Yokohama City Stopped Using Zeolite after Only One Month at Its Final Disposal Site on Tokyo Bay

Yokohama City, which has been dumping the radioactive ashes with low radioactivity from burning household garbage at its final disposal landfill (Minami Honmoku) on Tokyo Bay since September last year, has said the runoff water is safely treated by the cesium absorption towers with zeolite.

Well they lied. They used the absorption towers for one month and stopped using them, but never bothered to tell they stopped using them.

In one month, they used 5500 kilograms of zeolite, which absorbed 5000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. In other words, 27.5 million becquerels of radioactive cesium was effectively caught. So the city thought "Oh that's good", and stopped using zeolite.

From Sankei Shinbun Kanto local version (3/6/2012):

セシウム浄化装置の使用停止説明せず　横浜市

Yokohama City didn't explain why it stopped using the cesium absorption system

横浜港の海水面を埋め立てる横浜市の南本牧廃棄物最終処分場（中区）で、市が放射性セシウムを吸着する鉱物ゼオライトを使った浄化装置の使用を昨年１１月に停止していたことが６日、分かった。市は同月以降も同処分場への下水汚泥焼却灰の埋め立てをめぐる住民説明会でゼオライトの話をしていたといい、担当者は「（当時使用中との）誤解を招いたとすれば申し訳ない」としている。

It was revealed on March 6 that Yokohama City had stopped using the system to absorb radioactive cesium using zeolite in November last year at the city's Minami Honmoku Final Disposal Site (in Naka-ku, Yokohama). The city continued to tell residents about the zeolite absorption system in the meetings to explain the ashes from the sewer sludge being buried in the final disposal site, even after they stopped using the system. The official says, "We are sorry if the residents were misled into thinking the system was still used."

　海を護岸で囲った同処分場では焼却灰を海水面に投入すると水が浄化装置から海に排出される。市は昨年１０月にゼオライト約５５００キロを使った浄化を始め、約１カ月後に使用を停止。ゼオライトから１キロ当たり５０００ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出された。市は「ゼオライトの吸着効果を調べる試験導入で、排水の放射性物質濃度は非常に低い」と説明している。

The Minami Honmoku Final Disposal Site is on Tokyo Bay, encircled by the seawalls. When the ashes are dumped on the ocean [inside the seawalls], the displaced water go through the absorption system and is discharged into the ocean [outside the seawalls]. The city started to use 5500 kilograms of zeolite in October last year to process the water, and stopped the usage about one month later. 5,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found in the zeolite. The city explains that it was only an experiment to see how effective zeolite was in absorbing [radioactive cesium], and that the radioactivity of the exhaust water is very low.

　市は４月中に市内の全ごみ焼却工場で新たな放射性セシウム吸着処理を開始。同処分場では９月から、ゼオライト粉末に放射性セシウムを吸着させる新しい浄化水槽のテストも行う。

The city will start cesium absorption treatment at the garbage incineration plants in the city. At the Minami Honmoku site, they will conduct the test of a new system using zeolite to absorb radioactive cesium in September.

According to Yokohama City Assemblywoman Sakura Inoue, the city official in charge said he was impressed with zeolite's ability to absorb radioactive cesium, but he stopped the use anyway because the radioactivity of the treated water was below the national safety level.

Here's a hilarious exchange between the official and Assemblywoman Sakura Inoue during the recent Assembly meeting, as Ms. Inoue relates in her blog:

Inoue: Why did you stop treating water with zeolite?

Official: It was to see the effect of zeolite.

Inoue: I am asking you why you stopped treating the water.

Official: No detection of radioactive cesium in water coming in to the absorption system or in water coming out of the system into the ocean.

Inoue: It's not "no detection", but "below detection limit". Since the ashes were dumped into a large amount of seawater, when you look at the density it may be below the detection limit. But it doesn't mean there was no radioactive cesium. In fact, what was the radioactive density of zeolite after 26 days of use?

Official: 5,000 becquerels/kg.

Inoue: What did you think of the number?

Official: I thought zeolite was quite effective.

Oh boy. But wait, it gets worse:

Inoue: Why did you give misleading explanation? Did you tell the residents, fishermen and harbor workers that you stopped using the zeolite absorption system?

Official: We explained to them that radioactive cesium was not detected.

Inoue: It's not the matter of density but the absolute amount. A large amount of radioactive cesium is being dumped into the bay. Treatment with zeolite should be resumed.

Official: There's no problem, as it is below the national safety standard. We are not going to use zeolite.

Inoue: Why then are you building a new embankment as a new countermeasure against radiation?

Official: To be safer...

Inoue: How much does it cost to build the embankment, and how much does zeolite cost?

Officla: It costs 130 million yen to build the embankment, and 1.2 million yen for one zeolite tower. [Kanagawa Shinbun says it is 1.2 million yen for 2 zeolite towers.]

Here's my take, in an effort to make sense:

• The city doesn't want to have highly radioactive (over 8,000 becquerels/kg) zeolite after absorbing radioactive cesium, because they cannot dump zeolite in the landfill if the radioactivity exceeds 8,000 becquerels/kg.

• Building the embankment costs a lot more money, and the city wants to spend more money as it is able to distribute money and jobs to the well-connected contractors.

What "national safety limit" of exhaust water is this official talking about? It turns out (according to Kanagawa Shinbun 3/7/2012) to be 60 to 90 becquerels/liter.

Well guess what kind of "safety limit" it is.

Those numbers happen to be the allowed density of radioactive cesium in exhaust water of a nuclear power plant. Cesium-134: 60 becquerels/liter, and cesium-137: 90 becquerels/liter.

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Toshiba Pushes for Spent Fuel Processing Plant in Mongolia, in Discussion with US Government

Toshiba owns and operates Westingshouse Electric (77% ownership), and has continued to sell nuclear power plants all over the world after the Fukushima accident. So does Hitachi with GE, and so does Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with AREVA. Business as usual, no matter what.

From Kyodo News Japanese (10:08PM JST 7/1/2011):

米原子力大手ウェスチングハウス・エレクトリック（ＷＨ）を子 会社に持つ東芝の佐々木則夫社長が５月中旬、米政府高官に書簡を送り、使用済み核燃料などの国際的な貯蔵・処分場をモンゴルに建設する計画を盛り込んだ新 構想を推進するよう要請、水面下で対米工作を進めていることが１日、分かった。

It became known on July 1 that Norio Sasaki, the president of Toshiba which owns Westingshouse Electric, a major nuclear energy company in the US, sent a letter to a high ranking official in the US government in mid May urging the US government to promote the new scheme that includes a plan to build an international storage and final processing plant for the nuclear spent fuel in Mongolia.

　モンゴルでの核処分場計画は、新興国への原発輸出をにらみ、モンゴルで加工したウラン燃料の供給と使用後の処理 を担う「包括的燃料サービス（ＣＦＳ）」構想の一環。米国とモンゴルが主導し、日本にも参加を呼び掛けた。経済産業省が後押ししてきたが、外務省が慎重姿 勢を示すなど政府内に異論もある。

The plan to build a processing plant in Mongolia is part of the "CFS [Comprehensive Fuel Service?]" scheme to process uranium and to process the spent fuel in Mongolia, eying the lucrative nuclear plant markets in developing countries. The US and Mongolia have been leading the effort, and have asked Japan to join. But there is a difference of opinion within the Japanese government; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has been pushing for the idea, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not too keen.

As I wrote here before, Mongolia does have faults that are capable of producing Magnitude 8 earthquakes. How to transport the spent fuel rods to Mongolia should be a problem, though. Either China or Russia has to agree to have them transported overland. Russia is unlikely to allow that, as it is in direct competition with the US and the West to win nuke plant contracts in developing nations with a packaged deal like the CFS. And China? Maybe, if the US/Mongolia/Japan let China in on the scheme, in exchange of allowing the use of the facility and some "technology transfer" from the US and/or Japan.

It looks like the Cold War has never ended in the minds of politicians and nuclear industry people.

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