Friday, May 27, 2011

AREVA's Water Treatment System for #Fukushima I: TEPCO Denies "Rumor", Says It Only Costs US$2585 Per Tonne

TEPCO released the cost calculation for the AREVA's contaminated water treatment system on May 27, and denied the "rumor" (originated in the sources inside the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) that it would cost 200 million yen per tonne of water.

Instead, TEPCO said it would be "210,000 yen [US$2,585]" per tonne, and the total would be 53.1 billion yen [US$656 million] to process about 250,000 tonnes of water in the end.

It was 200,000 tonnes of water only a few days ago, I think. And what "end"?

Still no information on exactly what nuclides are to be removed and how much. Corporate secret.

From Mainichi Shinbun Japanese (10:45PM JST 5/27/2011):

 東京電力は27日、福島第1原発のタービン建屋地下などにたまった高濃度の放射性物質を含んだ汚染水の処理費が総額531億円に上るとの試算結果 を公表した。1立方メートル当たり21万円となり、東電が全額を負担する。処理費用を巡っては、総額数十兆円に上るとの臆測も流れていたが、東電側が否定 した。

On May 27, TEPCO released the result of the cost calculation for the treatment system for the highly contaminated water in the turbine buildings and other locations at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and it was 53.1 billion yen. It would be 210,000 yen [US$2,585] per tonne, and the cost would be borne by TEPCO. There was a "rumor" that the treatment cost would be several tens of trillion yen, but it was denied by TEPCO.

 高濃度汚染水は、仏アレバ社が建設する水処理施設で浄化し、一部を原子炉へ再び冷却水として戻す予定で、6月中旬の稼働を目指す。東電によると、 約8万4700立方メートル(5月16日現在)の高濃度汚染水があるが、最終的には約25万立方メートルを処理する必要があると見込み、施設や仮設タンク の建設費、汚染水の処理費などを積算した。高濃度汚染水は現在、タービン建屋地下から集中廃棄物処理施設に移送しているが、移送費や低濃度汚染水の処理費 は含まれていない。

The highly contaminated water is to be treated at the water processing facility that AREVA of France is building, and part of the water is to be returned to the reactors as coolant. The system is expected to be operational in mid June. According to TEPCO, there are 84,700 cubic meters (as of May 16) of the highly contaminated water. In the calculation, TEPCO estimated the total of 250,000 cubic meters of water to be treated, and added the construction costs for the facility and the temporary storage tanks, and the cost of water processing. The highly contaminated water is being transported from the turbine building basements to the Central Waste Processing Facility, but the cost calculation does not include the cost of this transport nor the cost to treat the less contaminated water.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

Give it a few months and it will "leak" out that the water scrubber doesn't preform in the field the way it does on paper and the cost was woefully underestimated. The water treatment rumors could be true since Japan and France have done everything in their power to obfuscate the contract from the public, who knows. So much for Japan and France's pledge for more open nuclear disclosure to win back the public's trust. TEPCO might write the check but TEPCO's customer's are still going to pay the bill in more ways than one.

Now that the IAEA is on the scene to "officiate" the few dribs and drabs that the Japanese tell them everything will be alright for the nuclear industry. Get ready for another "Brownie you're doing a heck of a job" moment in June when the International Atomic Apology Club writes their glowing report. Then will come a flurry of poorly contrived studies that will reinforce the everything is alright vibe.

IMO at some point in the future they'll just quietly dump the "treated" water into the ocean or ground without testing it and call it good. "We ran it through a special filter so it must be safe no reason to test". It is starting to look like Fukushima will become Japan's de facto waste dump the sign over the gate can say "Just Drop It Anywhere"

netudiant said...

The claimed efficiency of the cleanup was as low as 99.9%,
possibly up to 99.99%.
In this case, the presence of large amounts of sea water greatly increases the task, as the sodium will impact the performance of the ion exchange resins.
So the processed water will still be very contaminated, but there is no available technology to clean it up further.
The processed water will surely be dumped, because there is no place to put it. It might be put into a supertanker to store it for a few decades, if there is real pushback against ocean dumping it, but that would kick the can only one halflife down the road.
Separately, AREVAs helpful note that they expect to treat 250,000 tons of water before the job is done suggests that they expect to be working for at least 200 days, at 1200 tons/day. So if all goes well, the water should all be processed by the end of this coming winter.

Anonymous said...

Why doesn't the IAEA publish Tepco's contract with Areva, since this is an incident with international ramifications?

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

@Anon 7:09

Because the IAEA doesn't have any power that Japan does not implicitly grant them. The IAEA isn't a regulatory agency they are an international group of do nothing nuclear apologist. How do you think Israel, North Korea, India and Pakistan managed to turn their "atoms for peace" programs into atoms for pieces?

Anonymous said...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25064
Further on the cost of cleaning up the solid waste.

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