Newly found Fukushima nuclear plant contamination may delay cleanup

Fukushima and Chernobyl should be lessons on the dangers of criminal-grade hubris.

What a shock!

This isn't "new" this is "newly reported". They have known about this for a while.

oh! they haven't been monitoring the situation continuously?

"It's all under control" said a drunken politician with cash spilling out of his every pocket.

Newly found???? What they mean was that no one was checking....

Yes, and funds and resources were diverted to Olympics, don't forget to mention that.

"Newly found contamination?"....sure. More like "couldn't hide it anymore."

The radiation level on the underside of the plus is estimated to equal 10 SIEVERTS per hour. Higher enough to kill any worker or operator going near it. Normally the plugs are removed to allow for the removal of the spent fuel and its replacement. They are huge and weight about 40 tons.

The removal will have to happen using remote controlled equipment.

The money spent on the Olympic Games has nothing to do with the money for the nuclear disaster. To date, the cost of the nuclear disaster is ¥25 trillion, mostly taxpayer money. The technical problems are greater than the money ones.

In the end the will be millions of tons of highly radioactive waste, including spent fuel, 900 tons of melted fuel which will need safe storage for many thousands of years.

There has never been a nuclear accident like the Fukushima so there is no previous experience and knowledge to resolving the problems.

Based on UK experience with Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear reactor, decommission is expected to last 70 years. This reactor was shut down in an orderly manner. However, the 'Dirty 30' room and First Generation Magnox storage pond, containing an unknown number of heavily contaminated items from the plant's inception, have not been started upon.

Demolition of reactor buildings and final site clearance is planned for 2105 to 2144! And that is if it all goes to plan.

Newly discovered after 10 years. Of course I believe it.

Not quite sure why so many negatives were dished out to zichi and wanderlust, for telling the truth. zichi's is non-emotive and factual, except for a few editing glitches. 'Millions of tons' probably refers to the piles of earth in temporary storage areas around Fukushima, I should imagine.

I read about these highly radioactive plugs sometime last year, so the discovery is hardly new. The article itself is not very well written, so it is hard to get a crystal clear picture of the situation there. And then in the midst of all that clunky writing above they suddenly say that the No1 plug was twisted or distorted in some way by the hydrogen explosion, a fact that was not disclosed before, to my knowledge.

The down votes aplenty are across the board today, it might be a "glitch"! Certainly suspicious, but I'm sure the mods can sort it out. I will take any news about Fucashima from a foreign source. I remember watching it explode on the BBC, then NHK said its all good, government said don't worry? BBC the containment vessels are breached, NHK just hydrogen? So who do you trust a proven source or a government propaganda utility.

And there is a constant outflow into the sea where radioactive particles are placed, to then become mobile (again) in heavy seas and then are lifted up onto the land.

There is a continual and increased buildup of radioactivity from this disaster.

Plate tectonics should take over and dump the whole area into the sea.

The earth is a living organism and it would not be the first highly and low level radioactive mater8al would find itself in the sea.

Not quite sure why so many negatives were dished out to zichi and wanderlust, for telling the truth.

It's probably children on the site. They were here pumping up Trump before.

nandakandamandaToday 10:28 am JST

Not quite sure why so many negatives were dished out to zichi and wanderlust, for telling the truth.

There is a "person", bot, whoever up(down)voting anything pro(against) japanese by exactly 10 each time, it's done in just a few seconds.

Thank you GE and Westinghouse.

nandakandamanda

Not quite sure why so many negatives were dished out to zichi and wanderlust, for telling the truth. zichi's is non-emotive and factual, except for a few editing glitches. 'Millions of tons' probably refers to the piles of earth in temporary storage areas around Fukushima, I should imagine.

No I actually mean millions of tons of highly radioactive waste which will come from this nuclear disaster site and the 20 nuclear plants which have been licensed for decommissioning. The storage problem will have to be solved sooner or later.

The more than one million tons of soil removed during decontamination works are not a problem, except for the eyes. It was all just a PR job by the government to lift the evacuation zones and encourage the former residents to return. The radiation levels of the soil are low.

I read about these highly radioactive plugs sometime last year, so the discovery is hardly new. The article itself is not very well written, so it is hard to get a crystal clear picture of the situation there. And then in the midst of all that clunky writing above they suddenly say that the No1 plug was twisted or distorted in some way by the hydrogen explosion, a fact that was not disclosed before, to my knowledge.

It was first reported back in 2011-12 when it was discovered the reactor plug for the No1 reactor had moved during the explosions and was slightly ajar and releasing radiation. The more recent discovery of the high levels of radiation attached to the plugs came at the end of last year. The meltdowns exploded, sending the nuclear fuel all over the inside of the reactors. The radiation levels inside those reactors are more than 50 SIEVERTS.

moonbloom

Thank you GE and Westinghouse.

The design of the plant was signed off by TEPCO. GE wanted the cooling fans and emergency generators on higher ground but that would have increased the costs of construction which TEPCO refused. Just has they refused to increase the height of the sea wall in 2008.

In normal procedures when the cycle of changing the spent nuclear fuels, the plug would be removed and placed on the floor at the upper level where the spent fuel cooling pool is. The large yellow reactor vessel cap would then be removed and also placed on the floor. The reactor vessel is filled with its cooling water.

The spent fuel is then removed and placed into the cooling pool. It would remain there for 3-5 years, before being moved to the common cooling pool located in its own building next to the reactor buildings. After a period there, the spent fuel is placed in dry casks and moved to the dry cask building located on the dock area below the reactors 5&6. Non of the dry casks were damaged by the earthquake or tsunami.

Following the meltdowns and explosions the containment vessel of concrete and steel which houses the steel nuclear reactor, was damaged and cracks appeared. The containment vessel needs to be filled with cooling water but some of that highly radioactive water leaks out of those cracks, and into the basement of the reactor building. Other ground water was also getting into those basements at the rate of 700 tons per day.

The ice wall reduced the ground water to 100 tons per day. That basement water is collected and cleaned of all the nuclear radioactivity except for the tritium. That is the water in the storage tanks. Some of the basement water leaks out into the sea.

If TEPCO could repair those cracks it would help in many ways. The containment vessel could then hold its cooling water. The spent fuel needs to be removed from the cooling pools, which is currently happening with the No3 reactor and will take until some time next year to complete.

The reactor plug will have to be removed and placed into a pool of water to prevent the release of the radiation. The same with the steel reactor vessel top. New pools might have to be constructed to hold them. That leaves the containment vessel open but full of cooling water.

TEPCO will have to come up with a plan to remover the molten nuclear fuel which is attached to all parts of the inside. Melted onto the concrete. From smallest tiny pieces to very large pieces. Those removals will have to go into a contain in the spend fuel cooling pool.

All that work must be carried out bu robots and remote controlled equipment.

So, we’ll only be paying for it until 2080?

smithinjapan

So, we’ll only be paying for it until 2080?

Much longer than that. Tens of thousands of years.

zichi

The design of the plant was signed off by TEPCO. GE wanted the cooling fans and emergency generators on higher ground but that would have increased the costs of construction which TEPCO refused. Just has they refused to increase the height of the sea wall in 2008.

GE, Westinghouse, and the US (along with their LDP supporters, notably Shoriki Matsutaro) were behind the campaign to convince Japanese people to accept nuclear power (after the horrors of Nagasaki/Hiroshima) in the first place.

If they hadn't been successful nuclear power facilities wouldn't have been installed at Fukushima to begin with.

[ In January 1956, Shōriki became chairman of the newly created Japanese Atomic Energy Commission, and in May of that year was appointed head of the brand-new Science and Technology Agency, both under the cabinet of Ichirō Hatoyama with strong support behind the scenes from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.[2]

In 2006, Tetsuo Arima, a professor specialising in media studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, published an article that proved Shōriki acted as an agent under the codenames of "podam" and "pojackpot-1" for the CIA to establish a pro-US nationwide commercial television network (NTV) and to introduce nuclear power plants using U.S. technologies across Japan. Arima's accusations were based on the findings of de-classified documents stored in the NARA in Washington, DC.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsutar%C5%8D_Sh%C5%8Driki#Nuclear_power

moonbloom

thank you I know all about that and more. I accidentally deleted my reply before I posted. My Bad.