Saturday, January 26, 2013

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO Wants to Dump Treated Water into the Ocean


From Nippon Television (1/25/2013):

東京電力は、第一原発の中に溜まり続けている汚染水について、濃度を下げる処理をし、漁業関係者などの同意を得た上で海に放出する考えを明らかにした。

TEPCO says it wants to treat the contaminated water to lower the radioactivity and discharge the treated water into the ocean, if the consent from people in the fishing industry is obtained.

第一原発では、放射性物質で汚染された水が溜まり続けていて、東電は敷地内のタンクを増設して管理している。

The water contaminated with radioactive materials keeps increasing at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. TEPCO is building more storage tanks to deal with the water.

東電は、きのう原子力規制委員会に対し、汚染の濃度を下げる処理をした上で海に放出する対策案を説明した。

Yesterday, TEPCO explained to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about their plan to treat the water to lower the level of contamination and discharge the treated water into the ocean.

東電は、漁業関係者などの了解が得られなければ海への放出はしないことを強調しているが、タンクの増設はいずれ限界に達する可能性があるだけでなく、敷地内に溜まり続ける汚染水の最終的な処分の方法は見通しが立っていない。

TEPCO emphasizes that they won't release the water into the ocean unless they can obtain the consent from people in the fishing industry. However, there's a limit to how many storage tanks can be installed in the compound, and there is no final disposal plan for the contaminated water that keeps accumulating.


The last time I heard about this news was, I think, about a year ago. Somehow TEPCO has come up with extra storage since. Way back in June 2011, TEPCO wanted to dump the water in the reactor and turbine buildings at Fukushima II (Daini) after treating the water. That plan went nowhere partly because of strong objection from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who probably worried more about "baseless rumors" than the actual, potential harm to the marine life.

I doubt that fishermen in Tohoku and Kanto would agree. They have already been selling the fish they catch, which are contaminated with radioactive cesium to varying degrees (hopefully below 100 Bq/kg but they only sample test). They certainly do not want to draw attention to the marine contamination by having TEPCO dump the water from the plant, no matter how "clean" it may be.

TEPCO has been counting on Toshiba's ALPS to come online at Fukushima I, which will remove virtually all radionuclides (except for tritium). The ALPS was ready for a "hot" test (using contaminated water) when when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission demanded that the vessels used in ALPS be sturdy enough to withstand the drop from up to 6 meters high. Now, until TEPCO and Toshiba come up with such vessels, the ALPS cannot even be tested.

So now, the talk is back, of dumping the water into the ocean.

Let's see what else (other than dumping the water) can they do? One of the nuclear researchers that I follow on Twitter has a suggestion:

Build a boiler, use it to evaporate water. What's left is radioactive materials. Use bitumen to immobilize them, put them in containers and store them.


I have no idea if this ever occurred to TEPCO, or if this is a valid method. Maybe it did occur to TEPCO, may it didn't. Just as it didn't occur to them that the highly radioactive water might be leaking, or that they should just violate some peacetime law and regulations and drive on the highway with truckload of batteries.

11 comments:

TechDud said...

Can we dump TEPCO into the ocean, instead?
Please?

Anonymous said...

If they dilute it down enough they could use it to make soft drinks.

Anonymous said...

"TEPCO says it wants to treat the contaminated water to lower the radioactivity and discharge the treated water into the ocean, if the consent from people in the fishing industry is obtained."

What about the consent of the clients of the fishing industry ? An about the other countries around the Pacific Ocean ?

Anonymous said...

>What about the consent of the clients of the fishing industry ? An about the other countries around the Pacific Ocean ?

Consumers count for shit. Other countries? China can stop its own dumping of untreated industrial waste water, too. Russia can stop dumping nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean, and the US can stop pushing everybody around.

Anonymous said...

I really hate bullies

Anonymous said...

@5:18 Excellent idea, do they look for tritium when they check soft drinks?

Anonymous said...

>Build a boiler, use it to evaporate water. What's left is radioactive materials. Use bitumen to immobilize them, put them in containers and store them.

Distillation would be super expensive, high purity requires multiple passes and distilling water takes A LOT of energy and time it take over 5 times as much energy to create steam as to boil water. "enthalpy of vaporization, 40.65 kJ/mol, is more than five times the energy required to heat the same quantity of water from 0 °C to 100 °C"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthalpy_of_vaporization

"Also, distillation is a very slow process and requires a heated energy source. Though experiments in the use of solar power have been attempted, this form of energy is only able to treat small quantities of water and difficult to maintain at a constant temperature (Holland et al, 1999). The inefficiency of solar power requires the use of more costly energy forms. Also, because this process must be repeated several times to ensure significant water purity, it could take several hours to provide one gallon of cleansed water. Generally, distillation requires five gallons of tap water to generate one gallon of purified water."

http://www.historyofwaterfilters.com/distillation-pc.html

If the solution to nuclear problems were easy nuclear power would be the main energy source of choice around the world.

Anonymous said...

@All: Has anyone got an idea about why a the vessels of a FIXED installation such as ALPS should be able to withstand a 6 m fall ???
Bureaucrats will end up killing Japan… and most likely the rest of the world as well.

Anonymous said...

First and foremost the ALPS system isn't a Toshiba product it is offered by a US company known as "EnergySolutions" Toshiba is just slapping it together for them. This company has released a huge disclaimer so when their miracle system doesn't work any better than the AREVA system they still get paid.

"The statements in this news release regarding application of the Company's proven technology and its ability to deliver uniquely high levels of decontamination constitute forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and the Company's actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed or contemplated in the forward-looking statements. The unique levels of contamination, large volumes of waste water and other characteristics of the proposed Fukushima decontamination project may present unforeseen technological challenges and other risks and uncertainties could affect the Company's ability to deliver the results presently contemplated. In addition, other risks are identified in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as amended, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011 filed with the SEC. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement found herein to reflect any change in Company expectations or results or any change in future events."

http://www.energysolutions.com/media-center/current-press-releases?viewID=154

>Has anyone got an idea about why a the vessels of a FIXED installation such as ALPS should be able to withstand a 6 m fall

Earthquake protection, a 6 meter fall is probably a similar force to an earthquake with the vessel full of contaminated water. Whatever the reason I seriously doubt it is based on a bureaucratic whim Abe wants results so he can restart Japan's nuclear dreams.

You'll notice the nuclear industry doesn't see the AREVA system as a failure in their mind Kurion has cleaned 258,000 cubic meters of water to 88% clean never mind Areva/Kurion originally claimed they'd be done with the clean up within a year.

http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2062000

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR_Fukushima_water_treatment_stepping_up_1503121.html


arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

ALPS uses removable vessels like SARRY and Kurion.

As to the costliness of evaporation method, I guess that's why they are using the desalination facilities (by evaporation) only sporadically.

But from what I've observed elsewhere in Japan, the costlier the better - like bringing a puny amount of disaster debris all the way to Kyushu to be incinerated.

Anonymous said...

Aren't they dumping some of the treated water into the ocean clandestinely anyway? Like, everyone knows that is happening. Oh, right, they have to ask permission from the fishermen because this is Japan and you have to pretend you deeply care about not infringing on your countrymen's lives before you do anything too individualistic.

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