#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Just How High Is the Radiation Level of Reactor 3 Operating Floor?

Just how high is the radiation level on the (what used to be) operating floor of Reactor 3? TEPCO has released only one measurement of the Reactor 3 operating floor, and it was on one location only (above the reactor well). While I am still looking for that TEPCO's PDF document, there is an indirect indication of how high it could be.

Kyodo News reporters visited Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on April 4, and wrote up a detailed article for the 2nd anniversary of the nuclear accident. The article, judging by the number of retweets, doesn't seem like it's been read widely. But in it, there is a reference to radiation levels of Reactor 4 and Reactor 3, located 100 meters apart.

From Kyodo News "Current situation at Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 2 years after the accident, uncertainty still reigns, guarding against trouble 24/7" (4/8/2013; part):

(On the operating floor of Reactor 4)

「長くとどまることはできません。もうここを離れましょう」。同行の東電社員から声をかけられた。オペフロの放射線量は毎時２６２マイクロシーベルト。北側で無残な姿をさらす３号機建屋の線量が極めて高く、約１００メートル離れているのに影響を受ける。オペフロでは、作業員数人が全面マスクに防護服姿で黙々と働いていた。

"We can't stay here long. Let's go back down." The TEPCO employee who accompanied us called to us. The air dose level on the [Reactor 4] operating floor is 262 microsieverts/hour. The wrecked Reactor 3 building, located north of the Reactor 4 building, has extremely high radiation, and the Reactor 4 building [operating floor] is affected even though it is 100 meters away. On the Reactor 4 operating floor, several workers with full-face masks and protection gear were working quietly.

The article is accompanied by a picture indicating the locations of their reporting and radiation levels in microsievert/hour.

From the top left of the picture, clockwise:

• ALPS: 4.5 microsieverts/hour

• Dry cask temporary storage area: 5

• Outside the Anti-Seismic Building: 20

• Ocean-side of Reactor 3 (beyond the Reactor 3 turbine building): 1300

• Plugged hole where the highly contaminated water leaked into the ocean: 250

• At the wall to shield ground water: 130

• Reactor 4 Operating Floor: 262

• Control room for Reactor Cooling System (indoors): 7.4

Kyodo News also has the video news, showing the locations that they visited:



0:20 Anti-Seismic Building, the plant's headquarter for day-to-day operation of the plant "restoration" work

0:55 Construction of walls to block the flow of groundwater, at the water intake for Reactors 1-4, due for completion in April next year

1:10 ALPS (Multi-nuclide removal system) building

1:34 Control room for the reactor cooling system

2:20 Reactor 4 building

2:40 Reactor 4 Operating floor (they went up in an elevator)

3:09 Reactor 4 narrow stairway to descend from the operating floor

Tweet

CNN Has the Most Details in "Radioactive Iodine, Cesium Found in Urine Samples of 15 Fukushima Residents" News

For reference, the information contained in the Kyodo News Japanese reporting the same news (final version) is highlighted in blue (not in the exact words but content).

From CNN (6/27/2011):

(CNN) -- Japanese researchers have found radiation in all 15 people tested last month from the area near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Cesium was found in the participants, ranging from 4 to 77 years old, through two rounds of testing conducted by Nanao Kamada at the Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine of Hiroshima University.

Kamada insisted that the cesium numbers are minute and do not represent a health threat.

The people tested lived in the towns of Iitate and Kawamata, located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the nuclear plant.

The participants were also tested for radioactive iodine, which was found in the urine of six Fukushima prefecture residents.

The urine samples from a 77-year-old man in the first round of tests indicated radioactivity as high as 3.2 millisieverts. However, no iodine was found from the urine of the same man in the second round of tests, ruling out the possibility of air contamination.

"The cause might be that they ate contaminated vegetables and mushrooms before the restrictions, not by inhaling contaminated air," Kamada said, referring to a large scale restriction on Fukushima produce following the incident at the plants on March 11.

The data indicated that accumulated external exposure was between 4.9 and 13.5 millisieverts for the two months after the accident -- a number which could exceed the government limit of 20 millisieverts per year if they continue living in the area.

"From the perspective of protecting human health from radiation, it is clear that they unfortunately cannot continue to live in their homes," Kamada said. About 7,500 people were evacuated from the communities by the end of May, although some folks continue to live in Iitate.

The first test was conducted May 5, while the second was conducted at the end of the month. The results were announced to the residents June 19.

Kyodo added extra (in red, below) which is not in CNN, and which, it turns out, the doctor never said:

"If they do not eat contaminated vegetables from now on, there is no need to worry. But they cannot continue to live in their homes if the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident doesn't wind down," Kamada said, indicating agreement with the national government's policy that designated the area as "planned evacuation zone".

Kyodo News never mentioned radioactive iodine, never mentioned external exposure. It did mention the age of the subjects (4 to 77), radiation of about 3 millisieverts and the dates of the tests in the earlier version of the news, but deleted the information in the final version. In the earlier version, there was no mention of Professor Kamada agreeing with the national government policy or commenting on the Fukushima plant.

Of course, CNN in turn could be making up the stories...

(h/t doitsujin for CNN link)

Tweet

Case of Disappearing Articles: #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Workers' Harsh Conditions

Something strange is going on in some of the Japanese news media. The Kyodo News English article about the harsh work conditions for the workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant which I link below was reported in other papers in Japanese, but in some papers the article got shorter and shorter as they updated.

I first read the article in Japanese at Yomiuri. It was a two-webpage article. But then, it was trimmed down to only a few sentences, and that's how it is now. But I have located part of the original long article cut and pasted by people who post on the Japanese message boards.

What's going on here? Anything that throws negative light on TEPCO is banned in Japanese? I can't find this news in Kyodo News Japanese site, either.

It is about how the workers at Fukushima I Nuke Plant have had to endure harsh work conditions where they have to sleep on the corridors, incredibly small amount of food and water to subsist, no underwear to change, no shower. And only 2 meals a day, one 1.5 liter bottle of water, which now they can ask for one more.

From Kyodo News English (emphasis added; 3/29/2011):

FOCUS: Courageous workers at troubled nuclear plant endure tough conditions

Each of the employees of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and other workers engaged in containing damage at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is given 30 survival food crackers and a 180 milliliter pack of vegetable juice for breakfast after getting up just before 6 a.m.

Around 400 workers including subcontractors are working there and are given just two meals per day, according to Kazuma Yokota, an official of the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Yokota stayed at the nuclear power plant damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami for five days through March 26 to check on progress in the ongoing operations.

After breakfast, the workers move on to their respective assignments at various locations within the plant at the center of the worst nuclear crisis in Japan. The workers are given no lunch.

Until March 22, they were given only one 1.5 liter bottle of mineral water per day. From March 23, however, with more supplies having arrived, they can ask for one more bottle, according to the official.

As the sun starts to set at around 5 p.m., they come back to the building where they are lodging within the plant's premises. The workers look worn out, according to Yokota.

Supper is also survival food item -- dried rice and only one can of chicken or fish for each person. Boiled mineral water is put into the pack of ''Magic Rice,'' making it ready for consumption in about 15 minutes. The workers eat their meals quietly, though some say they want something a little better.

At 8 p.m., the workers have a meeting and report to each other about any progress made in their work. At the end of the meeting, before everyone realizes it, it has become a practice for them to clap their hands together at the call of an officer. It is then followed by a chant from others, ''Gambaro!'' (Let's keep it up!).

The radiation level within the building is 2-3 microsievert per hour. They sleep in conference rooms and hallways in the building. To shield them from radiation from the floor, they cover themselves with lead-containing sheets before they put on blankets.

Most workers are replaced by others in one week. Mobile phones cannot be used as no signals reach there. ''The workers are doing their best while they cannot even contact their family members,'' Yokota said.

Yomiuri Shinbun's article, now reduced to only 4 sentences, still reports that the workers are given one blanket each.

Now, where is the Kamikaze spirit? Where's Yamato Damashii? These people are risking their lives to save the reactors from blowing up or severely contaminating the soil, air, and ocean and endangering more lives and life-forms. No one brave enough to deliver tons of water and food and all the blanket that they could ever wish for?

Not just from a moral standpoint, but from a utilitarian standpoint, it makes the most sense for someone to do so. TEPCO, the SDF, the Police, or Yakuza, I don't care. Why? It is in everyone's interest - political, economic, social, environmental - to keep these workers well fed, well watered, and well rested so that they work better, are more alert, and have more energy so that they can carry out the impossible tasks.

Duh.

It is so "Japan during the World War II", where the citizens were expected to fight on with hardly anything to eat, hardly any fuel to run anything, and hardly any sleep.

Tweet

Kyodo News Poll: 46.5% of Japanese Want to Keep Nuke Plants or Build New Plants

as opposed to 46.7% who wants to reduce the number of plants or abolish altogether.

Oh by the way nearly 40% of the Japanese also approve of the government handling of the Fukushima nuke crisis, as opposed to 58% who don't think much of it.

After the horrendous accident where 4 of the 6 reactors are incapacitated, threatening meltdown (which probably occurred already, at least partially) and radiation contamination that could wipe out fishery and agriculture in the surrounding area, displacing tens of thousands of people if not hundreds of thousands and exposing even wider area in Japan with radioactive materials, the supporters of the nuclear plants are neck and neck with the opponents, losing by only 0.2%.

And 40% of the Japanese approve of the government performance, when it was the prime minister who may have triggered the disaster by insisting on visiting the plant the next day after the earthquake, forcing the delay in opening the vent to release the steam from the Reactor No.1. I mentioned this in my post about a week ago, and now it's confirmed by Kyodo News (link is in Japanese).

(By the way, I located a temp job ad by Fukushima I Nuke Plant placed in February this year. So the rumor I posted in my post was correct. More later.)

Keep scratching your heads. Enigma of the Far East. Or several decades of "nuke is good for you" education is paying off for the government and the industry.

Here's the link to the results of the Kyodo News Poll--->

Tweet

Typical Reporting in Japan: Cite Foreign News Source to Criticize

A Kyodo News Japanese article (3/20/2011) cites a Wall Street Journal article (3/19/2011) which is critical of the response by the Japanese government and TEPCO in the on-going crisis (though seemingly stabilized) at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

So typical. The Japanese media cannot, or would not, write anything openly critical of the government. They take a small jab at the government, but open criticism is left for bloggers and personal comments from experts (which they do report). When they do criticize, as the news organization, they often cite the foreign media.

It's been done this way in Japan for long time. No need to change that, even in this crisis. Not just the government which has fallen back to its familiar style (i.e. carrying out bureaucratic rules and regulations no matter what), but the media has fallen back to their familiar style of reporting - use the foreign media to criticize the government, while hyping the good news.

AERA, a weekly magazine by Asahi Shinbun, had to apologize profusely for putting the face of a man with full protective gear against radiation on the magazine cover, with the caption "Radiation is coming." The magazine was accused of "fear mongering".

Speaking of "fear mongering", it seems wind is blowing in all directions, some from the ocean toward the land. Good luck people, trusting the official figures and utterance.

Alas, the trust runs deep.

Tweet

#Japan #Earthquake: Kyodo News English vs Kyodo News Japanese

One of the major headlines in Kyodo News English site (front page):

Radioactive iodine beyond limit detected in tap water in Fukushima

One of the major headlines in Kyodo News Japanese site (front page):

(translation)
Radioactive iodine and cesium detected in tap water in Ibaragi, below limit, no health risk

Is this some kind of a joke? English language news for doom and gloom foreign media consumption, and Japanese language news for extend and pretend Japanese media consumption?

Tweet