8.5 Tonnes of Water Leaked from Reactor Well/Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 According to TEPCO

In the evening press conference on February 1, 2012 (with Matsumoto), TEPCO announced the result of their calculation: 8.5 tonnes of water from the Reactor Well/Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 may have leaked (Jiji News, Japanese, 2/1/2012). Other than the information of the TEPCO's calculated number and the diameter of the pipe (9 millimeters), the details seem the same as I reported in my previous post.

Just keep in mind that that's their calculation for about 29 hours from 3:50PM January 30 to 10:43PM January 31.

TEPCO also released the photographs of the jet pump test line that leaked; one pipe is totally dislocated from the joint.

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External Power Restored at Byron Nuclear Plant

From Rockford Register Star (1/31/2012 10:03PM):

BYRON — Operators at Byron Generating Station terminated the Unusual Event at 8 p.m. today, after the return of power to Unit 2.

“Our diesel generators performed as expected in providing continuous electricity to the unit during the Unusual Event. Plant teams will now focus on a safe and measured approach to returning Unit 2 to the electrical grid,” said Byron Station Site Vice President Tim Tulon.

Station personnel are in communication with local, state and federal officials, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the facility’s status.

The Unusual Event, which was declared Monday, is the lowest of the four emergency classifications as established by the NRC.

Byron’s Unit 1 continues to safely supply electricity to customers.

Exelon Nuclear officials say an equipment failure in a switchyard near the plant triggered the automatic shutdown of Unit 2.

(Full article at the link)

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 4 Was Leaking Water from Reactor Well/Spent Fuel Pool, and That Was Indicated by Water Level of Skimmer Surge Tank

TEPCO announced during the February 1 morning press conference that the valve of a pipe line connected to the reactor was found broken and at least 6 liters of water from the reactor had spilled.

The Reactor Well/Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 4 is filled with water even if it does not have any fuel (since it was in maintenance when the accident happened), and the water goes back and forth freely between the Reactor Well and the Spent Fuel Pool as the gate separating them has been loose since the January 1 earthquake.

It is the water co-mingled with water from the Spent Fuel Pool that was leaking, as evidenced by the relatively high radioactivity of the water.

Information gleaned out of the three bumbling TEPCO people (without Matsumoto) who didn't seem to know much at all (except one), to the irritation of the reporters who attended:

• At 10:30PM on January 31, a worker found the water leaking from the jet pump test line valve in the southwest corner on the 1st floor of Reactor 4 during the "patrol" (which is probably a lie, as you'll see later).

• There are 20 jet pumps inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel.
  

• The nature of damage of the valve is not known. It is probably not from freezing. It may have been broken when the explosion happened (last March).
  

• The jet pump test line connects to the jet pumps inside the RPV.

• The water stopped when they shut off the main line coming from the RPV, at 10:43PM.

• It is hard to tell whether the test line valve broke recently or not, as the floor is littered with debris.

• The leaked water is estimated to be about 6 liters as far as they could find on the floor full of debris.

• The water is from the Reactor Well. The reactor has no fuel inside as it was on maintenance when the accident happened, but it is filled with water.

• Radioactivity of the leaking water is 35.5 becquerels/cubic centimeter (but TEPCO couldn't say whether it was all-gamma radiation or something else). Therefore, it is the water from the Reactor Well which is connected to the Spent Fuel Pool.

• The Reactor Well and the Spent Fuel Pool are separated by the gate, but the gate got loose after the earthquake on January 1 and the water from the Spent Fuel Pool comes in to the Reactor Well.

• Actually, TEPCO knew something was amiss on January 30 when they noticed the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank dropping rapidly at 3:50PM. The cooling system for the Spent Fuel Pool was re-started at 3:13PM that day, and they thought the Skimmer Surge Tank's level had something to do with the cooling system and decided to observe for one day and look for possible causes.

• The water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank was dropping at 60 to 90 millimeters per hour.

• Then on January 31, a worker found the broken valve at the jet pump test line. (See, it was not a routine "patrol"; they were looking for possible causes of the drop in the Skimmer Surge Tank level and found the leak.)

• When the leak was stopped, the drop in the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank stopped.
  

• As the only person who was able to talk about anything technical explained, water goes back and forth freely between the Reactor Well and the Spent Fuel Pool, and if the water level of the Reactor Well goes down that means the water level of the Spent Fuel Pool goes down, and that is reflected in the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank.

• The Skimmer Surge Tank water level hardly changes in the cold weather like this.

• The leak is probably confined within the reactor building, and the leaked water was probably led to the basement water.
  

Well well. When the water level drop in the Skimmer Surge Tank in Reactor 4 was first reported after the January 1, 2012 earthquake, the explanation was, as I clearly recall, that the water in the Spent Fuel Pool went into the Reactor Well when the gate got loose, and therefore not enough water went to the Skimmer Surge Tank. They also said the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank would go down naturally due to evaporation.

Now they finally admit that the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank is the direct indication of the water level of the Spent Fuel Pool.

6 liters of the contaminated water from the Spent Fuel Pool/Reactor Well doesn't make sense if the Skimmer Surge Tank water level was dropping 60-90 millimeters per hour for 29 hours. Several reporters pressed for a clear answer, but TEPCO said they would get back to them after calculation.

===========================

P.S. I just read a post by Ms. Emiko Numauchi as "Numayu" writing that there was nuclear fuel inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel of Reactor 4 and it had a meltdown, as she heard from a worker she trusts, and the English translation of the post by someone else.

If the fuel melted through the RPV and now on the floor of the Containment Vessel as she claims, I have no idea how the RPV/Reactor Well is able to retain water, as it clearly does, looking at the photographs. Of course she or anyone can claim they are fake photographs.

As for me, I want to find the facts as much as possible without resorting to calling everything fake. Even from TEPCO, the reporters on February 1 press conference were able to draw out more information than what TEPCO initially presented in the beginning of the press conference.

Well of course TEPCO can be lying 100%, but it simply would not make sense for TEPCO to hide a meltdown on Reactor 4 if it happened. There are already 3 meltdowns, and part of the melted fuel has eaten into the concrete floors of the Containment Vessels. What's the point of hiding another meltdown, after 10 months?

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California's San Onofre Nuke Plant Shut Down Unit 3, Due to Potential Leak in Steam Generator Tube

San Onofre's reactors are pressurized water reactors. Unit 3's reactor was made by Combustion Engineering, which was purchased in 2000 by Westinghouse (now Toshiba).

From Market Watch (1/31/2012):

Southern California Edison, operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, said in a press release Tuesday it has begun a precautionary shutdown of Unit 3 because sensors detected a possible leak in one of the unit's steam generator tubes.

The company said "the potential leak poses no imminent danger to the public or plant workers. There has been no release to the atmosphere." SCE said personnel will evaluate the cause of the leak and the steps needed to repair it and resume operations.

SCE also said it has ample reserve power to meet customer needs. The station's Unit 2 is currently offline for a planned maintenance outage, the company added in the statement.

SCE is a division of Edison International.

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Cesium-137 Dispersion Simulation in the Pacific Ocean, 3/21/2011 - 1/27/2012

The radioactivity dispersion simulation JCOPE (Japan Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment) by JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), showing cesium-137 dispersion in the Pacific Ocean from March 21, 2011 to January 27, 2012.

March 21, 2011 was when the high levels of radioactive materials from the seawater near the plant were first detected.

Screenshots from their JCOPE page with the simulation animation (1/30/2012). Click for bigger view:

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NISA's Young Career Bureaucrat Admits Fukushima I Nuke Accident Is NOT Over

Oops.

Independent journalist Ryusaku Tanaka reports on the meeting between a citizens' group and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The citizens' group made a formal appointment with the agency for the meeting, but on the day of the meeting they were shoved into a dark corridor to wait for someone to show up, and the "meeting" was done in the lobby, standing, between the group and a lone 30-year-old NISA bureaucrat.

From Tanaka's blog (1/31/2012):

保安院・若手官僚うっかり　「現場は収束に向けて動いている」

A young bureaucrat at NISA inadvertently says, "Workers at the [Fukushima I Nuke] plant are working toward winding down the accident"

市民団体が「全ての原発の停止と廃炉」などを求めて経産省原子力安全・保安院に請願に行ったところ、若手官僚から仰天発言が飛び出した。原発事故は収束していない、と口を滑らせたのである。

When a citizens' group went to petition the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry demanding "halting and decommissioning all nuclear power plants", a young bureaucrat had an amazing slip of the tongue. He said the nuclear accident was not over.

「すべての原発いますぐなくそう！全国会議」を中心とする一行12人は31日、経産省別館の原子力安全・保安院を訪れた。同会議事務局長の織田陽介さんが保安院広報課に苦労してアポを取っての訪問である。

On January 31, a group of 12 people from "Let's stop all nuclear power plant! national conference" visited the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in the annex building of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Yosuke Oda, secretary of the conference, had managed to make an appointment with the PR department of the NISA.

約束通り同日午後2時、保安院の受付で面会の手続きを取ろうとしたところ、広報課に内線電話を入れた受付嬢は「担当者が変わったそうです」。オイオイ、5日前にアポ取ってんだぞ。傍らでやりとりを聞いていた筆者は保安院の非常識さに吹き出しそうになった。

They arrived at 2PM, as per the appointment, and went to the reception at NISA for necessary procedure before the meeting. After calling the PR department, the receptionist told them, "There has been a change of person in charge". Oh boy, they had set up the meeting 5 days prior... I almost burst into laughter at the lack of common sense at NISA as I was observing the exchange.

『このまま門前払いされてなるか』。一行は受付嬢を通して広報課に猛然と抗議した。10分ほど押し問答が続いたところで警備担当の職員がおもむろにやってきた。

"We're not going to be turned away like this." The group protested vehemently to the PR department through the receptionist. After 10 minutes of exchange, a security guard came.

「あちらでお待ち頂けますか」。警備担当者は受付裏のソファーが並ぶスペースに一行を押し込んだ。電燈が一器も点いておらず真っ暗だ（写真）。別の警備担当職員に聞くと節電の一環らしい。

"Could you wait over there?" The security guard put them in the space at the back of the reception area. There was no light, and it was dark (see photo). When we asked another security guard, it was part of energy saving effort.

　暗がりの中で20分間ほど待つと、先ほどの警備担当職員と共に広報課の役人が現れた。「原子力安全広報課・下鶴俊輔係長」だ。30歳になるかならないかのうら若き青年である。十中八九キャリアだ。

We waited in the dark for about 20 minutes. A bureaucrat from the PR department showed up with the security guard. It was Shunsuke Shimozuru (or Shimotsuru), section manager at NISA PR department. He was a youthful-looking young man, hardly 30 years of age. A career bureaucrat, in all likelihood.

下鶴青年、もとい、下鶴係長は一行を同じフロアーのロビーに案内した。立ったまま請願を受け付けようというのである。

Young Shimozuru, correction, Manager Shimozuru took us to a lobby on the same floor. He was going to receive the petition standing.

「どうして会議室じゃないの？」
「請願はロビーで受けるようにしている」

"Why not in a conference room?"
"It is our policy to receive a petition in the lobby."

「（昨年）10月27日に『福島の女たち』が申し入れた時には会議室を取ってくれたわよ」、「請願権の制限になるよ」……一行は畳み掛けた。

"When "Group of Fukushima women" went to petition on October 27 last year, they were shown to a conference room." "Are you limiting our right to petition?" People pressed him for an answer.

下鶴係長は追い詰められた格好になった。「庁舎の警備上の都合もあり…」

Manager Shimozuru was cornered. "Well, it is also a matter of security..."

「我々は別に危ないことしないよ。会議室に入れたからといって警備上何が問題なの？」

"We are not doing anything dangerous. What's the security problem of letting us in a conference room?"

いよいよ困った下鶴係長は、つい本音をもらしてしまった。「（原発事故の）収束宣言は出しましたが、現場は収束に向かって動いてますんで…」。

Not knowing what else to say, Manager Shimozuru blurted out the truth despite himself. "The declaration was made that the nuclear plant accident was over, but the workers at the plant are working toward ending the accident..."

「（事故を起こした）原発から白い煙が出てて、どうして収束と言えるんですか？」。福島の人々がよく口にする言葉だ。

"How can you say that the accident is over when you see a white smoke coming out of the broken plant?" That's what people in Fukushima often say.

原子力安全・保安院の若手官僚が、うっかりとはいえ原発事故が事実上収束していないことを認めたのである。「やはり、そうだったのか」と思わざるを得ない。野田首相に「当の保安院が収束していないって言ってますよ～」と言ってやりたい。

A young bureaucrat of NISA inadvertently admitted that the nuclear plant accident, for all intent and purposes, was not over. "Just as I expected", as I thought to myself. I wish I could tell Prime Minster Noda, "NISA itself is saying the accident is not over. Do you know that?"

Mr. Shimozuru is a man in the center, with his back on the camera.

It must be a rude learning experience for ordinary citizens of Japan. All their lives, they thought the bureaucrats and politicians who graduated from top schools in the nation were working for them. When they made an appointment to see them, they were shoved into a dark corner, and met with a young man no more than 30 years of age, in the lobby, standing.

Just for your information in case you are not familiar, not all bureaucrats are "career" bureaucrats in Japan. Career bureaucrats are those elites in the national government who have passed the rigorous examination and in exchange are guaranteed fast-track promotions within the ministries. They dominate the top hierarchy of the ministries. They are usually the graduates from elite universities in Japan. As part of on-the-job training of some sort, many are dispatched to municipalities throughout Japan during their career to become vice mayors of the cities before they come back to the ministries. Some go to international agencies and come back.

Some of them decide to run for office after vice mayoral experience, and become politicians but with ties to the ministries. The pro-nuke governor of Hokkaido is one example; she was a career bureaucrat at the Ministry of Economy before she became the governor. There are many others. Then, on retirement, they "descend from heaven" to the NGOs, NPOs, research institutes, big corporations, with fat checks with little work.

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Byron Nuke Plant: Faulty Insulator Is to Blame

Excelon, the plant operator, hopes to replace the insulator by Tuesday evening.

From Chicago Tribune quoting AP (1/31/2012)

Exelon: Failed insulator caused outage at Byron nuclear plant

Exelon Energy officials say they've traced a power failure at a nuclear reactor in northern Illinois to an electrical insulator in a switchyard.

The insulator failed and fell off Monday morning, causing one of the reactors at the Byron Generating Station to shut down automatically, company spokesman Paul Dempsey says.

The bad insulator will be sent to a lab for analysis and officials hope to replace it by Tuesday evening. It's unclear how soon before the reactor could return to service.

Steam containing low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is being vented to reduce pressure within the reactor. But federal and plant officials say the levels are safe for workers and the public. The plant is 95 miles northwest of Chicago.

The switchyard is similar to a large substation that delivers power to the plant from the electrical grid and from the plant to the electrical grid.

Diesel generators were supplying the reactor with electricity, though it hasn't been generating power during the investigation into what happened. One question is why smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, though no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said.

She said Exelon was testing equipment and inspecting various systems to determine exactly what went wrong, and no repairs would be made until the root cause was found.

"If you do a Band-Aid fix and have the same situation, it's not in anybody's interest to have a repeat," Mitlyng said, adding that the NRC is monitoring the activities.

Oh really? No kidding. I thought what nuclear power operators do is Band-Aid fixes. Just look at TEPCO.

The article continues with the mention of tritium. They don't know how much tritium has been released into the environment, but they know it's small because the radiation levels haven't changed around the plant. Uh huh.

The commission declared the incident an "unusual event," the lowest of four levels of emergency. Commission officials also said the release of tritium was expected.

Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium was released. They know the amounts were small because monitors around the plant didn't show increased levels of radiation, she said.

Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side.

Full article at the link.

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Japanese Government Hasn't Kept Any Minutes of Disaster Response Meetings Since 1995 Kobe Earthquake

It was only 4 days ago that Japan's PM Noda said "it is regrettable" that there were no minutes kept for the government response team's meetings ever since March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuke accident.

Then it turned out that Miyagi Prefecture and Iwate Prefecture didn't quite keep record of their disaster response meetings either.

Now it turns out that the Japanese government hasn't kept any minutes of disaster response meetings since the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Yomiuri Shinbun (1/31/2012) reports:

政府が１９９５年の阪神大震災以降の大規模災害の際に設置した緊急対策本部や非常災害対策本部の会議で、いずれも議事概要や議事録が作成されていないことが３１日、分かった。

It was discovered on January 31 that there was no meeting summary or minutes for any of the meetings of emergency response groups or emergency disaster response groups which were set up since the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

　複数の政府関係者が明らかにした。

Multiple government sources told Yomiuri.

　東日本大震災関連の政府の会議で議事録が作成されていなかったことが明らかになったことから、内閣府が調査対象を過去の災害時の本部に拡大し、阪神大震災や北海道・有珠山、東京・三宅島の噴火、新潟県中越地震、台風などに関する非常災害対策本部会議など８会議の作成状況を調べた。

Since it was revealed that there was no minutes of the government meetings relating to the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster, the Cabinet Office expanded the investigation into the past disaster response headquarters to see if there were minutes created for the 8 separate disaster response headquarters set up after disasters including the Kobe earthquake (1995), Mt. Usu eruption in Hokkaido (2000), Miyakejima Island eruption in Tokyo (2000), Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata (2004), and major typhoons.

　その結果、阪神大震災時に設置した兵庫県南部地震緊急対策本部会議で、議事概要の一部が官房長官記者会見の要旨として残っているのを除き、すべての会議で議事録も議事概要も残っていなかった。議事次第や配布資料は多くの会議で一部が残っていた。

It turned out that except for the earthquake emergency response headquarters set up at the time of the Kobe earthquake that had part of the summary of proceedings kept as part of the outline of the then-Chief Cabinet Secretary's press conference, there was no minutes nor summary of proceedings. The Cabinet Office found some meeting announcements and handouts.

Oh boy. Isn't it amazing how they pretend to be a democratic nation?

I'm sure there will be many apologists who will say "If we know it will be recorded in the minutes, we won't be able to speak freely".

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Update on Byron Nuclear Plant: Diesel Generators Used for Vent, Excelon Says Tritium Is Natural

From Rockford Register Star (1/30/2012 8:43PM):

ROCKFORD — A loss of power coming into the Byron nuclear plant caused one of two reactors to automatically shut down about 10:15 a.m. today.

Backup diesel generators were activated after the power outage and were being used for safety equipment that vents heat from the reactor, according to a spokeswoman from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Lisle.

“Right now, we believe the plant is in a stable condition,” said the NRC’s Viktoria Mitlyng. “There is no danger to the workers or the public.”

Exelon, which operates the Byron plant, declared an “unusual event” — the lowest of four emergency classifications established by the NRC — after the outage.

Mitlyng said two NRC resident inspectors are monitoring the plant.

...

Byron station spokesman Paul Dempsey said crews are still trying to determine how power coming to the generator was interrupted. The steam release, which he said made a whooshing sound, was expected to continue into the evening.

The steam contains tritium, a hydrogen isotope with low levels of radioactivity. Exelon, in a news release, said tritium occurs naturally and is found in virtually all surface water, although it is found in greater concentrations near nuclear reactors.

It was the first automatic shutdown of the plant since 2007 when a dime-sized hole in a water cooling pipe led to the shutdown of both reactors.

(Full article at the link)

They all say the same thing. It is safe, radioactive materials are natural. Soon they'll be talking about bananas and transcontinental flights and X-rays.

From wiki on tritium from fission:

Tritium is an uncommon product of the nuclear fission of uranium-235, plutonium-239, and uranium-233, with a production of about one per each 10,000 fissions.^[7][8] This means that the release or recovery of tritium needs to be considered in the operation of nuclear reactors, especially in the reprocessing of nuclear fuels and in the storage of spent nuclear fuel. The production of tritium was not a goal, but is rather just a side-effect.

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NHK Mistranslates IAEA Remarks and Says "NISA's Stress Test Evaluation Conforms to International Standard"

NHK reports on the findings of the IAEA during the visit this time to evaluate whether the "stress test" carried out by electric power companies and overseen by Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was appropriate, particularly in the case of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant.

This is what the IAEA mission chief said, as you can see and hear in the accompanying video to the news:

We found that the NISA's approach is generally consistent with the IAEA's safety standards, and the international practice.

NHK translated the remark as:

ストレステストの評価方法はIAEAおよび国際基準に適合している

which would translate back into English as:

The way [NISA] evaluate the result of the stress test conforms to the IAEA and international standards.

As if there are international standards for stress test evaluation. (Or are there?)

Japanese Twitterers who understand English immediately tweeted the incorrect translation by NHK. NHK has quickly added a paragraph to supposedly "clarify" but it is still wrong. It now translates the remark by the IAEA mission chief Lyons as:

原子力安全・保安院の審査の過程は、ＩＡＥＡのルールに適合していて、ヨーロッパなどでの国際的な活動にも即している

which is:

NISA's evaluation process conforms to the IAEA rules, and in line with the international activities in Europe and other places.

Ummm. Nowhere the IAEA chief said anything about Europe. What activities? And he said "standards" not rules.

(Now I'm suddenly flooded with the memory of just atrocious translation that NHK did in the early days of the nuclear crisis in March last year. All these simultaneous translators that NHK World paid a fortune who didn't have a clue what they were translating. Ugghhh.)

I copied and pasted the NHK News for the record. Nothing much in it other than NHK's mistranslation. It basically says the IAEA rubber-stamped what the Japanese government did, again, with a friendly advice to make it as if the IAEA actually did something. What's the advice you ask? "You'd better learn how to explain to the local residents better."

Now the illusion must be totally expelled from the minds of Japanese people who cling to the idea that an "international" organization is somehow "neutral" and therefore will scold their government into the right direction.

NHK News (1/31/2012 12:07PM):

ＩＡＥＡ 評価方法は国際基準適合

原子力発電所の運転再開の判断の前提となる「ストレステスト」について検証してきたＩＡＥＡ＝国際原子力機関の調査団は、国の原子力安全・保安院に報告書を提出し、「評価の方法は国際的な基準に適合している」とした一方で、原発の地元自治体などにさらに説明をすべきだといった改善点を指摘しました。

ＩＡＥＡの調査団のジェームズ・ライオンズ団長は、東京の原子力安全・保安院を訪れ、深野弘行院長に報告書を手渡しました。調査団の１０人は、今月２２日に来日し、電力会社が行った「ストレステスト」に対し、保安院が国の規制機関として適切に評価をしているかを検証するため、保安院の聞き取りや、福井県にある関西電力の大飯原発で視察をしてきました。報告書では、保安院が原発の現地調査をしたり、評価の過程を公開したりしている点を挙げて、「評価の方法は、国際的な基準に適合している」と結論づけました。その一方で、原発の地元自治体などにさらに説明をすべきだといった１１の改善点を指摘しました。保安院は、大飯原発の３号機と４号機について、「テストの方法は妥当だ」と評価していて、ＩＡＥＡの報告書を踏まえ、来月、最終評価を取りまとめることにしていますが、原発の運転再開は地元に慎重な意見が少なくなく、具体的な見通しは立っていません。

(The audiovisual news that accompanies the article ends there.)

記者会見をしたＩＡＥＡの調査団のジェームズ・ライオンズ団長は、「原子力安全・保安院の審査の過程は、ＩＡＥＡのルールに適合していて、ヨーロッパなどでの国際的な活動にも即している」と述べたうえで、「保安院の電力会社などへの指示は、もっと具体的にするべきだ」と指摘しました。

And then, strangely, NHK has another paragraph of the pugnacious mayor of Osaka who looks like a kindergarten bully and acts like one commenting on the NISA's stress test and the IAEA mission.

What does he have to do with anything? The only thing I can think of is that somehow this Osaka mayor, who was the governor of Osaka, full of ambition for the national politics, managed to butt himself in on the news to give an impression that he was some politician for everyone in Japan to pay attention and listen to.

大阪市の橋下市長は、原発の施設の安全性については専門家しか判断できないとする一方で、「今、何が問題かと言えば、施設だけではなく、政府や電力会社の『組織』が問題となっている。ストレステストをやるのなら、施設だけではなく、組織が本当に機能しているのかどうかをテストすべきだ。ＳＰＥＥＤＩのデータをすぐに出すという決断をできないのが今の政府だ。施設が安全でも、それを扱う側の政府や電力会社の組織が、非常時に機能するのかどうかについて、ストレステストをやらないと全然納得できない」と述べ、政府や電力会社の組織としての在り方を検証すべきだという考えを示しました。

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Byron Nuclear Plant Reactor Is Shut Down After Loss of Offsite Power

Byron Nuclear Generating Station uses Westinghouse (owned by Japan's Toshiba)'s pressurized water reactors.

From Chicagobusiness.com citing AP (1/30/2012):

Exelon shuts Byron nuclear plant unit after power loss

(AP) — A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant shut down Monday after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators.

Unit 2 at Byron Generating Station shut down around 10:18 a.m., after losing power from an off-site source, Exelon officials said. Diesel generators began supplying power to the plant equipment and operators began releasing steam from the non-nuclear side of the plant to help cool the reactor, officials said.

Even though the turbine is not turning to produce electricity, "you still need to cool the equipment." said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng. Releasing steam helps "take away some of that energy still being produced by nuclear reaction but that doesn't have anywhere to go now."

The steam contains low levels of radioactive tritium, but the levels are safe for workers and the public, federal and plant officials said.

Unit 1 was operating normally while engineers investigate why Unit 2 lost power, which comes into the plant from the outside power grid, Mitlyng said. Smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, she said, but no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded.

Exelon spokesman Paul Dempsey said there is "no reason we can pinpoint right now" for the power loss.

Mitlyng said Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors were in the control room at Byron and in constant contact with the agency's incident response center in Lisle, Ill.

Byron Generating Station is in Ogle County, about 95 miles northwest of Chicago.

In March 2008, federal officials said they were investigating a problem with electrical transformers at the plant after outside power to a unit was interrupted.

In an unrelated issue last April, the commission said it was conducting special inspections of backup water pumps at the Byron and Braidwood generating stations after the agency's inspectors raised concerns about whether the pumps would be able to cool the reactors if the normal system wasn't working. The plants' operator, Exelon Corp., initially said the pumps would work but later concluded they wouldn't.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Quince No.2 and Quince No.3 Are Ready to Be Deployed

They look like the original Quince, who has been left abandoned somewhere in the upper high-radiation floors of Reactor 2 since October last year.

The Yomiuri article below acknowledges the work that the original Quince did in the title.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1/30/2012):

原子炉建屋撮影し未回収のロボ、後継２台投入へ

Two successor robots to the one that was lost after taking the video of the reactor buildings

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故で、原子炉建屋内の撮影に使われた国産の災害救助支援ロボット「Ｑｕｉｎｃｅ（クインス）」の後継機２台を、開発した千葉工業大学の研究チームが３０日、公開した。

Two successor robots to the one that was used for taking the video of the interior of the reactor buildings at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, Quince, were revealed by the development team at Chiba Institute of Technology on January 30.

　２月中旬にも現場に投入される。

They will be used at the plant starting mid February.

　１台には空気中のちりに含まれる放射性物質を測定する装置、もう１台には立体的な地図を作れるレーザースキャナーを搭載した。初代の１号機が、通信ケーブルが切れて建屋内で立ち往生した経験から、緊急時にはもう１台のロボットを中継し、無線でも操作できるようにした。

One is fitted with the device to measure radioactive materials in the dust particles in the atmosphere, and the other is fitted with a laser scanner to create 3D maps. From the experience of the original Quince who was stranded in the reactor building when the communication cable was disconnected (or severed), each robot can be controlled by wireless communication in an emergency via the other robot.

　現在も原子炉建屋内で身動きが取れないままの１号機は、電子機器への放射線の影響を調べるため、回収せずに残しておく計画だという。

The original Quince (Quince No.1) will be left inside the reactor building [Reactor 2] to study the effect of radiation on electronics.

Poor Quince. For the sake of electronics research...

Quince No.2, from Chiba Institute of Technology page:

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Video of Ocean Bottom Near Water Intakes for Reactors 5 and 6

Not much to see here, but for the record. A clean looking ocean bottom with algae and small fish.

The video was taken by TEPCO on January 27, and released on January 30, 2012. The survey was probably in preparation for the work to pour the cement-clay mix on the ocean floor (for more, see my previous post).

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#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.

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Earthquake Map of Japan in the 1st Month of 2012

(You can't even see Japan in the first map.)

From the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention website, "Hypocenter map".

Last 30 days:

Last 7 days:
Last 24 hours:

A lot of Magnitude 4 quakes, and a good number of Magnitude 5 quakes. M5 is moving to the central Japan, right near Mt. Fuji. Numerous small, shallow quakes in western Japan.

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Israel Requests Japan to Stop Buying Iranian Oil

From Nikkei Shinbun quoting Kyodo News (1/30/2012):

【エルサレム＝共同】イスラエルを訪問した山根隆治外務副大臣は29日、エルサレムでリーベルマン外相らと会談した。イスラエル側はイランからの原油輸入停止を要請。山根氏は日本のイラン産原油輸入量は過去５年間で約40％減っており、今後も削減に努めると説明、理解を求めた。

(Jerusalem, Kyodo News) Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ryuji Yamane who is visiting Israel met on January 29 with Israel's Foreign Minister Lieberman in Jerusalem. Israel requested Japan to stop importing crude oil from Iran. Yamane explained that the amount of crude oil Japan imports from Iran has decreased by 40% in 5 years and that Japan will continue its effort to reduce the amount, and asked for Israel's understanding.

　山根氏がエルサレムで記者団に明らかにした。イスラエルは、核開発を進めるイランを最大の脅威と位置付けている。...

Yamane disclosed the Israel's request to the press in Jerusalem. Israel considers Iran as its greatest threat, as Iran develops its nuclear program.

What Japan reduces will simply go to China, India, and Russia. Canada's oil and gas will probably also go to China. Japan will be left dry, and cold, as a mini ice age hits...

Isn't it ironic that Japan is part of the economic embargo against Iran by the US and the EU, while it suffered the same by FDR in the run-up to the World War II?

No wonder the population of Japan is set to decrease by whopping 30% by 2060.

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Same Old Excuse from Goshi Hosono for Hiding the "Worst-Case Scenario": "We Were Afraid of a Panic in Tokyo"

Goshi Hosono, current Minister of the Environment and Minister in charge of the nuclear accident, was a special assistant to then-Prime Minister Kan when the March 11 triple whammy of earthquake/tsunami/nuke accident hit Japan last year.

He's already famously said that the small group of top officials in the Kan administration knew it was a core meltdown at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant right after the accident, but they "just didn't feel like announcing it".

Now, about the "worst-case scenario" from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency that the administration officials received on March 25 and which the administration declared it "didn't exist" after reading it, Hosono has this to say:

From Kyodo News (1/29/2012):

最悪シナリオ閲覧「数人」に限定 「混乱恐れて」と細野氏

The worst-case scenario perusal restricted to only "a handful", as "we were afraid of a panic", says Mr. Hosono

　細野原発事故担当相は２９日までに、共同通信のインタビューに応じ、最近まで公開しなかった福島第１原発事故の「最悪シナリオ」に関し、情報漏えいによる混乱を恐れて当時の菅首相はじめ閲覧を「数人」に限った経緯を明らかにした。「当時公開していたら、東京から人がいなくなった可能性があった。そうなれば事故対応は危うかった」と言明。事故対応を優先した結果、一部しか情報共有を図らなかったと説明した。

Minister in charge of the nuclear accident Hosono allowed an interview with Kyodo News by January 29, and explained that how the "worst-case scenario", whose existence was hidden until recently, was shown only to a handful of officials including then-Prime Minister Kan for the fear of a panic if the information were to leak. He said, "If the scenario had been made public, people might have fled Tokyo. Then it would have been difficult to respond to the accident". He explained that the information was shared among only a small group of people because the response to the accident was the first priority.

Ummm. Mr. Hosono, the nuclear power plant is in Fukushima Prefecture, not Tokyo. Ordinary residents of Tokyo did not, and do not, have any role in coming up with measures to deal with the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident. You did, and so did the administration that you were part of.

It's one thing not to have disclosed the information, but it is totally another to have simply sat on it and done nothing to prepare for the worst case or to properly instruct citizens, in particular residents of Tokyo Metropolitan areas, to take precaution.

Instead, the administration that Goshi Hosono was part of launched the safety campaign for the citizens and attacked people who were telling the truth (in retrospect) about the situation in Fukushima I Nuke Plant. The administration sent radiation "experts" from Nagasaki University to Iitate-mura who told the villagers it was totally safe to play outside, eat vegetables and drink water from the well. It laughed off the IAEA survey of radiation contamination in the village, saying it had its own standard to decide the danger levels, only to order the evacuation of the entire village 11 days later on April 11, 2011.

Goshi Hosono is doubling down on his already tarnished reputation by pressing the disaster debris contaminated with radioactive materials to municipalities all over Japan, totally oblivious to the fact that there is this thing called the Internet, and the citizens now know much more about the contaminated disaster debris than the government officials who can only talk in terms of "emotion" - let's help out people of Tohoku! - while some people in Tohoku itself are wondering why the debris has to be shipped outside, instead of building the plants inside the prefectures to process the debris.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 17 Minor Leaks In Pipes and Valves Found in 2 Days, Freezing Temperature Blamed

All are minor, says TEPCO, ranging from tens of liters to several tonnes, and the water leaked is either pure water, filtered water (river water), or the treated water. None found the way to the ocean, or so TEPCO says.

3 leaks were discovered on January 28, followed by 14 additional leaks on January 29, according to TEPCO. The lowest temperature at the plant on January 29 was -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

TEPCO's Matsumoto says the company will hurry up the insulation work, and hopes to finish it by spring.

Ummm, the frost will be over by spring, won't it?

Looking at TEPCO's press release, the leaks are mostly at the flanges. Some of the leaks from the reverse osmosis system have been found with high beta radiation.

Locations of the 14 leaks discovered on January 29, 2012:

Details of the leaks discovered on January 29, 2012:

The worker who tweets from Fukushima I Nuke Plant was talking about the leak on Twitter last night, and he said that the suggestion of insulation and heaters when the hoses were installed last summer was turned down, because of budget concern.

TEPCO's modus operandi since March 11, 2011 in English: "lock the stable door after the horse has bolted".

In Japanese: 泥棒を捕らえて縄をなう (Catch the thief and then start making the rope to bind him.)

Some photos from TEPCO on the leaky flanges covered with plastic (to prevent further leaking), with blue tarps lying around:

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UC Davis Researcher: Sea Water Can Corrode Nuclear Fuel, Forming Uranium Compounds That Could Travel Long Distance

From UC Davis News and Information (1/26/2012; emphasis is mine):

Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 -- and that was probably the best action to take at the time, says Professor Alexandra Navrotsky of the University of California, Davis.

But Navrotsky and others have since discovered a new way in which seawater can corrode nuclear fuel, forming uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles. The research team published its work Jan. 23 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This is a phenomenon that has not been considered before,” said Alexandra Navrotsky, distinguished professor of ceramic, earth and environmental materials chemistry. “We don’t know how much this will increase the rate of corrosion, but it is something that will have to be considered in future.”

Japan used seawater to avoid a much more serious accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, and Navrotsky said, to her knowledge, there is no evidence of long-distance uranium contamination from the plant.

Uranium in nuclear fuel rods is in a chemical form that is “pretty insoluble” in water, Navrotsky said, unless the uranium is oxidized to uranium-VI — a process that can be facilitated when radiation converts water into peroxide, a powerful oxidizing agent.

Peter Burns, professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a co-author of the new paper, had previously made spherical uranium peroxide clusters, rather like carbon “buckyballs,” that can dissolve or exist as solids.

In the new paper, the researchers show that in the presence of alkali metal ions such as sodium — for example, in seawater — these clusters are stable enough to persist in solution or as small particles even when the oxidizing agent is removed.

In other words, these clusters could form on the surface of a fuel rod exposed to seawater and then be transported away, surviving in the environment for months or years before reverting to more common forms of uranium, without peroxide, and settling to the bottom of the ocean. There is no data yet on how fast these uranium peroxide clusters will break down in the environment, Navrotsky said.

Navrotsky and Burns worked with the following co-authors: postdoctoral researcher Christopher Armstrong and project scientist Tatiana Shvareva, UC Davis; May Nyman, Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, N.M.; and Ginger Sigmon, University of Notre Dame. The U.S. Department of Energy supported the project.

Professor Navrotsky says as far as she knows there is no evidence of long-distance uranium contamination from Fukushima I Nuke Plant. I don't think the Japanese government is specifically looking for uranium anywhere outside the plant. They are not even looking for strontium. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

The abstract of the paper at PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America):

Uranyl peroxide enhanced nuclear fuel corrosion in seawater

Christopher R. Armstrong, May Nyman, Tatiana Shvareva, Ginger E. Sigmon, Peter C. Burns, and Alexandra Navrotsky

Abstract

The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident brought together compromised irradiated fuel and large amounts of seawater in a high radiation field. Based on newly acquired thermochemical data for a series of uranyl peroxide compounds containing charge-balancing alkali cations, here we show that nanoscale cage clusters containing as many as 60 uranyl ions, bonded through peroxide and hydroxide bridges, are likely to form in solution or as precipitates under such conditions. These species will enhance the corrosion of the damaged fuel and, being thermodynamically stable and kinetically persistent in the absence of peroxide, they can potentially transport uranium over long distances.

(H/T anon reader, gr81)

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Tokyo Metropolitan Government Stores Radioactive Fly Ashes in Plastic Bags Under Blue Tarp and Sand Bags in a Landfill in Tokyo Bay

Fly ashes from the municipal garbage incineration plant in Edogawa-ku, eastern-most Special Ward of Tokyo, contained radioactive cesium exceeding the standard set by the national government for "safe" and normal burial in a regular landfill (8,000 becquerels/kg). So the Tokyo Metropolitan government said it would put them in a secure, temporary storage until the national government firmly decides what to do with such ashes.

The photographs below show how the Tokyo Metropolitan government securely stores those ashes on the metropolitan landfill in Tokyo Bay.

Photo 1 shows the flexible container bags full of radioactive fly ashes on a platform of bentonite clay. I don't see any rubber liner below or above the clay.

Then, the dirt is piled on top of the bags, which is then covered with plastic tarps. They put sand bags on top to hold down the tarps, as you see in Photo 2.

Clearly the governor of Tokyo is not thinking about typhoons with heavy rain and wind, or tsunami, or liquefaction from an earthquake. This is a landfill in Tokyo Bay. Sand bags may empty, and blue tarps degrade, but there's no worrying the 82-year-old governor.

On checking the Disaster Prevention Information page of the Tokyo Municipal government, I find that there is NO MENTION of tsunami in the Tokyo proper; all they talk about is a danger of tsunami on the outlying islands in the event of the much expected Tokai earthquake. There is no hazard map for liquefaction either. Again, this is a landfill in Tokyo Bay.

From the document issued by the Clean Association of Tokyo 23 (union of municipal waste management in Tokyo's 23 Special Wards) on January 25, 2012:

Photo 1:
Photo 2:

(H/T @tautautau1976; if you read Japanese, he and @tsunamiwaste on Twitter are great sources of information about disaster debris issues in Japan.)

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