TEPCO suspends decontamination system

[robdogbucky]

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suspended part of the activity of the radioactive water decontamination system as a liquid substance was found leaking from the device.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, said that it stopped the system on Sunday morning. The liquid was found leaking from the hose for injecting chemicals to break down radioactive materials in the French-made device...

...TEPCO said it is examining whether the liquid was the chemicals or radioactive water, as well as the cause of the leak. The company added that it is doing its best to resume the operation as soon as possible.

The system to recycle decontaminated water is the key to cooling reactors. But TEPCO has to shut down the system frequently as it has been having continued problems since the start of its use on June 27th...

Sunday, July 10, 2011 16:46 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_20.html


Areva has its fingerprints all over this, "...injecting chemicals to break down radioactive materials in the French-made device..."





Survey: 50 percent of coastal towns have no tsunami evacuation plan.

2011/07/10

Only about half of the municipalities along the vulnerable Pacific coast have tsunami evacuation plans.

In 2002, the central government asked 197 municipalities in 17 prefectures vulnerable to tsunami generated by Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai earthquakes to compile plans.

However, according to a survey conducted by The Asahi Shimbun, only 99 of those municipal governments said they had compiled a plan.

Local governments are supposed to designate areas where tsunami are expected to strike as well as to forecast the time a tsunami is expected to hit after a quake. The governments also are required to include public facilities that will serve as evacuation centers as well as routes residents should take to evacuate in their plans...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201107090253.html



When I mentioned this fact on March 12, the usual Pavrovians hereabouts ridiculed me and called me an Extreme Enviroweenie with Biased Claptrap. One person called me foolish and "what do you think, Japan is a 3rd world country? Of course they have evacuation plans."

Hmmmmmm. Wonder what they have to say about this fact?




Fukushima fuel rods removal can begin in 10 years

An expert on decommissioning nuclear power plants says work to remove fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant can begin in 10 years.

Koji Okamoto made the comments in an interview with NHK on Saturday.

Okamoto said the reactors and the containment vessels at the Fukushima plant were thought to be destroyed in a meltdown.

He said the situation in Fukushima is 10 to 20 times worse than what happened at Three Mile Island, where only a small portion of the fuel rods melted down, all of which remained inside the reactor...

Sunday, July 10, 2011 02:12 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/09_29.html



Tick tock





Monday, July 11, 2011

Fukushima government inspects farm over beef radiation fears

Kyodo

The Fukushima prefectural government inspected a farm Sunday to check whether its management of feed and water for cows is sufficient in response to the detection of excessive levels of radioactive cesium in the meat of 11 cows shipped from it.

The farm is located in the city of Minamisoma, which lies on the outskirts of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the prefecture. The plant has been releasing radioactive materials since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that hit eastern and northeastern Japan.

According to the prefectural government, the farm fed the cows with a livestock feed blend made outside the prefecture, while the water was from a well.

The Tokyo metropolitan government said Saturday that high levels of radioactive cesium had been detected in meat from 10 cows shipped to a meat packing plant in Tokyo from Minamisoma, a day after it announced that a similarly excessive level had been found in the meat from one of 11 cows shipped to the capital from the northeastern Japan city...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110711a3.html





Experts warn that drug's benefits unproven for low-dose radiation dosages

The government is warning people to only take radiation medicine as prescribed by doctors, saying that the pigment Prussian blue, meant to be taken after heavy doses of radioactive cesium, is not known to have an effect on low-dose radiation and might even cause side effects such as irregular heartbeat.

The pigment Prussian blue, which is also used in paints, was found to encourage the ejection of cesium-137 when it was used on 46 people exposed to the isotope in an incident in Brazil in 1987. It was found to be particular effective on adults. However, almost no other data on Prussian blue's medical use exists. A German pharmaceutical company put the pigment into capsule form and began selling it in 1997 under the name Radiogardase.

Prussian blue is said to cut down the length of time that cesium-137 stays in the human body by two thirds, and the World Health Organization has recommended that all countries keep stocks on hand. It was approved for sale in Japan in October last year. Possible side effects are feared such as constipation and potassium deficiency in the blood, which can lead to irregular heartbeat.

At a June 30 press conference by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s disaster response team, Kazuhiko Maekawa, professor emeritus of emergency medicine at the University of Tokyo, said that "the effects (of Prussian blue) on low-dose radiation dosages are completely unknown..."

(Mainichi Japan) July 10, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110709p2a00m0na024000c.html




Scientists launch 'operation sunflowers' to decontaminate farmland near nuclear plant

NAMIE, Fukushima -- Scientists have launched "operation sunflowers" in a bid to remove radioactive cesium from the ground in an evacuation zone near the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant so that local residents could return and farm the land again.

A group of scientists, led by space agriculture professor Masamichi Yamashita at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), had planted sunflower seeds on farmland in three locations in Namie and Katsurao, Fukushima Prefecture, on an experimental basis after receiving approval from the owners of the farmland. The group visited the farmland again on July 2 and confirmed the seeds were sprouting. The levels of radiation one meter above the ground in the area were rather high, ranging from 7 to 21 microsieverts per hour.

According to Yamashita, radioactive cesium is similar to kalium used as an agricultural fertilizer. When sunflowers grow tall and large, they could absorb large quantities of cesium, and therefore they were used to decontaminate toxic soil in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.

If the sunflowers that have absorbed cesium are burned, the radioactive cesium could be dispersed into the atmosphere. Therefore, Yamashita and other researchers are planning to use bacteria to decompose the sunflowers and reduce the volume of the plants and treat them as radioactive waste...

(Mainichi Japan) July 10, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110709p2a00m0na022000c.html

[saras]

1. Thanks - real, solid news, good and bad

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. and radioactive beef was sent to market...good god.

"meat from the six cows — five shipped to Tokyo and one to Tochigi — has been processed and may have reached the market, prompting local authorities to check where the meat was distributed."

this is really going to screw their economy. No one will be able to trust foods and other stuff from
the Japan.