U.K. MOX plant closure to cost (Japanese) utilities billions

[robdogbucky]

U.K. MOX plant closure to cost utilities billions
Kyodo

LONDON — Japan's electric power industry has suffered multibillion yen losses due to the closure of a plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel plant in Britain, industry sources said Tuesday

The nation's 10 utilities jointly bore the expenses for renovating the Sellafield-based plant, owned by the British government-affiliated Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, but the British side determined Japan would no longer need MOX fuel in light of the Fukushima No. 1 crisis, and has decided to close it, the sources said.

The utilities have spent billions of yen for the renovation to smoothly extract plutonium from spent nuclear fuel discharged from commercial reactors in Japan for use as MOX fuel. For security reasons, they had no other choice but to depend on Britain to produce MOX fuel.

Because the losses will eventually be passed on to consumers through higher electricity rates, the utilities, including Tokyo Electric Power Co., will be required to fully explain the situation to the public...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111019a4.html




Because the losses will be passed on to consumers

Unfuckingreal



Radioactive cesium detected in Tokyo tea leaves

Radioactive cesium in levels above the government standard has been detected in tea leaves produced in Tokyo and Saitama, north of the capital. The contamination is believed to have been caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says 3 brands of tea leaves grown in northwestern Tokyo have been found to contain 550 to 690 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram. The government limit is 500 becquerels.

The Saitama prefectural government says it found 504 to 2,063 becquerels per kilogram in locally-grown leaves of 97 brands.

The samples tested by the prefecture were not early-picked leaves, which are said to be more likely to contain radioactive material. The prefecture had already found that such leaves of 14 brands contained radioactive cesium above the limit.

The authorities have asked the producers to dispose of their tea leaf stocks.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 20:45 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/society.html



Tokyo tea leaves now?




School's radioactive compost was 74 times the maximum.

2011/10/19


UTSUNOMIYA -- Compost handled by students at an agricultural high school in Tochigi Prefecture contained 74 times more radioactive cesium than the government's safety standard.

The Tochigi prefectural board of education said on Oct. 17 that 29,600 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive soil had been found in compost used at the Tochigi Agricultural High School in Tochigi city, far above the government maximum of 400 becquerels per kilogram.

Up to 160 students at the school may have touched the contaminated material, which was supplied through a sales agent on June 27 and July 21. The school used 48 of 70 40-liter bags sourced from a firm in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, for such tasks as preparing pots for seedlings.

Even after the compost from the bags was mixed with soil, the soil-compost mix contained 5,380 becquerels of radioactive cesium...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110180383.html



High school kids



Environmental associations detect high radiation in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward

Two environmental associations in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward met the ward's mayor, Katsunori Aoki, on Oct. 18, seeking radiation tests and decontamination measures after they detected radiation of up to 5.47 microsieverts per hour in the ward.

The Katsushika Aozora no Kai, an association that has tackled the issue of atmospheric pollution in Katsushika Ward, and the Katsushika branch of the Tokyo Kogai Kanja to Kazoku no Kai, which represents victims of pollution and their families, made the request after conducting their own radiation tests at 314 locations starting in July.

The association representing victims of pollution also detected radiation measuring up to 6.7 microsieverts per hour in Edogawa Ward and 3.62 microsieverts per hour in Adachi Ward. It plans to make similar requests for testing and decontamination efforts in those wards.

Both associations took their measurements below gutters, where it is easy for radioactive materials to collect, using simple radiation measurement devices. At 65 locations, they found the radiation level one to two centimeters above the ground was 1 microsievert per hour or greater, and at least 5 microsieverts per hour in two of those locations...

(Mainichi Japan) October 19, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111019p2a00m0na015000c.html




Environmental associations had to do the monitoring





Little progress made in disposing of radioactive rice straw.

2011/10/19


Farmers in eight prefectures are stuck with about 7,200 tons of rice straw contaminated with radioactive cesium, the farm ministry said Oct. 17, as local governments struggle to find storage areas.

With rice harvesting in its final stages and rice farmers already harvesting straw, cattle ranchers are asking that the contaminated straw be moved as soon as possible so that this year's straw can be brought in.

But local governments are running into major problems dealing with the problem because of resistance from local residents.

Farm ministry officials had sent out notices to cattle ranchers asking that contaminated straw be kept separate and colored to differentiate it from other straw...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110180293.html




Little progress made




Radiation monitoring by drone begins in Fukushima

A city near the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun monitoring radiation levels of farmlands and forests with a small unmanned helicopter.

The move comes after the central government lifted an evacuation advisory for parts of Tamura City and 4 other municipalities outside the 20-kilometer no-entry zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant at the end of last month.

On Wednesday, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency began monitoring radiation using the drone at the request of the city. The agency tested a 300-meter-long, 150-meter-wide area of a rice field from a helicopter equipped with a measuring instrument about 20 meters above the ground. It also carried out tests on forests.

Data transmitted by the helicopter is reportedly translated into radiation levels 1 meter above the ground and indicated by instruments at ground level...

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 18:28 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/19_29.html





Aren't drones for killing?





Cesium detected in air until August at 100 km from Fukushima plant.

2011/10/19

Radioactive cesium discharged from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was detected some 100 kilometers from the stricken facility even until late August, research shows.

The finding was announced by a joint research team of the Geochemical Society of Japan, the Japan Geoscience Union and the Japan Society of Nuclear and Radiochemical Sciences.

The cesium concentration remained roughly constant at about 0.01 becquerel per cubic meter of air from June to August, but fell to 0.0001-0.0005 becquerel per cubic meter in late August and did not show up at all by the end of August.

Radioactive iodine, with a half-life of only 8 days, was detected only until July at a site 100 km from the plant used for measurements. No contamination was detected in August...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110180290.html


100 km from Fukushima