Monday, January 30, 2012

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO to Pour Cement-Clay Mix on the Ocean Floor Just Off Water Intake Canals, Will Survey Radioactivity in Fish Nearby

From Asahi Shinbun (1/30/2012):

東京電力は2月から、福島第一原発1~6号機の取水口付近の海底に、粘土を混ぜたセメントを流し込む。汚染された地下水が敷地から海に流れ出るのを防ぐ遮水壁を作る工事の際に、海底にたまった高濃度の放射性セシウムが舞い上がるのを防ぐのが目的だ。

Starting February, TEPCO will pour cement mixed with clay on the ocean floor near the water intake canals for Reactors 1 thorugh 6 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. It is to prevent radioactive cesium that exists in high concentration on the ocean floor when the company builds watertight bulkheads to prevent contaminated groundwater from the plant from leaking into the ocean.

 2号機の取水口付近からは、これまでに国の基準が定める年間放出量の2万倍にあたる推定4700テラベクレル(テラは1兆倍)が流れ出した。周辺の海を昨年11月に調べたところ、海底の土1キロからセシウムが最大160万ベクレル検出された。

4700 terabecquerels of radioactive cesium leaked near the water intake canal for Reactor 2, which was 20,000 times the national standard for allowed oceanic discharge per year. The survey of the ocean around the plant last November found maximum 1.6 million becquerels/kg [wet] of radioactive cesium from the ocean soil.

 東電によると、セメントは約7ヘクタールにわたって厚さ60センチほど流し込む。粘土と混ぜるため、固まることはないという。遮水壁の工事では鋼材を海底に打ち込むことから、海底のセシウムが舞い上がって拡散するのを心配する声が地元漁協などから寄せられていたという。

According to TEPCO, the cement mix will be poured over 7-hectare area, to the thickness of about 60 centimeters. TEPCO says the mix won't solidify because the cement will be mixed with clay. In building the bulkheads, steel beams will be driven into the ocean floor. The local fishermen's cooperatives have expressed concern over the dispersion of radioactive cesium deposited on the ocean floor due to the construction work.

I don't quite understand the part about the cement-clay mix not solidifying.

On a separate but related news, TEPCO has announced that it will work with the local fishermen's associations to study the effect of radioactive materials on fish by having the fishermen fish near the plant and measure radioactivity in fish.

More than 10 months have passed since the accident. (Where has the national government been?)

Also from Asahi Shinbun (1/28/2012):

東京電力は27日、福島第一原発から半径20キロ圏内の警戒区域の海域で、2~4月に魚介類のモニタリング調査を行うことを明らかにした。放射性物質による汚染の有無などを調べる。

On January 27, TEPCO revealed that it would conduct the monitoring survey of marine life within the 20 kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant from February till April. The survey is to study the contamination of marine life by radioactive materials.

 この日、東電の担当者が福島県漁業協同組合連合会の組合長会議に出席し、協力を要請。野崎哲会長は会議後、「我々としても区域内の魚の様子を知りたいので協力する」と話した。

TEPCO attended the meeting of the Fukushima Prefecture Fishermen's Cooperative Association and asked for their cooperation. The president of the association said after the meeting, "We want to know the condition of the fish in the area, so we will cooperate."

 これまで国や県などが海水と海底の泥の放射線量を定期的に測っている地点の中から、線量が高い所と低い所数カ所ずつを選び、月4回調査。結果を公表するという。

They will pick several locations that have been found with high radiation and with low radiation in the regular surveys of seawater and the ocean soil by the national and prefectural governments. The survey will be done 4 times a month, and the results will be published.

Unlike farmers in Fukushima who went ahead and decided to grow their crops as normal after the worst nuclear accident had happened near them, no matter how little information they may have had regarding the accident and resultant contamination, fishermen in Fukushima have decided not to fish, no matter how little information they may have had.

Fukushima farmers will continue to grow crops this year on their highly contaminated soil, hoping for good luck of either radioactive cesium, strontium not getting absorbed into their crops or their crops not being subject to testing while relying on the guilty feeling of the majority of consumers who believe in "Support Fukushima by eating" and on distributors who can cleverly disguise Fukushima produce as something else. As far as I know, Fukushima fishermen will continue to abstain from fishing in their ocean.

11 comments:

kintaman said...

I am guessing it would have been much much cheaper to have increase the height of the tsunami barrier, properly maintained the reactors and to have built a dry cask storage facility for the spent fuel. Wouldn't you agree TEPCO? You absolute f*cking criminal morons!!

Btw, does anyone know what has happened to the former CEO of Tepco who initially hid in the hospital and then retired last fall? I want him to be onsite at the reactors cleaning manually. The people should force him and many others in power to do so.

Anonymous said...

Will that be radioactive cement mix?

Anonymous said...

"Unlike farmers ..., fishermen in Fukushima have decided not to fish, no matter how little information they may have had."
Quite puzzling. Any idea why this difference?

In my country, the sea is pretty dangerous. Long-time locals see it as a cimetry of their ancestors. Though they are reluctant to speak it out.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 8:55PM, which country are you from?

I don't know why fishermen decided not to fish at all. They seem to correctly know that all the contamination from land comes to the ocean, including those agricultural run-offs from the farmers. From what little I know about fishermen in Japan, they are more brave and entrepreneurial than land-based growers.

But then, farmers I know (not in Fukushima) are all entrepreneurial, not depending on the government handout, have enough capital and savings to not to farm for an entire year if needed, and party in Vegas when their bet on the crop pays out.

Anonymous said...

Well, the fishermen prize their fishing boats and may not want to make them radioactive by catching, hauling radioactive fish. Then you spend alot of time living on your radioactive boat while you work, you can't get away from your radioactive haul like a farmer might be able to get away from his harvest.

Anonymous said...

I seem to recall reports suggesting that fishermen were simply landing their catch at ports away from Fukushima, so that consumers would not find out that the fish were taken from contaminated areas. Perhaps these are "baseless rumors," but that certainly sounds like the kind of thing the fishermen i know would do.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 11:30PM, yes there are those, but they are not fishermen in Fukushima. They are not fishing.

Anonymous said...

@ arevamirpal::laprimavera
Hello, I was reffering to people I know from Brittany, France. Working at the sea was tremendous there, taking so many men. The women worked at fisheries. So many widows.
It will be quite different for younger generations, though, the EU set very strong fishing quotas, and jobs have changed.
Not all of them had bad fates.
The french billionaire entrepreneur François Pinault is from Côtes d'Armor, Britanny. He bets on contemporary art - and quite succesfully. Another Britton is a tycoon in meat processing, L'Hénaff.
Bye.

Atomfritz said...

Possibly they mean with "not solidifying" that a such mixture of cement and clay doesn't become rock-hard, but rather like siltstone.

What wonders me is that apparently nobody in Japan worries about the stirring up of radioactive sediments which will eventually be a side-effect of this measure.

Maybe the intention of this measure is more to avoid too much stir-up of that radioactive sediment in the long term.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

I just realized this cement-clay pour on the ocean floor or bulkheads on the ocean side is the same as putting plastic bags over leaky flanges. They deal with a problem after it happens, instead of preventing the problem from happening in the first place.

I guess TEPCO hasn't heard of Toyota.

Dr Goodheart said...

After the nuclear explosion at #3, the fuel rods got blown out for 1-3 miles, including the ocean. These fuel rods will keep on radiating the water for a million years or so...

What Really Happened At #3 Fukushima Reactor And Spent Fuel Pool #3?
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1693739515355388462#editor/target=post;postID=1599088310509556439
via A Green Road Blog

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