Wednesday, November 28, 2012

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 3: Radiation Level Gone Up Since November Last Year, to 4.78 Sieverts/Hr Near NE Equipment Hatch


TEPCO sent in Packbot and Quince 2 on November 27 to check the soundness of the PVC Gas Management System duct which runs above the guide rails for the equipment hatch in the northeast corner of the Reactor 3 building.

For the work that lasted for one hour and 40 minutes, Packbot received 650 millisieverts, and Quince 2 received 185 millisieverts. Their human coworkers who operated them received maximum 0.52 millisieverts, according to TEPCO's press release on November 28, 2012.

It's the same location where Packbot was sent in twice, in November last year, first to clean the guide rail of the equipment hatch on the northeast corner of the Containment Vessel, then to check up on its cleanup job (radiation levels went up).

It is also the same equipment hatch that TEPCO finally admitted had been open, probably since March 2011.

In 12 months, the radiation level at one location near the surface of the guide rail has gone from 1.3 sieverts/hour to 4.78 sieverts/hour. At 40 centimeters off the floor along the guide rail, the radiation levels now exceed 1 sievert/hour.

From TEPCO's Photos and Videos Library (Japanese), 11/28/2012:


So, that means TEPCO used the human workers to install this duct in the environment of extremely high radiation to guide the air from inside the Containment Vessel and feed it to the system that removes radioactive materials, while the equipment hatch there was and is open, leaking radioactive water.

And the company and the national government who owns it refuse to give free annual cancer checkups for 96.3% of workers.

But not to worry. Anti-nuclear citizens on Twitter are dancing a happy dance with the creation of a new party called "Japan's Future Party", promising fairy tales including "graduating from nuclear power".

Reality is too bleak.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

As someone that has witnessed all of this firsthand I do not think there is any traction from the public to think in the future tense.

Yes, there are plenty of people that can grasp the magnitude of what has happened and has not happened but most of the public went back to pre Fukushima la la land.

Chibaguy

Anonymous said...

Reply to Chibaguy
>>most of the public went back to pre Fukushima la la land



"better be sheep than sorry" they think.

Atomfritz said...

English readers please read here, too: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/images/handouts_121126_02-e.pdf

In that document the "mission" was explained and some photos shown.

The pictures of that "duct" really struck me!

It has been installed by workers (!) at a time when radiation there was still "only" 1.3 sieverts. Now it's more.

Imagine working in such an area where cameras are already heavily distorted!

Anonymous said...

Okay, admittedly I'm likely once again a little slow on the uptake, but why do or did the radiation levels go up?
*mscharisma*

Anonymous said...

Because contaminated water is oozing out of the PCV via the open hatch. Perhaps there are other reasons as well.

Anonymous said...

" - FRIGO-MA with optimum functions such as a pan-tilt camera allowing to inspect
in upward direction and image recording will be used for the inspection.
- Packbot used to provide enhanced brightness for FRIGO-MA camera.
"

This is just sad. Amateur hour.

Anonymous said...

I hear everything is still getting worse and stupider.

Anonymous said...

@ anon at 4:37: Thanks. *mscharisma*

Anonymous said...

Robots are wonderful for telling us our inaction is making matters worse but they aren’t worth their weight in horse manure for actually cleaning it up. It is coming up on two years and they haven’t made much progress beyond the first few months after the accident, in some aspects they are actually stepping backwards. The radiation contamination is going to continue to migrate and concentrate within the facilities unless very expensive measures using humans are taken to contain the breaches. The Japanese nuclear industry can’t afford one death that could be directly attributed to the nuclear part of the accident but they don’t have the luxury of time nor the money to design capable robots that can efficiently work in highly contaminated environments especially when those environments keep increasing in intensity as time goes by. The Japanese haven’t even finished cleaning up all the contaminated water and if reality is any indication they’ll be doing it for many more years. No efforts have been made to locate or account for all the melted fuel in (or outside) the RPV’s. Without that crucial information it is going to be hard to determine effective remediation actions inside the different buildings. Then there is all the spent fuel they bulldozed underground around the facility in the very early days of the accident is the runoff that percolates through those particles responsible for the radiation levels not going down in the sea around the plant as predicted? Has the epoxy they used to block the leak of contaminated water through the crushed gravel behind the plant cracked from the aftershocks allowing seepage? Or was the prediction of lower levels just a “baseless rumor” like the prediction that the plant could survive earthquakes and tsunamis?

The articles below may help to explain why Japan is taking such a low-tech approach to remediation many Japanese prefer the old school method.

“Robots, high-speed trains, electric cars, and cutting edge electronics; you know what country I’m talking about, right? Japan. But, move away from the bright, hi-tech lights of Tokyo, and you will find none of the above anywhere to be seen. Shocked? This is Japan’s low-tech reality”.

http://edinburghnapiernews.com/2011/01/26/%E2%80%98japan-high-tech-image-low-tech-reality%E2%80%99/

"Police stations without computers, 30-year-old "on hold" tapes grinding out tinny renditions of Greensleeves, ATMs that close when the bank does, suspect car engineering, and kerosene heaters but no central heating."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10543126

The Japanese are accustom to the human touch.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/06/29/japan-automation-nation.html

"Low-tech cleanup follows Japan's disaster"

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/10/world/asia/japan-anniversary-nuclear/index.html

Anonymous said...

The low tech reality is probably partly because of Japan's aging population. Older people are always stubborn to accept and learn newer technologies. Another fault of humanity.

It was like that where I live for computers when I was growing up. Everyone around me acted as if computers were an evil passing thing that had no purpose and would never catch on. They didn't realize that many of the things around them were already being regulated and created by computers.

Anonymous said...

A rival appears!
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/fun_spots/AJ201211290022

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Anon at 2:31PM, what are you talking about?

Anonymous said...

OT:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20121130_11.html

10 party debate in run up to election. Unfortunately the only two parties talking sense about nuclear are the communists and the socialists. They are the only ones who acknowledge a need to immediately stop using nuclear. Amazing. Simply amazing.

Come on Japan - Almost all of the country is operating without nuclear plants now, and have been for quite some time now. They are not needed. There are other sources, and, if the true cost of nuclear were calculated, they are MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper and MUCH MUCH MUCH kinder to the environment.

The future starts NOW, and there is no future in nuclear power.

Anonymous said...

OT:
Does anyone really know what would happen if NK set off an EMP (nuclear device) in the atmosphere over Japan. 52 more meltdowns?

They are preparing a rocket test now. Should be ready by the first week of december.

urmom&dad said...

Nuclear is death, country has reactors? Then your value is nothing. Fact.
Keep paying your taxes, support that BULLSHIT.
COWARDS "If you support that, that is."

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the confirmation Arevamirpal ;-)

Atomfritz said...

@ anon 9:54

NK has only very little plutonium, sufficient only for a very small number of nuclear bombs (<10).

But the US govt knows that a single one of these bombs delivered by a NK ICBM and detonated a few 100 kilometers above the USA, it could put the USA back into the pre-industrial age.
This would be far more disastrous to the ability of the US to sustain wars than the destruction of a few cities.

Thus, I believe this is the reason why the USA silenced their war drums threatening North Korea after NK has demonstrated its abilities by nuke and rocket tests.

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