Tuesday, October 22, 2013

IAEA's Director General Says Radioactive leaks top priority at #Fukushima (and Sloppy Reporting by AFP)


Yukiya Amano, Director General of IAEA, says they remain the greatest challenge at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

(But, but, the prime minister of Japan has said the "effect" of contaminated water is "blocked" "overall", and his minister in charge of the plant decommission has said contaminated water is not leaking into "open ocean"!)

From AFP (10/22/2013):

Radioactive leaks top priority at Fukushima: nuclear watchdog

Bratislava — Contaminated water remains the greatest challenge at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant after the 2011 meltdown, the worst atomic disaster in a generation, the UN's nuclear watchdog said Tuesday.

"The crippled reactors are in a stable condition generally," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano told AFP while in the Slovak capital Bratislava.

"The most urgent priority is handling of the contaminated water," he said, after heavy rains caused a leak of radioactive water containing a cancer-causing isotope, possibly into the sea.

"It is also important to address the issue of decontamination of the off-site" so tens of thousands of evacuees can return home.

He spoke a day after Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said water contaminated with strontium-90 -- at 70 times the legal limit for safe disposal -- breached a barrier meant to contain radioactive overflow.

Strontium-90 is produced during nuclear reactions. It accumulates in bones and remains potent for many years, causing several types of cancer in humans.

On October 14, IAEA experts began a mission to assess clean-up efforts at the crippled Fukushima plant.

Amano said there will be another mission to Japan later this year to advise authorities on how to handle contaminated water.

TEPCO has poured thousands of tonnes of water onto badly-damaged reactors at Fukushima to keep them cool and prevent repeat meltdowns.

This huge volume of water must be stored in large tanks until it is clear of the radioactive substances picked up in the cooling process.

Threats of further contamination remain, Amano said, which include extreme weather, as Japan braces for a typhoon meteorologists say is likely hit later this week, bringing further rain to the country.


Uh... "a leak of radioactive water containing a cancer-causing isotope"? This level after more than two years and seven months after the start of the nuclear accident at Fukushima I NPP? It looks the AFP writer needs to obtain some basic knowledge about things nuclear.

"70 times the legal limit for safe disposal"? No it is not. It was 70 times the internal (TEPCO's) provisional limit (which is one-third of the legal limit for strontium-90) to release the rainwater from the dam (barrier) around a group of storage tanks.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The crippled reactors are in a stable condition generally,"

Big whoop. Is that supposed to reassure us?

Places like Tohoku, Haiti and New Orleans were all in a "generally stable condition"... until forces of nature suddenly annihilated them.

VyseLegendaire said...

Poster above - You left out Bayou Corne, Louisiana coast, Florida coast, Hurricane Sandy-ravaged NY and NJ, and more astoundingly 'stable' places where disaster is oh-so-unlikely to recur.

Anonymous said...

Posters above, you left out the 2012 earthquake in Emilia, where Italian npps where supposed to be built, had not two referendums blocked them. The site for the npps were chosen because they were supposed to be among the less earthquake prone in Italy.
On a separate line, Today at the Parliament NRA's Tanaka stated that Fuku-1 leaks did not contaminate the environment (yet) and Abe reiterated the 0.3 sqKm story. LDP is calling for restarting the npps and resume building new ones. Good old LDP.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

Oh, I forgot another supposedly stable place: the salt mine in Asse in Germany where nuclear waste has been dumped...
Beppe

Anonymous said...

So glad to see that the IAEA is finally actively doing something positive ;)

Anonymous said...

It's not so much that I was leaving places out, I just used a few basic examples. I'm sure there's no end to examples out there.

Which all the more begs the question of why humans still haven't learned a goddamn thing.

O/T: I know Enenews isn't exactly the most reliable site, but I thought everyone might be entertained by yet another fine example of "responsible" media failing utterly at accurately relaying simple information:
http://enenews.com/sailors-shocking-pacific-journey-goes-viral-smashes-record-picked-up-by-the-guardian-usa-today-many-more-all-fail-to-mention-ongoing-crisis-at-fukushima-by-far-worlds-largest-release-of

Maria Ferdinanda Piva said...

Hi, La Primavera. Have you heard about an italian jam rejected by Japanese authorities because il is radioactive? Here in Italy there are rumors about it, but I cant't find news in English. It's a blueberry jam imported by Mie Project. Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

@ maria Ferdinanda Piva
I didn't find, but berries are prone to concentrate radioactivity, and toxic chemicals, just like grapes, this is a fact.

Very OT, but laughable ad campaign spotted at
http://yedanoboru.blogspot.fr/2013/10/japan-national-tourism-office-i-want-to.html
JAL and Air France often have flights in cooperation. I don't think the crew smokes the same stuff as the ad conceptors.

Anonymous said...

I'm in Germany presently, and a couple of days ago I saw on a BBC UK TV interview with an IAEA officer (not Mr. Amano but someone who recently visited Fukushima) who kept repeating "the contamination level is low and it is completely safe to eat the local Fukushima fish" !

He repeated this over and over again, and BBC UK aired this interview over and over again all day long for a couple of days.... just enough to brainwash many people who are unaware.

I tired to find the TV clip but so far no success.

Anonymous said...

Maria,
analysis of "Fiore di Frutta Organic Spread Blueberry", 250 gr, expiry 17 October 2015, detected 140 Bq/kg of Cs137, more than the limit allowed in Japan (100 bq/kg).
Unless I am mistaken, in Europe the limit for food has been quietly raised to 600 Bq/kg after Fukushima. Grazie Europa.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

It is "Fiordifrutta", from Rigoni di Asiago. My parents buy honey from the same maker in Italy :(
Search for 東京都 and セシウム (tokyo cesium) in Google.
The notice is reported on Tokyo city website www.metro.tokyo.jp; it is in Japanese but there is a picture of the product and the analysis results are kind of easy to locate.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

@8:44 BBC nuke propaganda activity is probably related to the deal the UK government recently gifted to the French EDF on Hickley C: UK ratepayers will buy electricity from Hickley C at twice the current rates for 35 years. Allons Enfants.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Maria, about the blueberry jam, as other commenters have said. In addition, the blueberries were from Bulgaria. I'll write a short post later.

Maria Ferdinanda Piva said...

Thanks :)

Maria Ferdinanda Piva said...

Post scriptum. Yes, Ue raised the limits for food radioactivity. But if I remember correctly, Ue said it was in order to comply to Japan...

Anonymous said...

Comply to Japan? Since when Japan is driving safety standards in Europe?? Besides, the general limit for food in Japan is 100 Bq/kg whereas (I believe) in Europe the limit has being raised to 600 Bq/kg. (sic)
Beppe

Anonymous said...

By the way, the jam was not rejected [at the border or something], it had been already distributed and Mie Project has been instructed to recall it.

Maria Ferdinanda Piva said...

Bebbe, this is the pres release issued by Eu in 2011
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-225_en.htm?locale=en

"The EU has (...) decided, in order to provide consistency between the pre-export controls performed by the Japanese authorities and the controls on the level of radio nuclides performed on feed and food originating in, or consigned from, Japan when the products enter the EU, to apply on a provisional basis the same levels both in the EU and Japan

I 'd like to find the limities for food radioactivity in Japan. In English, please. Perhaps La Primavera can help me

Anonymous said...

Maria,
The page in Japanese is www.metro.tokyo.jp/INET/OSHIRASE/2013/10/20nal200.htm.

The page reports that "食品衛生法の基準値" is 100 Bq/kg.
If you translate the Japanese above in Italian using Google you get "Valore di riferimento della legge di igiene alimentare".

Beppe

Anonymous said...

Maria,
I managed to find a document in English too: www.mhlv.go.jp/english/topics/2011eq/dl/new_standard.pdf, slide 3. (note: the document computes annual doses assuming food is the only path people intakes radionuclides, which I believe is not correct)

Beppe

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