Tuesday Humors: Naoto Kan Sues Shinzo Abe for Defamation, Self Defense Force Dispels Baseless Rumors on Ibaraki Beach, NRA Starts Nuke Plant Inspection, TEPCO's Shares Jump 12% in One Day

You really can't take any of them seriously, can you?

Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan sues current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for defamation, over Abe's email magazine's mention of Kan "stopping the injection of seawater into the reactor and later taking credit for seawater injection". According to Kan, that's patently false. Why is he suing Abe now, for the mail magazine article that appeared in May 2011? I suppose in Kan's mind the lawsuit should boost the chance of his party, Democratic Party of Japan, in the coming Upper House election (July 21 for most of Japan).

From Sankei Shinbun (7/16/2013; part):

安倍首相のメールマガジンは平成２３年５月２０日付配信。首相は「東電はマニュアル通り淡水が切れた後、海水を注入しようと考えており、実行した。しかし、やっと始まった海水注入を止めたのは、何と菅総理その人だった」と記載。その上で「海水注入を菅総理の英断とのウソを側近は新聞・テレビにばらまいた」としている。

Prime Minister Abe's mail magazine was distributed as of May 20, 2011. According to Prime Minister [Abe] wrote, "Following the manual, TEPCO was planning to inject seawater after the supply of fresh water depleted. However, it was Prime Minister Kan himself who stopped the seawater injection which had just started." Further, he wrote "[Mr. Kan's] advisors then spread the lie in newspapers and TV that injection of seawater was Prime Minister Kan's heroic decision."

菅氏は「内容は全くの虚偽の情報に基づく。私の名誉を著しく傷つける中傷記事だ」と述べた。

Mr. Kan said [in the press conference he held in the Diet building], "The content is based on totally false information. The article has severely damaged my honor."

(Go ahead and laugh now.)

Next, Self Defense Force tanks and ship on the Ooarai beach in Ibaraki Prefecture. Saturday July 13 was the beach opening day for Ooarai in Ibaraki, the town become famous because of a popular "anime" based on the town.

To an outsider (including myself), the anime, "GIRLS und PANZER", is totally hilarious, totally detached from the reality-based world where everyone else lives but the Japanese in Japan. It is about a world where cute high school girls are well-trained and versed in "the way of tanks" (like "the way of tea" or "the way of flower arrangement").

Ooarai requested tanks and a training ship from Self Defense Force to attract more people to town on the beach opening day, as the town's beach is suffering from "baseless rumors". Self Defense Force obliged, as it wants to increase recruitment. So the event was a triple-win: Ooarai dispelling baseless rumors, anime fans getting to do their cosplay on the real tanks and real ship, and SDF promoting itself to the population.

See how they all enjoy the day on the beach... (Screenshots of a TV report of the event from this blog at 2ch; click to enlarge):

Next, Asahi Shinbun reports (7/26/2013) that Nuclear Regulatory Authority has started the examination and inspection of 10 reactors at 5 nuclear plants. They are:

Hokkaido Electric: Tomari Reactors 1, 2, 3
Kansai Electric: Takahama Reactors 3, 4, Ooi Reactors 3, 4
Shikoku Electric: Ikata Reactor 3
Kyushu Electric: Sendai Reactors 1, 2

(For the locations of these plants, see my post from July 5, 2013.)

According to Asahi, assessment of Ooi reactors won't be done while the faults inside the compound are being investigated, and assessment of Tomari Reactors 1 and 2 will be delayed as Hokkaido Electric wants Reactor 3 to be assessed first. (That's the reactor where use of MOX fuel is planned.)

So, there are 6 reactors to be assessed. Asahi says three teams will each assess two, three reactors concurrently, and one team is specialized in earthquake/tsunami assessment. There will be 80 people at Nuclear Regulatory Agency (secretariat of Nuclear Regulatory Authority) doing the assessment. And all this to be finished in about 6 months.

NRA spent less than 6 months coming up with the safety regulatory standards, and now will spend 6 months (or less, my guess) in applying the standards.

(You can laugh now.)

And last but not least, for no good reason that I could find, TEPCO's shares jumped 12.6% in one day on Tuesday in Japan. Contaminated groundwater found along the seawall must be bullish for the stock. After all, for a long time now, particularly in the US but also elsewhere, bad news is good news, and bullish for the stock market.

From Nikkei Shinbun, TEPCO's intraday chart (7/16/2013):

The 5-year chart shows a shallow cup and handle pattern, and if that plays out TEPCO's shares could be going over 1,300 yen:

"OT" humor: Russia's RIA Novosti reports (7/15/2013) that "US Urges Russia to Protect Reporters, Human Rights Activists", and "Putin Blasts US for Intimidation in Snowden Asylum Saga".

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TEPCO's Teleconference Video from March 16 to April 6, 2011 Shows TEPCO HQ's Ineptitude, Meddling by the Government (1)

Fukushima I Nuclear Plant Manager Yoshida said angrily to a manager in TEPCO HQ:

"If it [Reactor 3] explodes, we'll all die. Do you understand? Take it seriously and come up with the procedure!"

He was talking about the SDF helicopter's water dropping operation at the request of the Kan administration, which eventually took place on March 17, 2011.

On November 30, 2012, TEPCO released the 336 hours of its teleconference video from March 16 to 23, and from March 30 to April 6, 2011. TEPCO only made about 2 hours worth of the video available to the general public (online). The rest of the video is only available for viewing at TEPCO's headquarters and only by the qualified press (Japan press club members).

One such qualified press, Sankei Shinbun viewed part of the video, and wrote a series of articles on what they found.

Excerpts from Sankei Shinbun (12/1/2012) on the Self Defense Force spraying water onto the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 3 paint the scene as that of confusion and anger. The first segment below is from March 16, 2011, which is part of the video only available to the qualified press, and the second segment is on March 17, 2011, in the video TEPCO made available to public (embedded below, in Japanese only).

One caveat: Sankei has been highly critical of the Democratic Party of Japan's administrations, and they often go out of the way to emphasize the ham-handed meddling by the DPJ politicians.

[On March 16, 2011, Plant Manager Yoshida sternly speaks to a manager in TEPCO HQ. When the HQ manager suggests Yoshida should plan for emergency, Yoshida gets angry, and stops using the polite form of Japanese and breaks into a rather rude form, which I cannot fully render into English but tried my best.]

吉田昌郎所長「どういう水の入れ方をしていくのかというのをもうちょっとはっきりご指示いただきたい。手順書の形でもなんでもいいから」

Fukushima I Plant Manager Masao Yoshida: "How are they going to inject water? I would like you to instruct us a bit more clearly. Any instruction will do, like a procedure manual."

本店社員「手順の確立も大事なんですが、速やかに退避するとかそういう態勢、準備も必要かと」

Manager at TEPCO HQ: "It is important to establish a procedure, but I think it is also necessary to prepare for emergency and quick retreat."

吉田所長「そうなんだけど、そういう手順書を本店で作ってほしいのよ。ないの、そういうの。ただ水入れりゃいいと思っていたのかよ。周りでわれわれみてんだぜ。それでお前、爆発したら死んじゃうんだぜ。やるけどさ、これ今やらないといけないことは分かるけどさ、だったらもっと真剣にそういうものは作っておいてくれよ」

Yoshida: "Yes, but I want the HQ to create a procedure manual. Don't you have it? The manual? You thought simply pouring water would do it, is that it? We'll all be watching, around [the reactor]. And you know what, if it explodes, we'll all die, you understand? We'll do it, I understand it has to be done right now. So get serious, and come up with the procedure, please!"

-----------------

《翌１７日午前９時４８分、最初の放水用ヘリが到着、３号機に水を投下する場面がテレビに流れた》

(March 17, 2011 at 9:48AM, the first helicopter arrived, and the dumping of water on Reactor 3 was shown on TV.) [It's about 33 minutes into the video.]

原発所員「これか。（水が）かかってねーよ」

A worker at Fukushima I Nuke Plant: "This is it? Where's the water?"

別の原発所員「あー。３号（水が）とどいてねーや。なんだよ」

Another worker: "Agh. (Water) didn't reach Reactor 3. What is this?"

原発所員「ああー。霧吹きやなあ」

The first worker: "Oh well.. It is just a spray."

Spraying the water from air and capturing it on video and releasing the video worldwide was an idea by the Kan administration to appeal to the world that the administration was in control of the accident. After seeing the video, according to the former State Department official Kevin Maher, the US government officials called in the Japanese ambassador and said to him,

"Look, you have to take this stuff seriously. We don't know what's going to happen."

Maher said the US government was terrified, in his interview in January this year, recalling the time. He published a book about the accident and the government response ("決断できない日本　The Japan That Can't Decide") last year, but no one in Japan seems to have paid any attention, as it contradicts the official stories of Japan and the US which were all praise of this daring operations caught live on camera.

Speaking of helicopter, Maher also said last year that one of the items freely offered by the US government to the Japanese government right after the nuclear accident started was an unmanned helicopter. After going back and forth, with the Japanese government asking about the technical details and trivial points about the helicopter and its operation, the big question finally came from the Japanese government: "In the event that the helicopter is contaminated by radiation, what will happen with regards to compensation?"

US officials must have thought they were speaking with the space aliens.

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Environmental Health Perspectives Magazine: "Radiation and the Risk of Chronic Lymphocytic and Other Leukemias among Chornobyl Cleanup Workers"

I found the paper by the University of California - San Francisco researcher Lydia B. Zablotska et al regarding increased risk of leukemia for Chernobyl cleanup workers even at a low (less than 200 millisieverts) cumulative radiation exposure (see my previous post).

From Environmental Health Perspectives Magazine, advance publications (11/8/2012):

• PDF file
• Supplemental Material

The media report on this paper in Japan is causing anxiety. People are worried that any low level of radiation exposure from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident would lead to leukemia, as it has been "proven" by this paper. It seems only Nikkei Shinbun actually cited the radiation exposure levels in the study (less than 200 millisieverts, with over 90% less than 100 millisieverts).

Speaking of "low level radiation exposure", I happened on an old article from June last year by Yomiuri Shinbun that mentions the radiation exposure sustained by Self Defense Force soldiers during two-day work (March 12 and 13 last year) at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, pouring water into the reactors to prevent core melts. Of 12 soldiers who had dosimeters on them, 2 soldiers got 80 millisieverts in 2 days, and 8 others exceeded 30 millisieverts. 8 soldiers didn't even have dosimeters.

Ministry of Defense at that time said there would be no health problem because the exposure was within the limit set by the ministry. What's the limit? 100 millisieverts. For 2 days' work.

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(Now They Tell Us) "Miscommunication" Prevented Radiation Monitoring on March 12 Last Year

The article that appeared in Asahi Shinbun on February 24 this year says the Self Defense Force made one of their helicopter available for the government to conduct an aerial survey of radiation in the early afternoon of March 12, 2011, before the Reactor 1 building blew out at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

From what I gather from the article, the timeline was something like this:

1. Sometime in the morning on March 12, 2011, Ministry of Education and Science asked for a SDF helicopter to be used for radiation monitoring.

2. Ministry of Defense agreed, and sent one medium-size helicopter at 11:10AM from its base in Sendai, Miyagi that had been used for disaster relief to Rokkasho-mura, where the Nuclear Safety Technology Center staff were supposed to be waiting.

3. The helicopter landed in the meeting place (a park in Rokkasho-mura) at 1PM, but there was no one waiting for the helicopter. So it took off at 1:10PM.

4. The Nuclear Safety Technology Center in Rokkasho-mura received the instruction from the Ministry of Education at 1:30PM. Two people went to the meeting place, and waited for the SDF helicopter to show up for one hour from 2:40PM.

5. The center assumed the SDF heli was busy doing the disaster relief, and decided to drive to Fukushima the next day (March 13) at 9AM.

6. The aerial radiation survey was then scheduled on March 15, but that was canceled because of the information that "Reactor 4 blew up".

7. The aerial survey wasn't carried out until March 25.

The Nuclear Safety Technology Center's Rokkasho-mura branch had the staff and the equipment to conduct aerial radiation surveys.

What is wrong with this picture?

First, it confirms that the Ministry of Education and Science knew the radiation from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was leaking in the morning of March 12, 2011.

Second, neither the SDF nor the Nuclear Safety Technology Center bothered to try to contact each other when there was no one at the meeting place (Rokkasho-mura park), or when there was no helicopter. I doubt that they had a direct means of communication, but the SDF helicopter pilot could have contacted the base who could have contacted the SDF headquarters/Ministry of Defense who could have contacted the Ministry of Education.

The Asahi article specifically says that the head of the Radiation group at the Emergency Response Center (ERC) under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry was a bureaucrat on assignment from the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education blames the ERC of course, saying "It was the ERC under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry who proposed an aerial [radiation] monitoring. It was the ERC who coordinated with the Ministry of Defense. We immediately conveyed the ERC messages to the Nuclear Safety Technology Center."

Third, Asahi didn't report it until February this year.

Fourth, I managed to miss the news when it appeared in February this year.

The US Department of Energy and the US military were conducting the aerial survey using Global Hawk drones from March 17 to 19 last year, and they SHARED the results with the Japanese government. The Japanese government sat on it. Asahi Shinbun first reported it in March 24 last year, and it just reported the news again on June 18 this year.

According to the June 18 article, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the fax from the US showing the contamination map created from the actual data collected by Global Hawk drones via the US Embassy in Tokyo on March 18 and 20 last year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Asahi that it immediately forwarded the fax to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Ministry of Education. NISA and the Ministry of Education both sat on it. Probably because it came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. What does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs know anything about radiation? Right?

(It is also possible that "immediate" in the minds of the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was "several hours later" in a reality-based world.)

Moreover, Mainichi Daily (English paper) reported on March 19 last year that the Japanese government was in possession of near-real time video footage of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant taken from Global Hawk, with the permission from the US to release to the general public. The Japanese government sat on it. I think it is still sitting on it.

Japan was the worst possible place for a major nuclear accident to occur - bureaucracy that plays bureaucracy in an extreme emergency, politicians who cannot lead in an extreme emergency, and the populace who cannot even properly "panic" in an extreme emergency.

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Russian Bombers Were Not Alone Over Japan on Feb 8

More on the 2 Russian bombers over Japan from The Voice of Russia (2/9/2012):

Russian "bears" fly over Pacific

Two Russian long-distance aircraft of the TU-95MS class have carried out a routine patrol mission over a neutral area of the Pacific Ocean, a Defense Ministry spokesman has told reporters.

At various stages, the “bear” bombers were accompanied by Su-27 jet fighters and A-50 reconnaissance planes. All the flights were in strict compliance with international regulations on the use of airspace over neutral waters, the spokesman said. Earlier, the Japanese media rang the bell over 5 Russian warplanes spotted near Japan’s border.

(IF)

There was absolutely no mention of jet fighters and reconnaissance planes in Japanese news. I wonder how many Japanese jet fighters they "escorted" this time. (In December 2010, the Russian long-range bombers "escorted" 10 Japanese jet fighters.)

(H/T anon reader)

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Two Russian Bombers Surveying Japan

I don't have any other information on this yet, but this is what appeared in Japan's TBS News (10:38PM 2/8/2012):

防衛省はロシアの爆撃機２機が日本の領空周辺を飛行したと発表しました。

The Ministry of Defense announced that two Russian bombers flew the perimeter of Japan's airspace.

　爆撃機はＴＵ－９５型２機で、８日午前９時ごろから午後９時ごろまで島根県沖の日本海側から北上した後、北方領土の上空を通過し、太平洋の房総半島沖まで繰り返し飛行しました。

The two bombers were TU-95. From 9AM to 9PM on February 8, they flew north from off the coast of Shimane Prefecture on the Japan Sea side, past the Northern Territories (the Kurile Islands) and down to Boso Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean; they repeated the pattern a number of times.

　航空自衛隊では西部、中部、北部の航空方面隊で戦闘機を緊急発進させて対応したとしています。

The Air Self Defense Force responded by scrambling its fighter aircrafts in the western, central, and northern air defense forces.

That covers about 70% of Japan. It looks as if they were testing the response. Is the Cold War back on again?

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Latest Decon Technology Out of Japan: Hands

Jiji Tsushin's site has several photos of the Self Defense Force soldiers carrying out decontamination work.

I wrote a post on Monday about them doing decontamination at the Iitate-mura village office using screwdrivers. Here in Jiji's photo, they are decontaminating the town office in Namie-machi.

The tools: their hands.

There is no information whether the SDF were ever told of the radiation levels - air radiation, density of radioactive materials from the sludge and dead leaves they were made to remove, or they were fitted with personal survey meters to control radiation exposure.

Probably not. They are the soldiers stationed either in Fukushima City or Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture. One is 44th Infantry Regiment (Fukushima) and the other is 6th Artillery Regiment (Koriyama), according to the tweet by the Japan Ground Self Defense Force. You can be pretty sure that they are not trained in decontamination, not necessarily of radioactive materials but of more ordinary chemical spills, etc.

From Jiji Tsushin; the photo was taken on December 8 at the town hall in Namie-machi, 8 kilometers north of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. It was raining slightly, the photo caption says.

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Latest Decon Technology Out of Japan: Screwdriver

(No, not the cocktail, although it may be a good idea anyway.)

Soldiers of Japan's Self Defense Force are deployed to decontaminate the most contaminated areas within Fukushima Prefecture, cleaning up the municipal offices (quite tellingly). What's their weapon?

A minus screwdriver.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (12/12/2011):

福島県飯舘村役場で、陸上自衛隊員による除染作業が続けられている。

Japan Ground Self Defense Force soldiers continue their decontamination work at Iitate-mura village office in Fukushima Prefecture.

　約３００人の隊員たちは防護服とマスクを着用。１１日には、マイナスドライバーなど工具を使って石畳の間の土を掘り起こしたり、高圧洗浄機を使って敷地内のアスファルトを洗い流したりする作業に追われた。

About 300 soldiers wearing protective clothes and face masks were busy scraping the dirt in between the pavement stones using tools like minus screwdrivers and washing the asphalt surface in the village office compound using high-pressure washers.

　７日から始まった除染作業は約２週間続く予定だ。

The work, which started on December 7, is scheduled to last for about 2 weeks.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: SDF Vid from March 23, Looks Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad

The Self Defense Force helicopter took aerial video of the Reactors on March 23 (JST), which they released on March 25, and they look very, very bad. The photos are from Asahi Shinbun (in Japanese; 2:11AM JST 3/26/2011). The link has the video (which I can't play, as Adobe's Flash crashed on my PC, POS...).

Reactor 1: The roof blew off, but the roof structure seems to cover the top entirely. I don't know how they've been claiming the water is reaching and filling the Spent Fuel Pool when you can't even see them.


Reactor 2: Asahi Shinbun says smoke is coming out from the several holes on the roof.


Reactor 3:


Reactor 4: SDF claims the arrow in the pic is pointing at the Spent Fuel Pool full of water.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: They Laid Power Cables Without Bothering to Clear Debris First

Another "Duh" moment for the on-going saga of Fukushima I Nuke Plant crisis.

I reported here before that after 10 days from the earthquake the Self Defense Force finally wised up and decided to send its armored vehicles (tanks) that could be fitted with blades to safely shove aside radioactive debris at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

The tanks duly arrived on the morning of March 21, but they are sitting there idly. All the news in Japan is about power being restored to the Reactor No.3 control room. (The control room is located in the adjacent building.)

Why?

Thank TEPCO and the government, for their decision to hasten to lay power cables to restore power to the plant. Now the cables are all over the place the huge tanks (Model 74) cannot move the debris without threatening to cut the cables.

This bit of information was buried toward the end of an article that appeared in Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 11:52PM JST 3/22/2011), which cheerfully talks about power being restored to the plant, grossing over the fact that many pumps and controls are broken.

It's hard to believe there are any engineers at TEPCO and in the government. The prime minister, who boasts that he graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology with a degree in physics and knows all about technology including nuclear technology and who has set himself up as the leader of the government-led team to deal with the disaster, didn't even think of clearing the debris before ordering any substantial work at the plant. I guess it was below him to think about such a rudimentary task - clearing the debris.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: After 10 Days from Quake, SDF Is to Clear Debris at the Plant for More Efficient Dousing

Duh.

The Self Defense Force still has to wait for the formal request from the government.

Duh, duh.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 1:14AM JST 3/21/2011):

The Self Defense Force directed two of its Type-74 tanks to Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on March 20 from its base in Shizuoka. The tanks are expected to arrive near the Plant on March 21 early morning, after being fueled at the SDF's base in Tokyo.

The tanks' thick metal exterior withstands radiation, and the tanks can be fitted with a plate specially designed to push out debris [called "dozer armour"]. Efforts to douse the Reactors in Fukushima I Nuke Plant has been hampered by debris on the ground from tsunami and explosions. As soon as there's a formal request from the government, the SDF will start clearing the debris.

Duh, duh, duh.

By now, those debris on the ground are probably heavily contaminated with radiation. They could have done it much, much earlier. Why did anyone think of this much earlier?

Even if there was someone who thought of using the SDF's tanks, bureaucratic hurdles were just so high and numerous and probably the request would have gone nowhere.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: SDF Starts Hosing Reactor No.4

Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 8:39AM JST 3/20/2011):

Japan's Self Defense Force started dousing the Reactor No.4 for the first time from their fire engines on the ground, at 8:20 AM.

The SDF and Tokyo Metropolitan Fire Department have doused the Reactor No.3 to replenish water in the Spent Fuel Pool. This is the first time to try to do the same for the Reactor No.4.

The SDF plans to use 10 high-power fire engines to douse the Reactor with 60 to 80 tons of water.

The Reactor No.4 is the one that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said there is no water in the Spent Fuel Pool.

Even though the Japanese government has finally accepted the offer from the US military of 4 unmanned vehicles that can pump water 24 hours without endangering the personnel, they continue the farce of putting the Self Defense Force in front of the news media. The operation for the Reactor No.4 will be the same as the one they did for the Reactor No.3: pretty lame.

I'm pretty confident that the US vehicles will be paraded, just for the show, after the radiation is superbly controlled by the SDF and Japanese fire department and Japanese police.

The show must go on at all cost.

Additional info from Asahi Shinbun (in Japanese; 9:16AM JST 3/20/2011):

There will be also one of the engines offered from the US military, which will be operated by TEPCO.

Around noon, the SDF's CH47 helicopter is scheduled to fly over the plant to measure the temperatures [of the Reactors].

Never mind that the US military has been providing the more detailed reconnaissance data of the plant from the drones to the Japanese government.

As I've already said, the show must go on.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Ministry of Defense Released Video of Dousing Operation

(Update: 3/20/2011 JST) The SDF started to do the same (lame) operation on the Reactor No.4. See my post.

--------------------------------------------

The water from the Self Defense Force's fire engines barely reach the front of the Reactor No.3 building, hardly reach the white smoke rising in the back part of the reactor building. After the dousing, the white smoke starts to rise with renewed vigor.

Ministry of Defense thinks it has been a successful operation.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Ministry of Defense Says Reactors Are Not Hot

They don't have any prior data to compare the surface temperatures they measured from the SDF helicopter, but that doesn't seem to faze the Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. He seems to be saying that since the temperatures are lower than he feared, the cooling by sprayed water must be working and there must be enough water in the pool now.

That's his narrative and he's sticking to it, I suppose. Luckily for him, the reactor didn't blow up while he was speaking.

From Kyodo News (in Japanese, 5:33PM JST 3/19/2011):

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa announced in the press conference that the temperatures measured by the Self Defense Force helicopter for the Reactors No.1 through 4 were all below 100 degrees Celsius [212 degrees Fahrenheit]. Kitazawa said "The temperatures were lower than we had expected. We believe there is a good amount of water in the Spent Fuel Pool now," indicating he considered the dousing operation by the SDF and fire departments has been effective to some degree, and that the operation will continue.

I believe the US military has been flying unmanned drones over the Plant and collecting data. They don't seem to be sharing the data with their Japanese counterpart. Or are they, and the Japanese are simply not telling? (Answer: They are not telling. See my later post.)

Defense Minister isn't saying how much below 100, though.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: More Details of the SDF Operation "Irrigation"

And your heart will sink after you read them. Mine did. It seems almost delusional to me to think their effort made any difference at all, but this is what is fed to the Japanese public as a piece of reassuring news, who remain hopeful that their government's effort will work. I do hope they are right, and I'm the one who's delusional.

Main points from Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese, emphasis added; 10:07PM JST 3/17/2011):

The Self Defense Force dropped water from their large transport helicopters earlier today (3/17) on the Reactor No.3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Plant, followed by the high-power fire engines spraying water from the ground.

Ministry of Defense announced that 5 high-power fire engines that SDS owns sprayed water aiming at the Spent Fuel Pool on the 5th floor of the Reactor No.3. Initially, the SDS had planned to use 11 fire engines connected with the hose that would extend to the sea, but the radiation level was too high to deploy all 11 engines.

The dousing started at 7:35PM. The operation ended at 8:00PM, total 30 tons of water sprayed from 5 engines. Ministry of Defense claimed all of the water reached the top floor where the Spent Fuel Pool was located, and it would conduct another round of dousing if requested.

In a separate operation, the Police used their high-powered water sprayer [used by the Riot Police to disperse crowds] on the Reactor No.3 around 7:00PM, spraying 5 tons of water in 4 minutes. The water hit the building, but it was not known whether it reached the Pool. The operation was halted as the radiation level was too high. The Police had no further plans to spray water.

The Spent Fuel Pool at the Reactor No.3 is designed to hold 1,500 tons of water. If they can fill 40% of the Pool with water (or 5 meters from the bottom of the pool), the spent fuel rods (length 4.5 meters) will be covered.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO Says Watering Had Some Effect on Reactor No.3

I'm afraid it was another grandstanding by the government, to show to the citizens that their government is on top of the situation.

Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese, emphasis added; 12:04AM, 3/18/2011) relays TEPCO's comment:

TEPCO said in the press conference on March 18 that dousing of the Reactor No.3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant by the Self Defense Force using the SDF's large [high-powered] fire engines "had certain [positive] effects".

The SDF did the dousing 6 times using their fire engines from 7PM to 8PM on March 17. The fire engines were 10 meters (about 33 feet) away from the Reactor No.3. TEPCO had no precise information how much water went inside the Reactor No.3 building, but judging from the amount of steam coming out of the Reactor TEPCO said they believed the dousing was somewhat effective.

A heroic scene of the SDF battling nuclear fire only 10 meters away from the wrecked Reactor. Good PR for the prime minister.

Earlier, the SDF did the dousing from the air. From the reports in the Japanese media, that was mostly for the show. It endangered the SDF pilots by exposing them to high radiation (though they wore protective gears), but clearly with not much effect and the government abandoned that method.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO Claims SDF Saw Water in Reactor No.4's Spent Fuel Pool

From Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 1:01PM JST 3/17/2011):

Japan's Self Defense Force is doing the dousing of the Reactor No.3. TEPCO announced that the Self Defense Force helicopter doing the dousing of the Reactor No.3 saw water in the Spent Fuel Pool on the top floor of the Reactor No.4, and that the water seemed to completely cover the used nuclear fuel rods stored in the pool.

There are 783 nuclear fuel rods stored in the Spent Fuel Pool of the Reactor 4, INCLUDING the active fuel rods temporarily removed from the Pressure Vessel, so the temperature of the Spent Fuel Pool of the Reactor 4 is considered to be higher.

The Reactor No.3 which the SDF has been dousing with water has 514 used nuclear fuel rods in its Spent Fuel Pool. Steam is rising thick out of the Reactor No.3, and it is feared that the water level has gone down to a dangerous level.

The account of the SDF regarding the Reactor No.4 is diametrically opposite the dire assessment of the US Nuclear Regulation Commission. They can't both be right.

I hope the SDF is right, and the NRC is wrong.

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