Fukushima Daiichi latest - hows the clear up going?

[pie-eater 207]

Yes I suppose so. Though that would be one of my suggested solutions of course.

 

[Chriselle 158]

Suggested...?? I thought that plan was rubber stamped and near completed...?? I can see why you are liking the Abe administration..

[pie-eater 207]

They don't respond to my suggestions.

 

[Chriselle 158]

haha...

[pie-eater 207]

But, nebba gibu appu!

 

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Gambatte!

[BagOfCrisps 24]

The reports are daily now, getting worse each day

 

The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has radiation leaks strong enough to deliver a fatal dose within hours, Japanese authorities have revealed, as the government prepares to step in to help contain leaks of highly toxic water at the site.

On Wednesday the country's nuclear regulation authority said radiation readings near water storage tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have increased to a new high, with emissions above the ground near one group of tanks were as high as 2,200 millisieverts [mSv] per hour – a rise of 20% from the previous high.

Earlier this week the plant's operator, Tepco, said workers had measured radiation at 1,800 mSv an hour near a storage tank.

That was the previous highest reading since Tepco began installing tanks to store huge quantities of contaminated water that have built up at the plant.

An unprotected person standing close to the contaminated areas would, within hours, receive a deadly radiation dose. The nuclear regulation authority said the radiation comprised mostly beta rays that could be blocked by aluminium foil, unlike more penetrative gamma rays.

Tepco's admission in August that about 300 tonnes of radioactive groundwater is escaping into the nearby Pacific Ocean every day, and the more recent discovery of leaking storage tanks and pipes, prompted the government to inject more than £300m to contain the water crisis.

The emergency measures, announced on Tuesday, involve building a mile-long impenetrable frozen wall beneath the plant to prevent groundwater from mixing with contaminated coolant water. The coolant becomes tainted after coming into contact with melted uranium fuel deep inside the damaged reactors.

Currently about 400 tonnes of groundwater are streaming into the reactor basements from the hills behind the plant each day. The water is pumped out and held in about 1,000 storage tanks. The tanks contain 330,000 tonnes of water with varying levels of toxicity.

Officials are conducting a feasibility study into the frozen wall, with completion expected by March 2015. Although the technology isn't new, the scale of the Fukushima Daiichi project is unprecedented for an atomic facility.

The government also wants to speed up the development of a new water treatment system that can remove most radioactive substances from the water. Tepco has already constructed once such facility but it has not been used since equipment was found to have corroded during a trial run.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said he understood the growing concern at home and overseas about the state of the plant but said his government was now "taking the lead" to solve the problem. "To do that we are resolutely implementing drastic measures."

Abe, who will make Tokyo's final pitch in the city's bid to host the 2020 Olympics at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aries this weekend, added: "I will be explaining to the IOC that in seven years' time, 2020, it will not be a problem at all."

 

Hurry up pie-eater + Abenomics!

[pie-eater 207]

I was just reading that.

 

An unprotected person standing close to the contaminated areas would, within hours, receive a deadly radiation dose. The nuclear regulation authority said the radiation comprised mostly beta rays that could be blocked by aluminium foil, unlike more penetrative gamma rays.

 

It reminded me of a fella called David Banner who took a dose of gamma rays and it made him turning into a 'hulking' monster when he got angry.

He spent ages searching for solutions without success unfortunately.

It was a cautionary tale and many documentaries about his search can be found.

 

Hopefully Fukushima won't also have lots of people like David Banner wandering around in the future.

[DumbStick 13]

Radiation levels around tanks storing contaminated water at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have risen by a fifth to a new high, officials say.

 

Ground readings near one set of tanks stood at 2,200 millisieverts (mSv) on Tuesday, the plant operator and Japan's nuclear authority said.

 

Saturday's reading was 1,800 mSv.

 

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

I can't see how the government will do a better job unless it involves turning the place over to an independent group of experts from around the world......sadly I can't see Japan doing that

 

I'd be willing to give some of my time, Tubby.

 

I'd be willing to lend them my Roomba.

 

Not forever, though. Still have a sizable dog-hair problem at home that needs taking care of.

[muikabochi 208]

...lend...

 

Ah, but would you want it back?

[pie-eater 207]

It might come back as two. Or with more antenna. Thus improving efficiency!

[Tubby Beaver 209]

And glowing which means u won't trip over it in the dark

[@tokyo 14]

Abe told us all that it's totally under control.

So, we might as well close this thread I reckon.

[pie-eater 207]

Well, I jolly well think that we should keep it open to discuss Abe's fantastic successes moving forward.

 

[DumbStick 13]

In that case, we'll need more server space!

[DumbStick 13]

Return to the radiation zone: Fukushima clean-up operation mired in fear and misinformation

 

Two years after Japan’s nuclear power plant disaster nobody knows for certain how dangerous the contamination is

 

They got that wrong, Abe does!

It's under total control and no danger.

 

Across much of Fukushima’s rolling green countryside they descend on homes like antibodies around a virus; men wielding low-tech tools against a very modern enemy, radiation. Power hoses, shovels and mechanical diggers are used to scour toxins that rained down from the sky 30 months ago. The job is exhausting, expensive, and – some say – doomed to failure.

 

Today, a sweating four-man crew wearing surgical masks and boiler suits cleans the home of 71-year-old Hiroshi Saito and his wife Terue, 68. The aim is to bring average radiation at this home down to 1.5 microsieverts an hour, still several times what it was before the accident but safe enough, perhaps, for Mr Saito’s seven grandchildren to visit. “My youngest grandchild has never been here,” he says. Since 2011, the family reunites in Soma, about 20km (12 miles) away.

For a few days during March 2011, after a string of explosions at the Daiichi nuclear plant roughly 25 kilometres to the south, rain and snow laced with radiation fell across this area, contaminating thousands of acres of rich farmland and forests.

More than 160,000 people nearest the plant were ordered to evacuate. The Saito’s home fell a few miles outside the 20km compulsory evacuation zone, but like thousands of others, they left voluntarily. When they returned two weeks later their neat, two-storey country house appeared undamaged but it was covered in an invisible poison only detectable with beeping Geiger counters.

Nobody knows for certain how dangerous the radiation is. Japan’s central government refined its policy in December 2011, defining evacuation zones as “areas where cumulative dose levels might reach 20 millisieverts per year [20 mSv/yr],” the typical worldwide limit for nuclear power plant engineers and other radiation workers.

The worst radiation is supposed to be confined to the 20km exclusion zone, but it spread unevenly: less than 5km north of the Daiichi plant, our Geiger counter shows less than 5 millisieverts a year; 40km north west, in parts of Iitate village, it is well over 120 millisieverts. Those 160,000 refugees have not returned and are scattered throughout Japan. The nuclear diaspora is swelled by thousands of voluntary refugees who, unlike the Saitos, have not returned. Local governments are spending millions of dollars to persuade them back.

[big-will 7]

In 2 days radiation levels increased 15 times in some parts of Fukushima Daiichi.

According to the evening news here now.

[pie-eater 207]

Kanzen ni BLOCK!

 

Watch and learn

 

 

[pie-eater 207]

Abe was at Fukushima Daiichi today.

 

So I think we can fully expect it to all be sorted out giving him enough time to return home for tea and crumpets.

 

[pie-eater 207]

I see a fairly strong quake in Fukushima last night.

 

 

SuperAbe probably ordered it specially to test his new 'under control' measures already implemented.

 

[muikabochi 208]

That's pretty close.

 

[Chriselle 158]

More..leaky..leaky...

[grungy-gonads 54]

Can't see any mention of Fukushima Daiichi on the news about this shindo 5+.

 

Hopefully that means there isn't any, rather than..... something else.

[fukdane 2]

汚染水が港湾外に流出、別タンクから排水路通じ

 

(Contaminated water leaked outside the port, drainage through from another tank)

 

Don't worry though, it's under control.