Fukushima To Dump Contaminated Water Into Pacific Ocean

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that the time is ripe to decide the fate of the treated radioactive water stored at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant, despite strong opposition from fishermen over its release into the sea.

In a meeting between Suga and Hiroshi Kishi, president of the National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations, the fisheries association chief reiterated concerns over the reputational damage that the discharge into the Pacific Ocean may inflict on fisheries products from Fukushima Prefecture.

After the meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, Kishi quoted Suga as saying, “The disposal of ALPS treated water is unavoidable and experts have recommended that the release into the sea is the most realistic method that can be implemented. Based on these inputs, I would like to decide the government’s policy.” ALPS refers to the process used to treat the water at the tsunami-stricken plant.

Kishi said fishermen across the nation are still firmly opposed to the plan.

But if the government decides to release the treated water into the ocean, Kishi called on the government to take measures to address reputational damage for the industry and provide ample explanations on its decision — including by discussing safety concerns — to fisherman and the broader public.

Suga’s administration has pledged to make a formal decision on the fate of the accumulating water as soon as possible, given that it will take two years of preparation before it can be released. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., which has accumulated more than 1.2 million tons of treated water, expects to run out of tank storage capacity around the fall of 2022.

Trade minister Hiroshi Kajiyama, who joined the meeting with Kishi and other fisheries officials, said that Suga has asked for their understanding and cooperation for the government’s plan to decide the policy on the treated water.

“What to do with the ALPS treated water is a task that the government can no longer put off without setting a policy,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Media reports say Suga is likely to call a Cabinet meeting on the fate of the treated water as early as next Tuesday, but Kajiyama said no date has been set yet.

The treated water has been building up because more than 100 tons of groundwater seeps into the wrecked reactor basements every day, mixing with highly radioactive debris. Tepco uses the purification system called ALPS that removes dozens of radionuclides to levels in line with national standards but cannot remove tritium.

A Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry panel in February 2020 recommended that the water be released into the sea, saying that it is a common practice for nuclear plants around the world. Resolving the water issue would pave the way for the plant’s decommissioning to be completed sometime between 2041 and 2051. There has been mounting concern that more than 1,000 storage tanks spread out across the plant would hinder the decommissioning work, including the extraction of nearly 900 tons of melted reactor debris from the three wrecked reactors.

The government is considering releasing water in small quantities at a time into the Pacific off Fukushima Prefecture over a period of about 30 years, after diluting the concentration of tritium to about one-fortieth of the maximum set out by national standards. It says the move is not expected to impact human health.

Still, the public’s support for the discharge remains low. An NHK survey showed last month that 51% of respondents are against the release, compared with 18% who support it.

The plans have also invited stiff criticism from neighboring countries including South Korea. According to Fukushima Prefecture, 15 countries and regions, including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, still enforce import restrictions on food from the prefecture, though 39 nations have lifted such restrictions in the years following the nuclear disaster.

The government was on the brink of formally approving the release last October but the plan was pushed back after facing strong opposition from local fishermen and the National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations.

Source: (May Need Registration To Read) by Osamu Tsukimori and Satoshi Sugiyama.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/04/07/national/treated-water-fukushima/

[2021] Radiation levels at Fukushima plant far worse (10 Siverts)

Exceedingly high radiation levels found inside crippled reactor buildings at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant were labeled by nuclear regulators as an “extremely serious” challenge to the shutdown process and overall decommissioning of the site.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said a huge amount of radioactive materials apparently had attached to shield plugs of the containment vessels in the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors.

Radiation levels were estimated at 10 sieverts per hour, a lethal dose for anyone who spends even an hour in the vicinity, according to experts.

Radiation levels at Fukushima plant far worse than was thought

The finding would make it exceptionally difficult for workers to move the shield plugs, raising the prospect that the plan to decommission the reactors will have to be reassessed.

Toyoshi Fuketa, chairman of the NRA, noted that removing the highly contaminated shield plugs added to the enormous difficulty of retrieving nuclear fuel debris, the most daunting part of the decommissioning process.

“It appears that nuclear debris lies at an elevated place,” he said at a news conference earlier this month. “This will have a huge impact on the whole process of decommissioning work.”

A shield plug, made of reinforced concrete, is circular in shape and measures about 12 meters in diameter.

It has a triple-layer structure, with each layer about 60 centimeters thick. It is placed above the containment vessel like a lid on the top floor of a reactor building.

The shield plug blocks radiation from the reactor core at normal times.

When nuclear fuels need to be replaced, workers remove a shield plug to gain access to the interior of the containment vessel.

In a study that resumed in September after about a five-year hiatus, the NRA carried out fresh measurements of radiation levels in the vicinity of the shield plugs of the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors.

The study was undertaken following investigations by Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the plant, and other entities, which had shown extraordinary levels of radiations there.

The NRA’s study found that the amount of radioactive cesium 137 was estimated at 20-40 petabecquerels between the space between the top and middle layers of the shied plug of the No. 2 reactor.

That works out to more than 10 sieverts per hour based on readings of radiation levels nearby. Radiation at such levels can kill a person if they are exposed for an hour, according to experts.

The estimated figure was 30 petabecquerels for the No. 3 reactor.

In the triple meltdown triggered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, the shield plug of the No. 1 reactor slipped out of place and was damaged by a hydrogen explosion that occurred at the reactor building.

As larger amounts of cesium 137 leaked from the No. 1 reactor through the damaged plug, the amount of the radioactive material attached to its shield plug was estimated at 0.16 petabecquerels, considerably lower than for the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors.

In contrast, the shield plugs for the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors remained relatively unscathed, blocking a huge amount of radioactive substances that leaked from their containment vessels from escaping into the atmosphere, according to the NRA.

TEPCO announced Dec. 24 that the removal of nuclear fuel debris will be postponed to 2022 or later, rather than the initially scheduled 2021, due to a delay in the development of equipment to carry out the work.

 Source: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14071742

 

☢ [2017] Chinese Embassy Issue Radiation Warning ☢

The Chinese Embassy in Japan have issued a radiation warning over Fukushima radiation last Sunday, February 2017 causing some panic in China. But in Japan, everything went on normally, tourists and residents remain largely unaffected by the radiation matter.

In recent years, as the popularity of Japan as a tourist destination increases, Chinese people have
developed a love-hate relationship with their neighbor. Any political rift or societal change between the two countries can cause large-scale effects

Fukushima China Syndrome

An update of an old issue in Japan has sent ripples across the East China Sea to shake China. After Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced it's latest analysis of the inside of its crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima that showed the radiation level there has seemingly now risen from 73 sieverts per hour to 530 sieverts.

A lethal radiation dose is considered to be around 10 sieverts exposure for only a few minutes! With a slow death to follow from radiation sickness..

However the news of Fukushimas deadly 530 sievert radiation record that might I add puts the 1986 Chernobyl disaster to shame have been traveling fast on the Chinese Internet.

Last Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in Japan issued a safety warning in reaction to this announcement, telling Chinese citizens to manage their travel plans to avoid potential radiation risks that may come if nuclear material leaks out into the surrounding environment. The warning caused even more discussion and when rumors started spreading, many Chinese became worried, some even canceling their trips to Japan.

Business as usual

A couple of weeks after the news came out, people in Japan seemed as calm and reserved as ever. There are still many Chinese tourists on the streets and in shops. According to Chinese tourism agencies, their business has been basically unaffected.

The director of a large Chinese travel agency told the Global Times last Sunday that Fukushima wasn't a regular travel destination for Chinese tourists anyway, and the company doesn't offer any travel packages there.

Li Dan, manager of a branch of the Beijing-based Tianping International Travel Agency, said that there haven't been any tour groups traveling to Fukushima since the 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami. She also said that even tourists who travel independently do not usually go to Fukushima.

Last week, Will Davis, a member of the American Nuclear Society, refuted claims that radiation levels are soaring at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant as "demonstrably false." In a post on the society's blog, Davis wrote that the readings have not changed and that TEPCO's reported 530 sieverts per hour estimate was not "unimaginable" or particularly worrying.

His argument is that rather than a real increase from 73 to 530 sieverts, the 530 reading is simply a more accurate estimate of the radiation level at a particularly affected area that has remained relatively unchanged over the past few years.

Compared with China, news of the radiation levels in Fukushima has not generated much discussion in Japan. The responses from the media or public to the Chinese safety alert are also few.

For people living in Tokyo, three hours' drive from Fukushima, life has continued as usual. While they feel a little concerned whenever such reports come out, they are not actively worried in their daily lives, several Japanese white-collar workers said.

For people trying to get their lives back to normal in the affected area, their biggest headache and frustration is the bad reputation and rumors that dog their agricultural products.

In supermarkets, consumers who are concerned about radiation contamination choose more expensive products from different areas over cheaper product from Fukushima. Local residents, NGOs and governments are still working to scrub the stain off the reputation of food produced in Fukushima.

"I am concerned about the long-term effects on our bodies," said Zhang Chen, a sociology student at Sophia University of Tokyo. "Even if they were to call off the alert, I would still be worried." Despite these concerns, she said she would continue to stay in Tokyo for the time being and try finding a job in Japan.

Meanwhile, several Chinese residents in Japan the Global Times interviewed expressed their faith that the Japanese government and media would keep people accurately updated on the Fukushima situation and any potential dangers.

Zhao Xue, a Chinese woman who works for a Japanese company in Tokyo told the Global Times she hasn't seen much focus in the newspaper headlines concerning this matter, the big stories recently are Trump and Toshiba's financial problems.

"Why would we panic over something like this? It's an updated version of old news," she said.

Others said as long as one stays out of the evacuation areas the Japanese government designated around the nuclear power plant, one has nothing to worry about. Besides, Tokyo is more than 300 kilometers from Fukushima and as so little radiation can reach there, there's nothing much to do besides go on with one's daily life.

☢ [Video] Fukushima 2020 Olympics ☢

Japan's minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Toshiaki Endo wants qualifiers to be held in Fukushima Japan. 

Japans 2020 Olympic Minister Toshiaki Endo

The proposal is for Fukushima to host 5 new Olympic sports including Baseball and Softball.

Toshiaki Endo says "I think disaster hit regions can host a number of qalifiers, these could be based in Fukushima."

"If qualifiers can be held in other regional areas as well, the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics will be an event for all of Japan."

Also in the video

I'm going to bring to light the Monju Fast Breeder Reactor Troubles before I give you the normal Fukushima update tonight. Today's Headline News from NHK .

Fukushima Radioactive Headines Sep 30th 2015 Dana Durnford Radioactive Heartless Monster I mean IAEA hates Japanese.

Up To 100% of No. 2 Reactor Fuel May Have Melted A group of researchers says it is highly likely that 70 to 100 percent of fuel has melted at one of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactors.

☢ Fukushima No Place for Man or Robot ☢

The robots sent into the nuclear power plants to find highly radioactive fuel at Fukushima's nuclear reactors have all “died”. The subterranean "ice wall" around the crippled plant meant to stop groundwater from becoming contaminated has yet to be finished with some experts saying they have little hope in it ever being finished.

And authorities still don’t even know how to dispose of the highly radioactive water stored in an ever mounting number of tanks around the site that are now starting to leak more and more. The authorities ongoing solution to the radioactive water problem to try and cool the reactors have so far been to dump it all into the Pacific Ocean.

Fukushima No Place for Man or Robot

Five years ago, one of the worst earthquakes in history triggered a 10-metre high tsunami that crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station causing multiple meltdowns. Nearly 19,000 people were killed or left missing and 160,000 lost their homes and livelihoods.

Today, the radiation at the Fukushima plant is still so powerful it has proven impossible to get into its bowels to find and remove the extremely dangerous blobs of melted fuel rods. The radiation is so powerful that experts can only guess at what depth the melted corium fuel now is located.

So far the official reports are that the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), has made some progress, such as removing hundreds of spent fuel roads in one damaged building. But the technology needed to establish the location of the melted fuel rods in the other three reactors at the plant has not been developed.

“It is extremely difficult to access the inside of the nuclear plant," Naohero Masuda, Tepco's head of decommissioning said in one interview. "The biggest obstacle is the radiation.”

The fuel rods melted through their containment vessels in the reactors, and no one knows exactly where they are now. This part of the plant is so dangerous to humans, Tepco has been developing robots, which can swim under water and negotiate obstacles in damaged tunnels and piping to search for the melted fuel rods.

But as soon as they get close to the reactors, the radiation destroys their wiring and renders them useless, causing long delays, Masuda said. 

Each robot has to be custom-built for each building.“It takes two years to develop a single-function robot,” Masuda said.

Irradiated Water

Tepco, which was fiercely criticized and still is for its handling of the disaster, says conditions at the Fukushima power station have improved dramatically. Radiation levels in many places at the site are now as low as those in Tokyo. But words like those do not speak much comfort for a disaster site know as being one of the worst nuclear disasters since Chernobyl in Ukraine 30 years ago,

More than 8,000 workers are at the plant at any one time, according to officials on a recent tour. Traffic is constant as they spread across the site, removing debris, building storage tanks, laying piping and preparing to dismantle parts of the plant.

Much of the work involves pumping a steady torrent of water into the wrecked and highly radiated reactors to cool them down. Afterward, some of the radiated water is then pumped out of the plant and stored in tanks that are proliferating around the site while the rest of the radioactive water is flushed out into the Pacific Ocean.

What to do with the nearly million tonnes of radioactive water is one of the biggest challenges, said Akiro Ono, the site manager. Ono said he is “deeply worried” the storage tanks will leak even more radioactive water into the sea - as they have done several times before - prompting strong criticism for the government.

The utility has so far failed to get the backing of local fishermen to release water it has treated into the ocean.

Ono estimates that Tepco has completed around 10 percent of the work to clear the site up - the decommissioning process could take 30 to 40 years. But until the company locates the fuel, it won’t be able to assess progress and final costs, experts say.

The much touted use of X-ray like muon rays has yielded little information about the location of the melted fuel and the last robot inserted into one of the reactors sent only grainy images before breaking down.

The Great Ice Wall

Tepco is building the world’s biggest ice wall to keep groundwater from flowing into the basements of the damaged reactors and getting contaminated.

First suggested in 2013 and strongly backed by the government, the wall was completed in February, after months of delays and questions surrounding its effectiveness. Later this year, Tepco plans to pump water into the wall - which looks a bit like the piping behind a refrigerator - to start the freezing process.

Stopping the ground water intrusion into the plant is critical, said Artie Gunderson, a former nuclear engineer.

“The reactors continue to bleed radiation into the ground water and thence into the Pacific Ocean,” Gunderson said. "When Tepco finally stops the groundwater, that will be the end of the beginning.”

While he would not rule out the possibility that small amounts of radiation are reaching the ocean, Masuda, the head of decommissioning, said the leaks have ended after the company built a wall along the shoreline near the reactors whose depth goes to below the seabed.

“I am not about to say that it is absolutely zero, but because of this wall the amount of release has dramatically dropped,” he said.

Japan faces 200-year wait for Fukushima clean-up

The Times of London, Mar. 27, 2015

The chief of the Fukushima nuclear power station has admitted that the technology needed to decommission three melted-down reactors does not exist, and he has no idea how it will be developed. 

In a stark reminder of the challenge facing the Japanese authorities, Akira Ono conceded that the stated goal of decommissioning the plant by 2051 may be impossible without a giant technological leap. 

“There are so many uncertainties involved. We need to develop many, many technologies,” Mr Ono said. 

“Forremoval of the debris, we don’t have accurate information (about the state of the reactors) or any viable methodology…

Japan may be obsessed with robots

The Telegraph (UK), Mar 26, 2015

But it is a British company that has solved the “impossible” problem of visualising the radiation leaks inside the crippled reactor buildings at Fukushima.

State-of-the-art British imaging technology has been deployed at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to overcome problems that Japanese engineers declared to be insurmountable… 

The system is able to create a real-time, three-dimensional image of the area being surveyed and identify “hot-spots” of radioactivity. More than four years after… radiation levels within the structures remain too high for humans to enter. 

That has severely hampered efforts to clean up the site. Experts have already estimated that process will take three decades but progress to date has been slow. TEPCO was only able to confirm on Thursday (Mar 2015) previous suspicions that nearly all the fuel from the No. 1 reactor at the plant has melted and fallen into the containment vessel. 

Steam Event - Something Very Wrong at Fukushima

There is a heavy steam event taking place at Fukshima reactor building 4 at this very moment!

The livecam closest to the reactor building 4 is the only one that display the steam event taking place. The JNN livecam is currently offline showing a "green screen" and the Futaba traffic cam is not picking up anything. And the other livecam showing reactor buildings 1 and 2 does not pick up anything but a little bit of the ongoing radioactive releases.

The forecast for the next few days and weeks for people living in the Northern Hemisphere will be radioactive rain with a tad of sunshine and airborne radiation.  

And remember scientists say one medium banana packs about 422 milligrams of potassium, about 11 percent of the 4,700 milligrams adults should aim to get daily. So don't go eating any bananas this week, the added potassium could kill you! That will be all for today's radioactive news.

Fukushima Steam Events Aug 3, 2014 Radioactive Releases

Fukushima Unit 4 Welding Work Shown

Hi folks,

Unit 4 workers welding illustration

Some of you who have been keeping an eye on Fukushima and the Live Cam they have, might have noticed that yesterday Tepco changed the angle of the camera. It's now located at the opposite side from where it was before with reactor unit 4 closest in view to the camera instead of unit 1.

 I've been busy with other things lately so I didn't notice the work that was going on top of reactor unit 4. FC pointed out in the chat that there was flashes going on in the bottom right corner of the screen, and sure enough when I looked at the live cam there was even workers moving around there.

Here you can see an ILLUSTRATION showing the location where the welding work is being done on top of reactor unit 4. The actual flashes where much smaller than this illustration shows but the scale of the workers to the right is about the same.

I figure the flashes was caused by the workers welding some beams, that's what it looks like to me. I tell you they better weld in some support because that 60 Ton "cover" they put in place a month ago on top of the fuel pool to an already damaged structure is not going to help the building situation.

I'm sure you already have read about what happens when that fuel pool hits the ground in the event of an bigger earthquake. The contamination released would equate to some 800-1000 nuclear weapons going off all at once.

And I hope those workers where wearing gas masks because that steel is contaminated with all kinds of radioactive particles, welding always cause smoke and people doing it for a living need regular health checkups to check their lungs.. Add radiation to that smoke and it is not going to turn out good for the workers later on.

Now the camera angle like I told you earlier is different now from what it was when the livecam  first was put into place 2011. But we can still see all the reactor units and cranes working on the site. To explain the map, Unit 4 is in the right corner of the screen and we can see part of Unit 1 way back with Unit 2 blocking most of the view (Unit 1 is the white reactor unit because of the tent they put up).

I hope this Fukushima update have shed some light on the recent developments on site.

The Moon Over Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Related to:

☢ Cigar-shaped Object Over Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors on Aug. 9 2011 ☢

☢ Cigar-shaped Object Over Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors on Aug. 10 2011 ☢ UPDATE ☢

I have been covering a strange object seen over the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant these past days. When I say strange is because the light seen on the live cam is more in the shape of a cigar. It goes from a very thinn stripe seen on the cam to a bright glowing cigar-shape. And also disappears from time to time.

Now a Guest on the Radioactive Chat pointed out that it was the Moon that we see. So now I have been checking up on that. Using Stellarium software an open source desktop planetarium. That renders the skies in realtime using OpenGL, which means the skies will look exactly like what you see with your eyes, binoculars, or a small telescope. Type in Fukushima, Japan as the location. And we get to see that the Moon is at the South at that time of the day.

Using Google Earth to have a look at the reactor units at Fukushima, the angle of the live cam is also pointed to the South. I can now conclude that the light that still looks very strange to be the Moon is most likley just that the Moon. It could be that they use some kind of software to that take out lense flare or high brightness objects to protect the camera. And this is how the Moon comes out on camera.

I'm open to more suggestions, we should start to see some construction work soon starting at the reactors units also. So stay tuned.

Cigar-shaped Object Over Fukushima Reactors

Related to:
☢ Cigar-shaped Object Over Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors on Aug. 10 2011 ☢ UPDATE ☢

UPDATE: ☢ The Moon Over Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Aug. 11 2011 ☢

With my previous posts like ☢ Strange Lights Flicker at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Aug. 6 2011 ☢ and also ☢ Strange Fires at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Aug. 6 2011 ☢ UPDATE 3 ☢

And not to forget the post I made earlier today ☢ Fukushima Fires Continue with Lightning and Thunder Aug 8 2011 ☢ You might think that this situation with the Fukushima Nuclear Reactors can't get much more stranger than this right?

Along came a cigar-chaped object..

Watching the live cam at just before 19:00 hours local time, a strange light appears in the sky above the Fukushima Reactors. Before the camera goes black and white (like always) the object appears. It's a very thin Stripe at first, but as the object moves across the screen it gets brighter. It's goes on and off several times. Appears and then disapperars but follows a path across the screen. It first shows up in the middle of the screen at 19:00 and then by 20:40 it has move the the right side where it disappears out of view.

I thought at first maybe this have something to do with the crane or that this is a reflection of some kind. But I can't really tell for sure. Looking at the daytime video we clearly see that the crane arm can't extended to the other side of the screen. This object have not been seen before to my knowledge on the site, and it continues to glow, disappear and appear. To me it looks like it passes between the towers, that would place the cigar-shaped object path over reactor 3 and the Common Spent Fuel Storage Facility. Tell me what you think.
Video:
2011.08.09 19:00-20:00 / ふくいちライブカメラ (Live Fukushima Nuclear Plant Cam)
2011.08.09 20:00-21:00 / ふくいちライブカメラ (Live Fukushima Nuclear Plant Cam)

Strange Lights Flicker at Fukushima Aug. 6 2011

Note I have now done an update about this post ☢ Fire and Smoke at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Aug. 6 2011 ☢ UPDATE ☢ 


And also if you think these strange lights are weird, have a look at what happened on Aug. 9 2011
☢ Cigar-shaped Object Over Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors on Aug. 9 2011 ☢

I was watching the Fukushima Daiichi Live Cam. In the morning hours I noticed some strange light flickers at what seems to be reactors 3-4. I know that they have reported that the method for cooling Reactor No. 3 “isn’t cutting it”.

So I tried to take some pictures while this flashes where going. It was kinda hard to catch a flash. A bit like trying to take a photo of lightning, you got to take the picture before the actual flash. So I did what I could and managed to get 5 pictures with flashes. I put them all in one big picture with the first one without any flash for you're reference. The area of flashes are marked with the red circle.

And if you download the picture you can zoom in and have a closer look. Now there where several flashes at different locations around the area. So again it's tricky to get one flash on photo, and even more so two flashes..

I have no idea what these strange lights are and why they show up now. I have not seen these before. There are flashes from time to time if you look at the live cam coming from gamma-rays. Even things that look like streaks going across the screen. But these lights were not like those.

You can see the time on the pictures and you will also notice that as of now the sun is up over the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

If you have some insight please comment or use the chat. Feel free to use the pictures as long as you give credit back to www.RadioactiveChat.Blogspot.com.

Atomic Survivor Akira Yamada Likens Nuclear Plants to Nukes

Akira Yamada is pictured in the city of Fukushima. (Mainichi)

FUKUSHIMA -- On the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, survivors in Fukushima Prefecture -- home to the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant -- have a unique perspective. One of those survivors is Akira Yamada, 85, the chair of the prefecture's A-bomb survivors' association.

"Who would think we would be threatened by radiation twice in our lives? I had never thought about nuclear power on Aug. 6 until now. This year is different, though. We have to think not only about why the nuclear bomb was dropped, but why we built nuclear power plants," he says.

On Aug. 6 this year, while watching the peace ceremony in Hiroshima on television at home, Yamada gave a prayer for the victims while wishing for an end to nuclear weapons.

On the day of the bombing in 1945, he was a 19-year-old high school student, at home in bed with a fever. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and a strong wind. After hiding under the house's porch for some time, Yamada climbed to the roof, where he was rendered speechless. Everywhere he looked was flames. He would later see abandoned bodies piled on the road, a sight that burned itself into his memory.

After the war, Yamada became an economist and later served as president of Fukushima University. Since 1981, he has been chair of a Fukushima Prefecture A-bomb survivors' association. However, the disaster at the Fukushima plant was far more than he ever expected.

"I thought of nuclear power plants as things for peaceful use, different from nuclear weapons. I never expected that they would lead to the spreading of radioactive materials," Yamada says.

Even after almost five months, that disaster is still ongoing.

"Nuclear bombs and nuclear plants are the same in that they both use nuclear fission, and this disaster has shown that humankind does not have complete control over nuclear power. We have to stop running the plants until we have safer technology."

The areas of Fukushima Prefecture left deserted by evacuations remind Yamada of the burnt remains of Hiroshima. "The effects of radiation come gradually. The people I'm worried about are the young," he says, adding, "Government agencies will have to closely monitor residents' health."

Click here for the original Japanese story

(Mainichi Japan) August 6, 2011

OVER 10 SIEVERTS/HR Radiation OUTSIDE Reactor 1 and 2

The survey meter went overscale, so no one knows how high the actual radiation really is. 

TEPCO hasn't updated the "survey map (contamination map)" of the plant for about a month, and I've been wondering why. (They have a new one out now, but it doesn't mention the exhaust duct at all.)

If you are exposed to 10 sieverts radiation in a short time, you will be dead.

Photo is from Kyodo News Japanese, with the original photo by the Ministry of Defense. The exhaust duct is where the black arrow is pointing.

Not clear from the Jiji article below, but the Kyodo article does say the meter went overscale and the accurate measurement is not available.

From Jiji Tsushin (11:59PM JST 8/1/2011):

東京電力は１日、福島第１原発１、２号機の原子炉建屋の間にある屋外の排気筒の表面で、過去最高の１時間当たり１０シーベルト（１万ミリシーベルト）以上の放射線量が測定されたと発表した。測定した作業員の被ばく量は最大４ミリシーベルトだった。

TEPCO announced on August 1 that the highest radiation of over 10 sieverts/hour (or 10,000 millisieverts/hour) was detected on the surface of the exhaust duct between Reactor 1 and Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The workers who measured the radiation were exposed to maximum 4 millisieverts of radiation.

これまでの最高値は、１号機原子炉建屋内で６月に測定された同４０００ミリシーベルト。同１０シーベルトを仮に６分間防護服などなしに浴びると、１０００ミリシーベルトを被ばくすることになり、吐き気やリンパ球の急激な減少などの症状が出る。

Prior to this reading, the highest radiation measured was 4,000 millisievert/hour [or 4 sieverts/hour] measured inside the reactor building of Reactor 1 in June. If one is exposed to 10 sieverts/hour radiation for 6 minutes without any protection, he would get 1,000 millisieverts [or 1 sievert] radiation, the level which causes nausea and rapid decrease of lymphocytes.

東電は半径数メートルを立ち入り禁止にするとともに、今後、付近に鉄板を設置するなどして放射線を遮蔽（しゃへい）する。ただ、この付近での作業は予定されておらず、今後の事故収束作業への影響はないという。

TEPCO will prohibit access to the area within a few meters radius of the duct, and plans to shield the radiation by installing steel panels around the area. However, according to TEPCO, there is no work planned near the area, and there will be no effect on the progress of the work at the plant.

東電によると、排気筒には非常用ガス処理系と呼ばれる配管が接続されており、この接続部で高線量が測定された。１号機では震災直後の３月１２日、原子炉格 納容器の圧力逃がし弁を開く「ベント」が行われたが、その際に、容器内の空気がこの配管の中を通った。東電は、通過した気体に含まれる放射性物質が配管内 に付着し、何らかの理由で高い放射線量になったとみている。

According to TEPCO, the pipe for the emergency gas process system is connected to the exhaust duct, and it was at the joint that the high radiation was measured. On March 12 right after the earthquake/tsunami, they did the venting in Reactor 1, in which the pressure release valve on the Containment Vessel was opened to let the air inside the CV out. TEPCO thinks the radioactive materials in that air somehow got attached inside the duct, causing the high radiation.

Wait a minute. How could the work at the plant not be affected? TEPCO is going to put the gigantic cover over Reactor 1, and this exhaust pipe is right in the way.

(h/t Dr. Ono and anon readers)

Fukushima 10+ Sieverts/Hr Extreme Radiation

There have been new released photos of the hot-spots of extreme high radiation at the Fukushima 1 nuke plant. Radiation levels are above 10 Sieverts/Hr now making it a very dangerous place to be. If anyone where to be exposed to 10 Sieverts/Hr of radiation only for a short time this would mean death. Radiation sickness would come quick.

The human worker in the picture is measuring the radiation with the survey meter on the stick. On the ground we can see that attempts have been made to spray a green pale rasin on the ground to limit dangerous radioactive particles from flying into the air when work is in progress.

The photo taken by the gamma-ray camera show 2 hot-spots of high radiation. Radiation levels are so high that the gamma-ray camera goes of the scale also. With the color red being the extremely high radiation levels measured. If we look at the left hot-spot we can see the big pilar at the back of the destroyed building. This is where the human worker was standing measuring the radiation with the survey meter on the stick.

Radiation is at seriouse levels at Fukushima. Prof. Kodama said, severals of Hiroshima/Nagasaki blasts worth of radiation, only difference is the radiation wasn't pumped vertically by the mushroom clouds.