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WORLD UPDATE: Focus on Japan
EDITORIAL BY RACHEL CLARK
In the last two days, in the city of Kitakyushu, Japan, eighty tons of radio-active rubble were burned in the name of “test burning.” Previously Shizuoka prefecture in Japan burned 10tons as their “test.”
Based on the following courageous video, I’ve found out that 100% of radio-active rubble can be dealt with in the disaster areas where people want to keep the waste. However, somehow a time limit was set for three years to clear the radio-active rubble due to which 20% of the rubble suddenly became available for other prefectures to “share the burden” like a good citizen (?)
In order to clear this 20% of rubble, the Japanese government allocated one hundred billion yen over which many major construction giants swarmed. They are the ones who constructed the nuclear power plants in Japan. (Reference Link here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXkk9xJ_FcM&list=UUek9hwJHFKeQ8RqcnoftPpA&index=3&feature=plcp
Transportation of the rubble is already dangerous enough. Burning the radio-active rubble increases the level of radiation by 20 fold, which eventually spreads all over Japan, contaminating even non-radio-active soil, water and air which will affect in turn, the entire world. In Japan, there is a condition to be an eligible candidate for burning facilities: Capacity to incinerate 100tons per day. Interestingly, in Tokyo there is only one such a facility which is an affiliated company of TEPCO. This incinerator will gain 1.4billion yen and the Tokyo prefecture will gain 100million yen as their brokerage fee.
Despite the furious reaction of the local people, Kitakyushu City already burned the rubble in order to express their capability as a government. Doesn’t it sound like suicidal? Why would they do that? Blogs and social media are going nuts about this issue. However, main stream media is quiet and so is foreign media.
UN scientists are not helping the situation, either. Please take a look at the following news:
Unbelievable! : http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120524x2.html
Unbelievable!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18181224
If Japanese government can allocate such a huge amount of budget, why don’t they use it within the disaster area so that vulnerable children can be moved out from the dangerous zone instead of making the entire country of Japan dangerous?
Look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l4onL5K6FY
The radiation level went up 10 times ( from 0.06 to 0.61usv/h) as the truck with radio-active ruble passed by in Kitakyushu City. In addition, the rubble contains not only radiation but also numerous kinds of carcinogens and other bio-hazardous chemicals.
This year, the Japanese government has paid 900million yen to Hakuhodo, one of the biggest Japanese advertizing agencies for their campaign ad of decontamination and burning radio-active rubble. They are planning to pay another 1.5 billion yen next year for the same cause: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncCbPfMNsx8&feature=relmfu
In this video, it also reveals that the Japanese government used to pay 4 billion yen to the same agency on a yearly basis when they were promoting energy conservation whereas such a huge budget should have been allocated for research and development of alternative energy.
The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Is Far From Over
Online:
Spent reactor fuel, containing roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl, still sits in pools vulnerable to earthquakes.
More than a year after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster began, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world are far from over. After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. senator, it's sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins pose far greater dangers than the molten cores. This is why:
• Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl
• Several pools are 100 feet above the ground and are completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were demolished by explosions. The pools could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake.
• The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating and can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds, if not thousands of miles.
This was not lost on Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who after visiting the site on April 6, wrote to Japan's U.S. ambassador, Ichiro Fujusaki, that "loss of containment in any of these pools... could result an even larger release of radiation than the nuclear accident."
The urgency of the situation is underscored by the ongoing seismic activity where 13 earthquakesof magnitude 4.0-5.7 have occurred off the northeast coast of Japan between April 14 and 17. This has been the norm since the first quake and tsunami hit the Dai-Ichi site on March 11 of last year. Larger quakes are expected closer to the power plant.
Spent nuclear fuel is extraordinarily radioactive and must be handled with great care. In a matter of seconds, an unprotected person one foot away from a single freshly removed spent fuel assembly would receive a lethal dose of radiation within seconds. As one of the most dangerous materials on the planet, spent reactor fuel requires permanent geological isolation to protect humans for thousands of years.
It's been 26 years, since the Chernobyl reactor exploded and caught fire releasing enormous amounts of radioactive debris -- seriously contaminating areas over a thousand miles away. Chernobyl revealed the folly of not having an extra barrier of thick concrete and steel surrounding the reactor core that is required for modern plants, in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere. The Fukushima Dai-Ichi accident revealed the folly of operating several nuclear power plants in a high consequence earthquake zone while storing huge amounts of highly radioactive spent fuel in vulnerable pools, high above the ground.
What both accidents have in common is widespread environmental contamination from cesium-137. With a half-life of 30, years, Cs-137 gives off penetrating radiation, as it decays and can remain dangerous for hundreds of years. Once in the environment, it mimics potassium as it accumulates in the food chain. When it enters the human body, about 75 percent lodges in muscle tissue, with, perhaps, the most important muscle being the heart.
Last week, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) revealed plans to remove 2,274 spent fuel assemblies from the damaged reactors that will probably take at least a decade to accomplish. The first priority will be removal of the contents in Pool No. 4. This pool is structurally damaged and contains about 10 times more cesium-137 than released at Chernobyl. Removal of SNF from the No. 4 reactor is optimistically expected to begin at the end of 2013. A significant amount of construction to remove debris and reinforce the structurally-damaged reactor buildings, especially the fuel- handling areas, will be required.
Also, it is not safe to keep 1,882 spent fuel assemblies containing ~57 million curies of long-lived radioactivity, including nearly 15 times more cs-137 than released at Chernobyl in the elevated pools at reactors 5, 6, and 7, which did not experience meltdowns and explosions.
The main reason why there is so much spent fuel at the Da-Ichi site is that the plan to send it off for nuclear recycling has collapsed. It was supposed to go to the incomplete Rokkasho reprocessing plant, just south of the Fukushima nuclear site, where plutonium would be extracted as a fuel for "fast" reactors. This scheme is based on long discredited assumptions that world uranium supplies would be rapidly exhausted and that a new generation of "fast" reactors, which held the promise of making more fuel than they use, would be needed. Over the past 20 years the Rokkasho's costs have tripled along with 18 major delays. World uranium supplies are far from depleted. Moreover, in November of last year, Japan's "fast" reactor project at Monju was cancelled for cost and safety reasons -- dealing a major blow to this whole scheme.
The stark reality, if TEPCO's plan is realized, is that nearly all of the spent fuel at the Da-Ichi containing some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet will remain indefinitely in vulnerable pools. TEPCO wants to store the spent fuel from the damaged reactors in the common pool, and only to resort to dry, cask storage when the common pool's capacity is exceeded. At this time, the common pool is at 80 percent storage capacity and will require removal of SNF to make room. TEPCO's plan is to minimize dry cask storage as much as possible and to rely indefinitely on vulnerable pool storage. Sen. Wyden finds that that TEPCO's plan for remediation "carries extraordinary and continuing risk" and sensibly recommends that "retrieval of spent fuel in existing on-site spent fuel pools to safer storage... in dry casks should be a priority."
Despite the enormous destruction from the earthquake and tsunami, little attention was paid to the fact that the nine dry spent fuel casks at the Fukushima Da-Ichi site were unscathed. This is an important lesson we cannot afford to ignore.
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