2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami - News and Analysis

[abhishek_sharma]

Fukushima update: TEPCO forced to deliberately pollute ocean with radioisotopes - April 04, 2011

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbe ... orced.html

A quick wrap-up of some developments from today and over the weekend:

TEPCO deliberately dumps more than 10,000 tonnes of radioactive water into sea. TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima power plant has today begun deliberately discharging radioactive water into the sea. The company says it was forced to dump what it describes as low-level radioactive water (though I haven't seen any figures on radiation levels) in order to make room in storage tanks for highly radioactive water that is flooding the basement of the turbine buildings of reactor 2. It also intends to dump a further 1,500 tonnes of contaminated groundwater into the sea tonight. The surprise move comes after the company last weekend found a large crack that was allowing highly radioactive water to pour from flooded buildings in reactor 2 into the ocean. This seems to explain the very high and increasing radiation levels detected last week just off the coast from the plant. Efforts to seal the leak have been unsuccessful so far. I imagine this might explain why the company is taking drastic action to dump less radioactive water so that it can quickly pump out the more dangerous flood water. TEPCO, like BP during last year's Gulf oil spill, increasingly seems to be improvising as it goes along.

Japanese government says it may be months before fallout stops. That's what Yukio Edano, chief cabinet secretary told a news conference Sunday.


Debate continues over reactor damage US Energy Secretary Steven Chu estimates that 70% of the core of reactor 1 may be damaged. Meanwhile other nuclear engineers are studying the radionuclide composition of emissions from the plant, and key plant parameters to come up with their own assessments – see here and here. There have also been some reports of authorities planning to inject nitrogen into the reactors to avert hydrogen explosions. Meanwhile, the IAEA reported today that external power has been restored to the coolant systems of reactors 1 to 3

Food update From that same IAEA briefing today, here's the latest on food testing:

"Since our written briefing of 1st April 2011, significant data related to food contamination was reported on 1st April (33 samples), 2nd April (64 samples) and 3rd April (37 samples) by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. These reported analytical results covered a total of 134 samples taken on 15 March (2 samples), 29-31 March (77 samples) and 1st - 2nd April (55 samples). Analytical results for 133 of the 134 samples for various vegetables, spinach and other leafy vegetables, mushrooms, fruit (strawberry), various meats (beef and pork), seafood and unprocessed raw milk in twelve prefectures (Chiba, Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Kyoto, Niigata, Saitama, Shizuoka, Tchigi, Tochigi, and Tokyo), indicated that iodine-131, caesium-134 and/or caesium-137 were either not detected or were below the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities. One sample of shiitake mushrooms taken on 1st April in Fukushima prefecture was above the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities for both iodine-131 and caesium-134/caesium-137."

Mushrooms are a new addition to the list of contaminated edibles. Scientists I've spoken to can't emphasize enough that food and drinks are by far the largest radiation threat to human health, much more than the low levels of environmental radiation, which most reckon poses no health risk outside of the 20km evacuation zone around the plant."

For full coverage of the Fukushima disaster, go to Nature's news special.

[abhishek_sharma]

Fukushima health risks scrutinized

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110405/ ... 2013a.html

Even as the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station continue to leak radiation, researchers have begun laying the groundwork for studies that will look for any long-term effects on public health.

Academic scientists face major obstacles as they try to collate baseline data on radiation doses in the face of the enormous disruption caused by the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country last month. But the experience of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident shows that such baseline data are vital. Without them, drawing firm conclusions about any adverse health effects will be much more difficult.

Researchers emphasize, however, that environmental levels of radiation outside the 20-kilo­metre evacuation zone around the power plant are currently far below levels that warrant concerns about human health. The greatest threat to human health from the disaster is consuming contaminated food and drink, they say.

Assessing the impact of any exposure to radiation in the environment may require cohort studies to look for a raised incidence of cancers years from now among people living in regions with raised levels of contamination. Just how far-reaching those studies need to be, or whether they are needed at all, will depend on the extent of the ongoing contamination from the damaged reactors. Although the prevailing winds are blowing the bulk of radio­isotopes from the plant out over the Pacific Ocean, periodic changes in weather patterns are dumping fallout inland, increasing the doses that residents receive. The Japanese authorities acknowledged last week that it may be months before the reactors are brought under control. For now, "it is difficult to predict what the health effects might be", says Dillwyn Williams, a cancer researcher at the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge, UK.

Plant workers are being exposed to much higher levels of radiation than the general population, and will be monitored for long-term health effects. The Tokyo-based Radiation Effects Association already has an ongoing study of the health of Japanese nuclear-power workers, and new dosimetric data for Fukushima workers will be merged into that study.

“The problem is that it is very difficult to get a real picture of the exposure of the population.”
But the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), based in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which is responsible for radiation epidemiology studies on survivors of atomic-bomb explosions, is already initiating discussions on broader Fukushima studies. In a joint statement to Nature (see go.nature.com/cckfoe), the RERF's vice-chairman and chief of research Roy Shore, and Kotaro Ozasa, its head of epidemiology, say that it is vital to gather baseline data — such as the exact locations of people exposed to fallout — as soon as possible. Several agencies, including Japan's science ministry, local authorities and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant's operator, are already publishing measurements. But compiling and evaluating the information will be a challenge, say Shore and Ozasa, as these data are currently "scattered and uncoordinated".

"The problem is that it is very difficult to get a real picture of the exposure of the population," says Elisabeth Cardis, a radiation epidemiologist at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain. A critical review of all the available data is desperately needed, she says (see go.nature.com/ejlpny).

Questionnaires should also be sent to people in higher-risk areas to identify details such as the time spent outdoors on various dates, and what food and water were consumed, say Shore and Ozasa. "Obviously, it is important to obtain those data sooner rather than later, but at this point, coping with the huge effects of the earthquake and tsunami has to take precedence," their statement says.

Japan's prompt evacuation of the 20-kilometre zone around Fukushima, and bans on suspect produce, should have helped to curb exposure to isotopes of concern. Iodine-131, which has a half-life of just 8 days but accumulates quickly in the thyroid gland, is still the major component of the emissions from the nuclear plant and remains the greatest acute radiation health threat to the public, says Richard Wake­ford, an epidemiologist at the Dalton Nuclear Institute, University of Manchester, UK. Some of the radioactivity levels detected in food since the accident have been "pretty hefty", he adds.

One of the largest health impacts from Chernobyl has been the 6,000 or more cases of thyroid cancer, mostly affecting people who were children at the time of the accident. In most of these cases, people received high radiation doses through drinking milk from cows that had grazed on iodine-contaminated pasture. Children are particularly at risk because their thyroids are still developing and are more prone to radiation damage than adults' mature thyroids.

The Japanese authorities are distributing potassium iodide tablets in affected areas, and Williams says that this is a crucial precaution. The tablets swamp the thyroid with non-radioactive iodine, preventing uptake of the radioactive form. Japanese children may also have a cultural advantage that lowers their risk from radioiodine. Whereas the children of Chernobyl tended to be iodine-deficient, the Japanese diet, rich in fish and seaweed, is "one of the most iodine-rich diets in the world", says Williams. Milk is also far less important in the Japanese diet than it was for the rural populations around Chernobyl.

Radioiodine doses in the thyroids of children in the most contaminated areas are already being monitored by the Japanese authorities. Nature has learned that the first results of that survey show minimal thyroid doses in 946 children living in areas northwest of the plant, a region where some of the highest fallout over land has been reported. Measurements during 28–30 March found maximum doses of 0.07 microsieverts per hour. This would suggest that the children had received total doses of less than 100 microsieverts, many thousands of times lower than was received by people living in contaminated areas around Chernobyl. The results "seem reassuring that not much iodine-131 has got into children", says Wake­ford, adding that if the food bans are being effective, "Japan will have got a grip on what is the major concern in this sort of situation".

Vadim Chumak, a health physicist at the Research Center for Radiation Medicine at the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev, who has coordinated Chernobyl health studies, says that Japanese radiation researchers should heed a key lesson from that disaster. Dose data are fleeting, he warns, and if they are not collected now, any eventual research would be much more prone to uncertainty. Dosimetric monitoring after Chernobyl was sub-standard, he says, "so in our research we had to invest enormous time and effort in the retrospective estimation of doses"

[abhishek_sharma]

Japan faces more than a decade of nuclear clean-up: Experts fear that damage to the Fukushima reactors is worse than partial meltdown.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/012345/ ... 1.211.html

It came as no surprise when the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) admitted last week that it will scrap its stricken Fukushima Daiichi reactors. After explosions, copious radioisotope leaks and a liberal dousing with sea water, it has been clear for weeks that the reactors were a write-off. But just what will workers encounter when they finally start decommissioning the shattered plant?

It may be years before the true state of the reactors is known and a full clean-up can begin. But already scientists have been piecing together a picture of what happened inside the reactors from fragmentary and sometimes incorrect data about pressure, radiation levels and most of all the radioisotopes leaking from the plant.

After the tsunami on 11 March knocked out backup generators — preventing cooling water from circulating around the hot cores of reactors 1–3 — the fuel rods inside began to warp, split and at least partially melt. Steam reacted with the rods' outer sheath of zirconium, creating hydrogen gas that caused a sequence of massive explosions (see Nature 471, 417–418; 2011).

But data from Japanese regulators and TEPCO suggest to some researchers that conditions inside the core could be far worse than a partial meltdown. Some believe that molten fuel may have flowed into the outer concrete containment vessel, whereas others suggest that nuclear chain reactions are still happening inside the fuel.

Radiation leaks

The most worrisome evidence comes from water found in a building next to reactor 1. On 26 March, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported the presence of chlorine-38, a radioisotope with a half-life of just 37 minutes. The short-lived isotope, which forms when natural chlorine-37 is hit by neutrons from fission, could be evidence that fuel inside the reactor has clumped together into sufficiently large chunks to briefly restart nuclear reactions, says Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a physicist at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. Such bursts could put workers at extreme risk of radiation exposure during clean-up, he warns, and seriously complicate work at the site.

But Paddy Regan, a nuclear physicist at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK, is sceptical. Other radioisotopes have a similar γ-ray spectrum and could be mimicking chlorine-38, he says. Indeed, in the same week as the reading was taken, TEPCO reported alarmingly high levels of iodine-134, a similarly short-lived isotope, before retracting the announcement soon after. Dalnoki-Veress agrees that the evidence is circumstantial, adding that he is frustrated by the lack of clear data coming from the plant.

Other theories also rest on tentative evidence. Richard Lahey, an emeritus professor of nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, believes that the core of reactor 2 may have melted its control rods, which are designed to stop nuclear reactions. Pressure readings and high levels of radioactivity suggest to him that molten fuel has flowed through the control-rod system like lava and dripped into the containment vessel below. If this had happened, clean-up would be far more difficult.

Wiktor Frid, a researcher at the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority in Stockholm thinks the tops of the control rods themselves may have melted. This would allow nuclear chain reactions to restart each time the reactor is filled with water, which slows neutrons sufficiently to allow fission. Simulations conducted by Frid and his colleagues have hinted that such an event is possible. But Frid is quick to add that the data he has seen may not be reliable. "A lot of information is missing and some is contradictory," he says.

Pennsylvanian precedent

The confusion recalls the weeks that followed the partial meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. In the immediate aftermath of that emergency, the state of the reactor core was subject to "an ongoing debate that went on for months", recalls Jack DeVine, an independent nuclear consultant who spent six years cleaning up that accident.

Many scientists believed that the fuel rods at Three Mile Island were more-or-less intact, on the basis of computer models and simulations, says DeVine. But when a camera was eventually lowered into the core in 1982, the damage was far worse than anyone had predicted. "It looked like my gravel driveway — a mess," he says. Engineers hoping to remove fuel rods in a process akin to conventional decommissioning of a nuclear core had to rethink their clean-up strategies, though they eventually managed to clear most of the fuel out of the reactor.

DeVine says that the Japanese authorities should have no desire to shroud Fukushima's reactors in a protective concrete sarcophagus like the one built over the exploded Chernobyl reactor in 1986. The risk of another earthquake or tsunami damaging the structure and creating more problems would be too great. Instead, Fukushima's fuel will have to be removed in a process similar to Three Mile Island's recovery.

That effort took 14 years. Based on what he has seen so far, DeVine believes that one thing is certain: decommissioning Fukushima will probably take longer.

[Amber G.]

IAEA Website:

Japan Begins Discharge of Low Level Radioactive Water

Japanese authorities have confirmed to the IAEA that they began to discharge 11,500 tonnes of low level radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea on 4 April. The operation is being conducted to create storage capacity for highly radioactive water that has pooled in parts of the reactor facility, hindering efforts to restore electrical power from the grid to the facility.

Japanese officials have reported that they plan to release 10,000 tonnes of water from a waste treatment facility and 1,500 tonnes from drainage pits around reactor Units 5 and 6. The operation is expected to last no more than five days.

For dose etc from:http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_La ... 04111.html

ow, the Japanese government has approved Tepco's plan to move the most contaminated water to the central radioactive waste treatment facility. This means that the stocks of water already present there have to be displaced, taking with them low levels of radioactivity.

Some 10,000 tonnes of this will be allowed to enter the sea, Tepco said, as well as 1500 tonnes from the sub drain pits of units 5 and 6. Subsurface water is running into the buildings of those units and Tepco said this could eventually affect safety equipment.

The company calculates that a person who ate fish and seaweed from the nearby sea every day would have an additional radiation dose of 0.6 millisieverts per year, but did not say how long this would continue. The additiona dose compares to the 2.4 millisieverts people receive from natural sources each year.

From AS post above:

Mushrooms are a new addition to the list of contaminated edibles.

Nothing "new" .... Brf has mentioned about mushrooms long ago. ..as in "there are mushrooms which still show high Cs due to Chernobyl..

[abhishek_sharma]

Fukushima Radiation: Modeling Shows Limited Spread in Ocean

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsid ... shows.html

Daily computer simulations are suggesting that, so far, the hazardous radioactive materials being released into the sea by the Fukushima nuclear plants are still largely restricted to areas near the coast. In the model being run by French researchers, the powerful Kuroshiro current—the Pacific's version of the Gulf Stream—tends to block contaminated seawater from flowing southward toward Tokyo Bay while picking up little contamination itself.

Figuring out where Fukushima radioactivity is going involves all the complexities and uncertainties that plagued early efforts to model the meanderings of oil last summer in the Gulf of Mexico, and then some, says ocean modeler Claude Estournel. She is a member of the SIROCCO group at the University of Toulouse in France running the SYMPHONIE-NH ocean model under the auspices of the French national research agency CNRS. The International Atomic Energy Agency requested that the group run its model centered on the Fukushima plant on the coast northeast of Tokyo. The resulting daily simulations posted on the Web are rife with uncertainties, Estournel cautions, so that the group is presenting only "scenarios of dispersion" that provide an "orders of magnitude" idea of the actual amounts of radionuclides in the sea.

Caveats aside, the modeling is strongly confirming oceanographers' intuition. The highest concentrations in the model are still within 5 kilometers or so of shore but have been carried up to 50 kilometers north and south by wind-driven currents. That contamination was released directly into the sea.

Radionuclides first released into the atmosphere only to fall into the sea are 20 to 100 times less concentrated but spread more widely, spanning 600 kilometers along the shore and reaching 150 kilometers offshore. In the model, concentrations are 1000 times lower than near Fukushima in the Kuroshiro as it shears off the southern extent of contamination and heads east into the Pacific. The modeling will guide Japanese authorities as they scramble to sample the expanse of ocean liable to contamination.

[GuruPrabhu]

Fukushima Radiation: Modeling Shows Limited Spread in Ocean

If true, this is not the desired result. More spread is better because it dilutes it to levels below ambient.

[vina]

If true, this is not the desired result. More spread is better because it dilutes it to levels below ambient.

Gosh. You Scientists really need to stop this rational thinking like robots business and get down to YumBeeYea giri. See. A good YumBeeYea knows how to pull beepul's emotional strings, hit the right cords and make even the most hard hearted tightwad part with his money for an amazing range of things from candies to movies to I could never figure it out , ridiculously priced perfumes, handbags, scarves and clothing for which wimmins will sell their houses to pay.

Now ordinary folks will feel reassured by the bit of "Limited spread in sea water" it gives the feeling that it is safe, it is "pure", it is "herbal , "no chemicals" ,etc, etc ..(somehow I could never reconcile the "herbal" and "no chemical" part 'em YumBeeYeas give out and lapped up by all and sundry.. so are they saying if I make a face cream by grinding up green leaves fresh off the plant it contains "no chemicals", so instead of applying urea produced by a factory, I collect urine from cows, pigs, humans etc and then apply that to the plant and it becomes "organic" , but I digress).

Now you scientist robots come out "rationally" and say that oh. oh, limited spread is no good. It should spreading out everywhere, including Marina Beach, Marine Drive, Fire Island Beach,The Hamptons, Key Largo, Miami Beach, Key Biscane, LA Beach, North Pole, South Pole, in everyone's water supply and potty washing supplies onree and that is best because it is "dilute".

That will scare the bejeezus out of everyone. People want to be assured that it is "herbal", "no chemicals", has "apricots or honey or grapes or maca root or whatever" and that is "good" and "pure" and "unpolluted" and "untouched" so that it satisfies every germaphobe (like my wife for instance..now with the baby around, she has gone a couple of notches MORE germaphobic, which I thought was impossible before because she was at the pinnacle, but you learn new stuff everyday).

Well, Theoji is right. You are not dealing with rationality here, but primordial fears here. Scientists Out. YumBeeYeas and PR con-sultans, media and "communications" experts in , bollywood in. That is the way to go.

So keeping in mind that spirit and the fact that things should be crushed, pulped canned and opened with a fizz and consumed in a gulp and you later yell BRRRRRRR like in the new Coke Ads in India, a one liner is what is needed.

" Fukushima bottled water. It kills 99.9999% of all harmful germs , viruses and bacteria. Purer than the purest himalayan water!"

I think this is a better punchline with no killing and other "negative" emotions.

"Fukushima bottled water. The purest natural water anywhere. Has 99.999% less harmful germs, bacteria and viruses than the purest Himalayan Glacier waters"

[GuruPrabhu]

Gosh. You Scientists really need to stop this rational thinking like robots business and get down to YumBeeYea giri. See. A good YumBeeYea knows how to pull beepul's emotional strings, hit the right cords and make even the most hard hearted tightwad part with his money for an amazing range of things from candies to movies to I could never figure it out , ridiculously priced perfumes, handbags, scarves and clothing for which wimmins will sell their houses to pay.

yes, MBAs can do all that but they can't generate power. Unfortunate fact. One day your grandkid will ask you, "Grampa, what is electricity?" Then you can sell him handbags and scarves. Then he will ask you, "Grampa, was the sky really blue at one time?" Good opportunity to give him perfumes and bottled water.

Well, Theoji is right. You are not dealing with rationality here, but primordial fears here. Scientists Out.

you are preaching to the choir. I posted many many pages ago that science had lost to hysteria. These are serious issues. All these primordial types will not produce power or clean up the environment. Humanity will one day realize that. Recall Mad max?

The roman empire was brought down because they lost their access to new sources of energy (after running out of wood). Sometimes I wonder why the dinosaurs really died.

[Sanku]

Clearly the self proclaimed science folks have posted nothing but triades against others, and the above few posts are in the same vein.

Unfortunately BRF has very low tolerance of "Upper hand in matters since PhD" approach.

Even more unfortunately for the self-proclaimed group, the criticism is not coming from non-science people, but very much insiders. So all the raving and ranting is going to be just that, raving and ranting.

[GuruPrabhu]

uh oh the babu is here. good night.

[Sanku]

THE babu eh. I wish.....

[vina]

Clearly the self proclaimed science folks have posted nothing but triades against others, and the above few posts are in the same vein.

Saar! We bosht ushing scynce, you don't get it. Then I try explaining using Lal-Chix and Stock Markets and real options about stochastics, you don't get it either and condemn it as "monkey games and insurance scams" .

Okay, I make it real real zimble onree and use YumBeeYea giri, you dont get it even now and think it is not "serious enough". Okay , okay, we will get serious.

Think of that same bottled water ad like the 'Complan' and 'Horlicks' ad on TV or like the Colgate ad on TV.

Ad 1 . Bade Mian is the white coated scientist in the lab with all those instruments giving it that "serious feel" and after testing a sample of water, Bade Mian in a serious stern voice intones.

"Fukushima Water. It has 99.9999% less germs, bacteria and viruses than the the purest himalayan glacier waters we tested. I CERTIFY it!" .. Tra la la.. the jingle in the background, happy brats prancing in the foreground a clean , well scrubbed, happy cheery mum in the foreground, all, piss and plogress onree.


Ad 2: Amber G is the white coated cheery smiling woman scientist like in the Complan Ad.

"Our tests indicate that kids who drank Fukushima water fell ill just a 10th of the times the kids who drank normal water!" . "Fukushima water has 99.999% less germs, bacteria and viruses than the purest himalayan glacier waters!" .Tra la la.. the jingle in the background, happy brats prancing in the foreground a clean , well scrubbed, happy cheery mum in the foreground, all, piss and plogress onree.

(think of that Complan ad. Our tests indicate that kids who drank complan regularly grew upto 3 inches taller on an average than kids who didnt!)


So, hopefully with these two ads, with the "scientists" types to give it all seriousness and academic rigor , things will be fine and aam abduls will seriously lap up Fukushima water. Now you get it?

[arnab]

So what's with the TEPCO fiasco and the rationale for raising the liability limit for nuke suppliers in the Indian context? Isn't TEPCO an operator ( like NPCIL of India)? so in the event of NPCIL doing a TEPCO, wouldn't some indian babu sign off on a 'Rs 4 lakh compensation for dead and Rs 40,000 compensation for injured' type of thingie? And also take a 10% cut for his efforts?

[Sanku]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world ... ss&emc=rss

U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant

Experts have said the Japanese need to continue to keep the fuel cool for many months until the plant can be stabilized, but there is growing awareness that the risks of pumping water on the fuel present a whole new category of challenges that the nuclear industry is only beginning to comprehend.

The document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown “up to one mile from the units,” and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be “bulldozed over,” presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed.

The assessment provides graphic new detail on the conditions of the damaged cores in reactors 1, 2 and 3. Because slumping fuel and salt from seawater that had been used as a coolant is probably blocking circulation pathways, the water flow in No. 1 “is severely restricted and likely blocked.” Inside the core itself, “there is likely no water level,” the assessment says, adding that as a result, “it is difficult to determine how much cooling is getting to the fuel.” Similar problems exist in No. 2 and No. 3, although the blockage is probably less severe, the assessment says.

Margaret Harding, a former reactor designer for General Electric, warned of aftershocks and said, “If I were in the Japanese’s shoes, I’d be very reluctant to have tons and tons of water sitting in a containment whose structural integrity hasn’t been checked since the earthquake.”

[Sanku]

So what's with the TEPCO fiasco and the rationale for raising the liability limit for nuke suppliers in the Indian context?

Increased liability for suppliers basically.

[arnab]

Increased liability for suppliers basically.

Yes but how is it contextual to TEPCO which is an Operator?

[Sanku]

Clearly the self proclaimed science folks have posted nothing but triades against others, and the above few posts are in the same vein.

Saar! We bosht ushing scynce, you don't get it. Then I try explaining using Lal-Chix and Stock Markets and real options about stochastics, you don't get it either and condemn it as "monkey games and insurance scams" .

Vina-ji; you know that I have a fairly good opinion of your posts, occasional mistakes not withstanding (heck no is perfect ) -- however, I still maintain that many of these posts are trivializing the issues involved.

However since you have already quoted what you want the end game to be, to which I agree (a safer Nuclear system in India) -- I actually don't have too much of difference of opinion with you. So difficult to argue. Much as I would love to do so.

[Sanku]

Increased liability for suppliers basically.

Yes but how is it contextual to TEPCO which is an Operator?

Oh I thought it was obvious--- the logic is as follows

1) The current travails of TEPCO is a real world example of what a real liability even for a limited nuclear disaster looks like (thankfully the world has not seen a out of control disaster yet)

2) The above shows that our current caps are hopelessly unrealistic.

3) The intent of the liability bill is for the operator to share liability with supplier, hence clearly the supplier cap is also unrealistic.

4) While the operator is GoI and continues to be uncapped, the suppliers are capped at unrealistic levels.

[somnath]

So what's with the TEPCO fiasco and the rationale for raising the liability limit for nuke suppliers in the Indian context? Isn't TEPCO an operator ( like NPCIL of India)? so in the event of NPCIL doing a TEPCO, wouldn't some indian babu sign off on a 'Rs 4 lakh compensation for dead and Rs 40,000 compensation for injured' type of thingie? And also take a 10% cut for his efforts?

Precisely Arnab-ji, you see the funny side (of logic AND knowldege of our uber nationalists)? Our Nuke Liability law helpfully preserved operator monopoly to the govt only - and then capped operator liability to 1500 crores (~300 million dolllars) - it isnt unlimited..Even more helpfully, the Act has kept this liability out of the purview of damages cause by, among other things, "grave national disaster of exceptional character"....But our uber nationalists want "supplier liabilities" @ 1000000000000000 billion dollars to be effective for 10000000 years , and the purview of that should include impact of 200 metre high tsunamis that were recorded in the rig veda

[arnab]

3) The intent of the liability bill is for the operator to share liability with supplier, hence clearly the supplier cap is also unrealistic.

4) While the operator is GoI and continues to be uncapped, the suppliers are capped at unrealistic levels.

[/quote]

Why? Where in the TEPCO fiasco has the supplier been found wanting? Afterall GE did not choose the location of the plant where the 12 m Tsunami hit.

[arnab]

Our Nuke Liability law helpfully preserved operator monopoly to the govt only - and then capped operator liability to 1500 crores (~300 million dolllars) - it isnt unlimited..Even more helpfully, the Act has kept this liability out of the purview of damages cause by, among other things, "grave national disaster of exceptional character"....

So you mean to say, this helpful act has also capped operator (GOIs own liability) and in the event of a Fukishima like tsunami damaging a nuke plant, GOI could in theory weasel out of the 'Rs 4 lakh / Rs 40,000 damages' by stating that it is a 'grave national disaster of exceptional charecter'? Well... I guess the lawyers would have made some money here because the poor people certainly won't

[Lalmohan]

well, GE did design a plant that needed active cooling...
i am sure a good lawyer can work with that

[arnab]

well, GE did design a plant that needed active cooling...
i am sure a good lawyer can work with that

Ah - never thought of that. And if in future even the 'passive' models are found wanting - the lawyers can argue that how come the plant needed cooling?

[Lalmohan]

more seriously though, given the amount of 'waste' heat in a nuke plant (hence location by the sea for cooling water) surely more energy extraction is possible (OT for this dhaga)

[shyam]

India suspends food imports from Japan over radiation fears

[Sanku]

well, GE did design a plant that needed active cooling...
i am sure a good lawyer can work with that

Yes Saar, and details already posted Saar, already posted......

Suppliers are not going to get a clean chit, however much they try to weasel out.

Why? Where in the TEPCO fiasco has the supplier been found wanting? Afterall GE did not choose the location of the plant where the 12 m Tsunami hit.

While it remains to be seen just what was the extent of GEs involvement in lack of robust safety mechanims at Fukushima, the point which you obviously did not get, and may not get now was that the Fukushima incident shows that a liability for a nuclear incident in real world goes into many 10s if not 100 of Billions of dollars. Its sad but that's how it is.

The point is that the liability bill needs to have this sort of realistic figures in mind.

The fact that Liability bill seeks to not let Suppliers weasel out of their correct liabilities is not dependent on the role of GE in Fukushima.

The Indian liability bill was not motivated ONLY for Fukushima like incidents after all. Isn't that really simple to get?

[chaanakya]

TEPCO to inject nitrogen into No.1 reactor

The operator of the disaster-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel of the No.1 reactor, as early as Wednesday, in a bid to avoid a possible hydrogen explosion.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, cites the possibility that hydrogen and oxygen generated by damaged fuel and radiation-decomposed water have accumulated in the vessel.

A high concentration of hydrogen could cause an explosion through a reaction with oxygen.

Last month's hydrogen blasts at the No.1 and No.3 reactors destroyed reactor buildings, causing leaks of radioactive steam from the plant.
TEPCO plans to infuse a total of 6,000 cubic meters of nitrogen gas during a 6-day period. The utility company is now checking procedures with the government.

TEPCO says such work requires caution, as an injection of nitrogen gas could cause leaks of radioactive steam and gas from the containment vessel.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011 18:52 +0900 (JST)

[chaanakya]

Workers face challenge of water storage

Workers struggling to control the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant face the challenge of storing huge amounts of radioactive wastewater found throughout the facility.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says at least 50,000 tons of wastewater contaminated with highly radioactive material has pooled in reactor turbine buildings and outdoor trenches.

The water has been hampering efforts to restore reactor cooling systems, raising fears that it will leak out and further pollute the sea.

TEPCO has been working to determine where the contaminated water can stored safely.

One option is the plant's turbine condensers, which convert steam into water. Another is a processing facility for nuclear waste from the plant's No. 1 through 4 reactors. TEPCO also plans to construct makeshift water tanks. It says that using all three options, it should be able to store more than 60,000 tons of wastewater.

But about 500 tons of fresh water is injected into reactor buildings each day to cool down the reactors. Some of the water is believed to be leaking outside after becoming contaminated.

This means the total amount of radioactive wastewater in the compound could exceed the currently estimated 50,000 tons, requiring more storage space.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011 19:50 +0900 (JST)

[chaanakya]

Radioactive water leak at Fukushima plant stops

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says radioactive water stopped leaking into the sea from a concrete pit on Wednesday morning.

Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to check if there are any new leaks.

TEPCO says it confirmed that the water flow stopped at 5:38 AM.

On Tuesday, workers drilled a hole to reach the gravel below the pit and poured 1,500 liters of a hardening agent called liquid glass.(Sodium Silicate) TEPCO says this has stopped the flow. The company released a photo which shows that water is no longer flowing into the ocean.

[Lalmohan]

can the radioactive waste water be put back into the spent fuel tanks?

[chaanakya]

Radio Active Water being dumped into Pacific Ocean would be diluted over the period. However traces would be found on wester seaboard of USA, CANADA riding on Kuroshio Current and then riding on N Pacific Current rounding Alaska before touching Kurile Island , california current and N Equatorial Current touching Indonesia etc.
It would be difficult to say what would be the radiation level or its amount in sea water given the vast area it has to travel and the fact that the amount of water released in the ocean is minuscule and claimed to be low radio active. But it would be interesting to see if TEPCO dumps all water used for emergency cooling , into ocean, some of it would be highly radioactive containing Isotopes of Cesium and other lesser known isotopes produced during fission.



One French Laboratory has come out with simulation model which is as yet incomplete and needs more monitoring to do complete study.

Once trace level of radioactivity is detected on west cost of USA and Canada , the impact on sea based industry would be interesting to keep watch on.( fishing etc)

Canada is already on the job

"Health Canada will continue to work closely with Canadian and international partners including the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to monitor the situation related to the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan, as it evolves," he added. "As a precautionary measure, Health Canada is activating an additional nine monitoring stations on Canada's West Coast to bolster its existing network of monitoring stations."

[chaanakya]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/MD07Dh01.html

We can only speculate at this point about the precise effects. Previously, marine ecosystems were thought to be relatively invulnerable to the release of radiation. According to the Science Insider:
Radioactive isotopes are most dangerous when animals' bodies absorb them, thinking they're something else. For instance, cesium-137 mimics potassium and is absorbed by muscles, while strontium-90 mimics calcium and is taken up by bones. Since ocean water is full of potassium and calcium in the form of salts, this lowers the chance of an animal's body taking up radioactive particles by mistake.

Furthermore, since the Pacific is so massive, radioactivity will be diluted to levels far too low to be toxic to aquatic life. A much bigger concern is the plume blowing over land and contaminating plant life or the freshwater supply, which would affect animals (including humans) further up the food chain.
Now, however, high levels of radiation are being found in fish as well, and many countries have banned Japanese seafood imports. On Tuesday, India became the first country to ban all food imports from Japan for three months.

[chaanakya]

March 11 quake moves seabed 24 meters off Miyagi

After the magnitude 9.0 quake, the coast guard analyzed data on its benchmarks, which had been set on the seabed at a depth of more than 1,000 meters.

They found that one benchmark 120 kilometers east of the Oshika peninsula had moved about 24 meters to the east-southeast and rose 3 meters.

Another point 70 kilometers east of the peninsula was found to have moved 15 meters east-southeast and sank 60 centimeters.

The same point moved 10 centimeters after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake 6 years ago.

But they say such a large shift caused by the latest earthquake is unprecedented.

[chaanakya]

NISA and IAEA differ on radiation and IAEA takes a back seat in the crisis

On March 30, the IAEA announced that a single soil sample taken from Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, about 40 kilometers from the stricken nuclear plant, had radiation levels double the IAEA standard for evacuation.

The announcement caused concerns among Iitate residents who were outside the Japanese government's evacuation order region.

Officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency were also perplexed by the IAEA's announcement. One NISA official said, "We do not know what the IAEA's computation standards are."

Asked by reporters Friday on whether Iitate residents should leave, a clearly rankled Denis Flory, a deputy director-general who heads the IAEA Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, said only the Japanese government could decide whether Iitate residents had to evacuate.

IAEA officials said the announcement was only based on a temporary computation and called on Japan to conduct further studies.

"The data on which we based our announcement was accumulated by Japan and is not the result of measurements taken independently by the IAEA," an IAEA source said.

On April 1, IAEA officials announced that based on a recomputation done on additional data provided by Japan from 15 soil samples in Iitate, the average figure was below the evacuation standard set by the IAEA.

Even if the results of the IAEA's initial tests for Iitate stood, the agency does not have the authority to issue binding recommendations and instructions to nations about nuclear accidents.

Here IAEA experts are seemingly clueless and brf experts are spurting figures as if they are on the NPP Campus having Radium water as tonic.

[chaanakya]

TEPCO starts dumping radioactive water into ocean

With an apology to the public, Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Monday night began discharging water with low levels of radiation into the ocean from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

"Because the volume of contaminated water is huge and due to time constraints, we chose the option of discharging the water," a TEPCO official told a news conference.

TEPCO officials explained the decision was made to free up storage space within the plant grounds for water contaminated with much higher levels of radiation.

This is the first time TEPCO has knowingly discharged contaminated water into the ocean.

A total of 11,500 tons of contaminated water will be dumped into the ocean over the next few days.

Under the reactor regulation law, contaminated water can be discharged as an "emergency measure." TEPCO officials submitted the water discharge plan to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and received its approval.

An NISA official said the TEPCO decision was "unavoidable."

According to TEPCO officials who calculated the effects from the water discharged, even if an individual ate fish and seaweed taken at least 1 kilometer from the Fukushima plant on a daily basis for a year, the amount of radiation ingested would only be one-fourth of the natural radiation exposure over the course of a year of 2.4 millisieverts.

TEPCO officials said 10,000 tons of water would be discharged from the central waste processing facility.

Once the water has been discharged, highly contaminated water at the basement of the turbine building for the No. 2 reactor would be moved to the waste processing facility.

In addition, 1,500 tons of groundwater stored around the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors will also be released into the ocean to prevent the water seeping from the ground from flooding important equipment in those reactors, such as emergency generators.

The contaminated water at the No. 2 reactor turbine building contains radioactive iodine at levels of several million becquerels per cubic centimeter.

In contrast, the water in the central waste processing facility has a radioactivity level of 6.3 becquerels while the water from the No. 5 reactor has a radioactivity level of 1.6 becquerels and the water from the No. 6 reactor 20 becquerels.

While the radiation levels of the water to be discharged into the ocean are similar to contaminated rainfall around the Fukushima plant, they are still 100 times the standard for radiation levels in seawater as defined by the reactor regulation law.

The total amount of radioactivity that will be discharged into the ocean will be 170 billion becquerels.

While that may seem like a lot, the radioactivity level in 10,000 tons of the discharged water is equivalent to about 10 liters of contaminated water accumulated at the basement of the No. 2 reactor.

The highly contaminated water in the No. 2 reactor turbine building is slowing work to restore a cooling mechanism that would be necessary to eventually achieve a cold shutdown of the reactor core.

One idea initially considered was moving the contaminated water into the central waste processing facility, but the facility was flooded by the tsunami following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.

An attempt to move the water in the waste processing facility to another location failed.

The water is believed to have been contaminated from radioactive materials that spread from the Fukushima plant.

The reactor buildings and turbine buildings were also flooded by the tsunami because the buildings were located near the coastline.

Although the contamination levels of the water to be discharged are low, there will inevitably be effects on the environment.

TEPCO workers are still a long way from stable cooling of three reactors. And water contaminated by high levels of radiation continues to leak from the No. 2 reactor, where its containment vessel is believed to have been damaged.

The No. 1 reactor still requires careful calibration of the water pumped into the core because the relative airtightness of the core has led to fluctuations in core pressure.

The temperature in the No. 1 reactor core reached about 400 degrees on March 23. While the temperature has since fallen, it was still 234 degrees as of 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Pipes to the pressure container of the No. 2 reactor have been damaged, so there is the possibility that core pressure is dropping as a result. That has, in turn, made it easier for water to be pumped in, which likely led to a decrease in the temperature, some experts said.

However, the water that overflows from the reactor is believed to have leaked onto the plant grounds.

[chaanakya]

Interesting Idea of Sea fence

TEPCO officials are now considering dropping a fence into the ocean to prevent the spread of contaminated water.

The idea being contemplated is to lower a silt fence into the water. Silt fences are used in civil engineering projects to prevent the spread of polluted water. The fence is suspended from a float and extends to the seabed like a curtain and is designed to limit the movement of seawater.

The water off the coast of the Fukushima No. 1 plant has a depth of between five to six meters. One idea being considered is to install the fence near the seawater intake from where contaminated water is flowing as well as near embankments that surround the waters off the plant site.

[chaanakya]

Radiation fallout from Fukushima plant will take "months" to stop

Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, want to restore the normal cooling system that would cool both the reactor core and the storage tanks holding the spent fuel rods. Doing so would allow sufficient water to cool the core down to under 100 degrees, at which point it would reach a cold shutdown. The core and storage pool would then become stable and there would be no danger of radioactive materials leaking to the atmosphere through hydrogen explosions, and also no need for water to be pumped into the core.

The time frame of several months given by Hosono is believed to be the time needed to achieve a cold shutdown, but reaching that stage will not be easy. The first task is to remove the contaminated water that has accumulated in the basements of the turbine buildings, which are next to the reactor buildings.

The process, which involves moving water to various pools within the plant ground, is already under way, but it is expected to take at least a week. TEPCO workers want to move the contaminated water in the basements to condensers in the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors. However, the three condensers were already filled with water, so they had to first take that water out and transfer it to the suppression pool storage tanks. This stage has now been completed.

The next step is to move the water from the condensers to their respective condensation storage tanks. This is under way for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, and preparations are being made to start on the No. 3 reactor, with the whole process expected to be finished in a few days. After that, the transfer of the contaminated water can finally begin.

Once the water is removed, radiation levels within the buildings will have to be measured to determine if workers can enter to begin the next step

[chaanakya]

Banana or no banana ,Energy policies face review

The foundation of the government's nuclear power promotion policy has collapsed in the wake of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, and will likely result in a review of its target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. ( who gives a sh$t to GHG when Nuke disaster is staring in the face. and USA, biggest polluter of all, has not yet ratified Kyoto protocol,)

"Needless to say, this great earthquake will have a considerable effect on various fields in this country," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said in a press conference Monday when asked whether a review of the emissions target is coming.

Expanding nuclear power was the foundation of achieving a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels. But since the main source of electricity apart from nuclear is thermal power, the government will likely be forced to drastically review its policies on energy and fighting global warming.

Since nuclear power plants do not emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, nuclear power has been regarded as a star player in the fight against global warming

According to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, for every 4 percent increase in the operating rate of domestic nuclear power plants, greenhouse gas emissions decrease by 1 percent..

[chaanakya]

can the radioactive waste water be put back into the spent fuel tanks?

Apparently not possible. They are trying various ideas though this is not one of them. It seems emergency fuel tanks were also knocked off by Tsunami. Plant ran on power from the plant itself when under normal operating conditions. So no major fuel tanks are noticed on the Campus.

[Lalmohan]

spent nuclear fuel rod pools/tanks
which need lots of new water... and are radioactive anyway