushima.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Vongfong was no big deal up here

I had to change this morning's commute routine slightly because of it, but it had pretty much petered out by the time it got here-- just a few bursts of rain here and there, some wind gusts, and that was it. Japanese typhoons aren't like East Coast hurricanes-- there are lots of high mountains in Japan that will severely weaken typhoons as they make their way across Honshu. In all my years over here, I can only remember one typhoon that was something to write home about-- and that was because it was a downpour that was so intense, I literally couldn't see 10 feet in front of me as I was driving home. I managed to pull into a 7-11 parking lot a quarter mile down the road and stayed there for about 10 minutes until the downpour ended.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. Fukushima apparently didn't get much from this typhoon

There was something of a downpour in the area earlier this morning, but no winds to speak of. However, farther up the coast, the town of Ishimaki was flooded. Ishimaki was also one of the towns that was really hard hit by the 2011 earthquake/tsunami. They just can't seem to catch a break up there.

[heaven05]

6. slowly we're watching

this disaster turn into a larger disaster. Can we keep denying that this catastrophe along with so many other human caused catastrophes are not going to drastically alter human habitation on this planet?

[The Stranger]

7. I swear, I laugh when I read these stories.

They "installed gutters"?

I mean, you can't make this shit up.

I feel so much better that they "installed gutters."

If I wasn't laughing, I'd be crying.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. October typhoons in Fukushima aren't hurricanes

Basically, they're just large rain systems by the time they reach the Fukushima area.

[Generic Other]

11. I think your damn typhoon flung the water my way

We are waiting for the drops to start falling in Seattle.

[Art_from_Ark]

13. It wasn't "my" damn typhoon

If you have any complaints, you'll have to contact the manufacturer