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- High radioactivity levels (…)
- Meltdowns haven’t killed (…)
- Leak confirmed at Fukushima
- Status of melted fuel in (…)
- Suit over patient deaths
- TEPCO again corrects radiation
- TEPCO finds groundwater (…)
- Fukushima survey finds 12 (…)
- High-level radiation zones (…)
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- 4 members leave Fukushima (…)
- Over 10,000 people have (…)
- Tepco admits culpability (…)
- Data reveals that 75 percent
- Last no-go zone designation
- Ground freeze urged to curb
- Fukushima village residents to
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- Fukushima debris disposal (…)
- Radiation level at Fukushima
- TEPCO eyes dumping groundwater
- Clinic opens in fallout-hit
High radioactivity levels detected in groundwater at Fukushima plant
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has detected very high radioactivity levels in groundwater from an observation well at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crippled by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
In the water sampled May 24, the strontium 90 level stood at 1,000 becquerels per liter, about 30 times as high as the maximum allowable standard, and the toritium level at 500,000 becquerels, some eight times higher, it said.
The groundwater at the well some 27 meters from the sea may not have affected nearby seawater, whose radioactivity levels have remained within the range of past levels, a TEPCO official said.
TEPCO set up the observation well on the Pacific side of the No. 2 reactor turbine building last December to look into why radioactivity levels in seawater near the plant remained high.
The well is about 29 meters north of a pit from which highly radioactive water was found flowing into the sea on April 2, 2011, just after the disaster.
The sampled groundwater could be from the contaminated water that might have penetrated into the ground, TEPCO said.
The company plans to dig four more wells around the observation well to check any spread of radioactive contaminated water and improve the seawall to prevent contaminated water from flowing into the sea.
* Kyodo News, June 19, 2013:
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130619p2g00m0dm088000c.html
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Meltdowns haven’t killed anyone: LDP bigwig
Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Sanae Takaichi has created a stir by saying the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns didn’t kill anyone and arguing the government should restart reactors nationwide given Japan’s scarce energy resources.
Delivering a speech in Kobe on Monday, Takaichi said the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant “has not claimed the lives of any people,” and argued the nation should “utilize nuclear power stations after securing the maximum possible safety.”
No deaths have been confirmed to be directly related to the massive quantities of radioactive materials spewed from the Fukushima No. 1 plant’s wrecked reactors since the March 2011 triple meltdowns.
However, hundreds of elderly people and hospitalized patients around the stricken complex were forced to evacuate because of the disaster, resulting in at least 70 deaths, according to the final report by the investigatory Diet committee on the crisis.
Takaichi’s remarks were heavily covered in media reports, forcing Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga to try to defend her Tuesday by claiming certain parts of the speech were taken out of context.
“I saw the context, and I don’t think it’s a problematic remark,” Suga told a news conference Tuesday. “It is true (the three meltdowns) did not kill anybody.”
But when asked about the fatalities caused by the evacuation of elderly and hospitalized people, Suga admitted some of them had died and said “we recognize the vast damage.”
“It’s true some people died at evacuation places,” Suga said.
Reiji Yoshida, Japan Times Staff Writer, June 19, 2013
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Unfiltered fan ran for three days after radiation leak
A ventilation fan with no filters was used for three days after a radiation leak at an atomic research laboratory in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, the lab’s operators said Tuesday.
This means that radioactive substances may have continued to escape from the facility after the operators reported the leak to regulators on the night of May 24.
The radiation leak occurred around 11:55 a.m. May 23 at the Japan Proton Accelerator Complex (J-PARC).
The fan started around 5:30 p.m. May 23 to reduce radiation levels inside the complex and continued running until 11 a.m. May 26, according to the operators, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization.
Yujiro Ikeda of J-PARC said that an order to stop the fan failed to reach officials at the complex.
The fan was also used for about 15 minutes starting at 3:15 p.m. May 23.
Jiji Press, June 19, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/19/national/unfiltered-fan-ran-for-three-days-after-radiation-leak/#.UcegTNhjbRY
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Leak confirmed at Fukushima Daiichi water treatment facility
TOKYO (Kyodo) — An estimated 250 liters of radioactive water leaked from one of the water decontamination facilities at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday.
The water, sent to the facilities after being used to cool the crippled reactors, has not flowed outside of the complex, and radiation levels at monitoring points around it have not changed significantly, according to the utility.
Shortly after a leak detector was activated around 3 a.m. Friday, a plant worker confirmed the leak inside a building housing a desalination unit. The worker suspended the unit.
The leak occurred because a cover attached to a water flow measuring device in the desalination unit was broken, according to TEPCO. The utility replaced the device and restarted the unit around 7 p.m.
After the plant was swamped by huge tsunami waves on March 11, 2011, TEPCO created a system in which water used to cool the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors passes through facilities that remove radioactive cesium and salt before it is stored in tanks. Part of the water is sent back to the reactors.
Kyodo News, June 21, 2013
* http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130621p2g00m0dm036000c.html
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Status of melted fuel in Fukushima reactors uncertain despite push for early removal
Uncertainty over the location of melted fuel inside the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant continues to cast a shadow over plans to remove the fuel at an early date, as envisaged in a draft version of a revised road map for decommissioning the plants’ reactors.
A draft announced by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on June 10 outlines plans to start removing the melted fuel about 18 months earlier than originally forecast. But the proposed length of time it will take to decommission the reactors has been left unchanged at “30 to 40 years.”
Reactor Nos. 1-3 at the plant contained a total of 1,496 rods of nuclear fuel in their cores. Another 3,106 rods of spent fuel are stored in the pools of the No. 1-4 reactors. The melted fuel inside the reactors has been labeled “debris,” and is believed to have hardened after mixing with metal and other substances. Each fuel rod weighs about 300 kilograms, and a high level of technical expertise would be required when undertaking a remote control operation to cut up and retrieve clumps of scattered radioactive materials weighing a combined 450 tons or thereabouts.
The bid to remove the melted fuel earlier than planned hinges on whether workers can succeed in filling the reactor cores with water. This method to screen off radiation was used in the Three Mile Island accident that occurred in 1979. However, the cores of reactors at the Fukushima plant have holes, and the task at hand is finding which parts have been damaged and repairing them.
It took about six years before fuel began to be removed in the Three Mile Island accident, but in Fukushima, even if the melted fuel is removed earlier than planned, the work won’t start until about 10 years from the onset of the disaster.
The government and TEPCO plan to conduct a detailed investigation next fiscal year on the technology needed to decommission the Fukushima plant’s crippled reactors, then make a final decision on whether it is possible to start the removal work earlier.
In a news conference on June 10, a representative of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy said that bringing forward the plans would be dependent on developing technology, and suggested that the plans might even end up being delayed.
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshimitsu Motegi played a leading role in revising the roadmap. This has raised suggestions that announcing plans to start removing the fuel earlier than originally forecast is a way for the government administration to underscore its achievements since taking over the reins of government last year, ahead of the upcoming House of Councillors election.
Mainichi Shimbun, June 11, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130611p2a00m0na010000c.html
Suit over patient deaths
A damages suit has been filed against Tokyo Electric Power Co. by 15 relatives of four patients who died in 2011 in the early days of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant meltdown catastrophe due to alleged improper medical care blamed on chaotic evacuations and power outages.
The 15 plaintiffs are seeking some \125 million in damages from Tepco in their suit filed Monday with the Tokyo District Court, saying the patients died because they were not able to be treated during the evacuation process, which caused them to lose strength.
The four patients who died, ranging in age from their 60s to 90s, were staying at Futaba Hospital or its affiliated nursing facility in the town of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, and died between March 15 and April 18, 2011, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. The central government has acknowledged that the four deaths were nuclear disaster-related.
The relatives of three other patients who died at the hospital also plan to sue Tepco.
According to the Fukushima Prefectural Government, 51 people at Futaba Hospital and its nursing facility, including inpatients, died between March 11, 2011, the day of nuclear crisis started, and April 30, 2011.
ÅgI hope the lawsuit will reveal how a member of my family died,Åh one of the plaintiffs said.
Tepco declined comment on the suit, saying it has yet to examine the details.
Jiji Press, June 12, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/12/national/suit-over-patient-deaths/#.UbrBLdjuLRY
TEPCO again corrects radiation level of groundwater at nuclear plant
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday again corrected the radiation level of groundwater samples taken from the premises of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, saying it was a tenth of the level announced earlier this month.
It is the second time that the utility has corrected the data regarding groundwater, part of which TEPCO is seeking to dump in the Pacific Ocean after confirming that concentrations of radioactive substances are sufficiently low.
The utility said in May that radioactive cesium in the groundwater was at a level that could not be detected by an instrument at the Fukushima plant, but on June 3 TEPCO said the sample contained 0.61 becquerel of radioactive cesium per liter.
On Wednesday, however, TEPCO said that a maximum of 0.055 becquerel of cesium had been detected.
All of the figures are below the threshold that TEPCO views as the upper limit for releasing groundwater, which is less than one becquerel per liter.
But the latest development could deal another blow to TEPCO as the utility is trying to get the nod from local fishermen to discharge groundwater that would otherwise flow into reactor buildings and become highly contaminated with radioactive substances.
Kyodo News, June 13, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130613p2g00m0dm045000c.html
TEPCO finds groundwater contaminated with radioactive cesium
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday that it has detected radioactive cesium in groundwater samples taken from the premises of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, reversing an earlier announcement that any contamination was negligible.
The announcement came as TEPCO is trying to secure the understanding of local fishermen over the dumping in the Pacific Ocean of groundwater that has been pumped out from wells at the site, saying it has confirmed that concentrations of radioactive substances are sufficiently low.
TEPCO had said radioactive cesium in the groundwater was at a level that could not be detected by an instrument at the Fukushima Daiichi complex. But the same sample was found to contain 0.22 becquerel of cesium-134 and 0.39 becquerel of cesium-137 per liter when checked at the Fukushima Daini plant, where radiation levels are lower.
According to the utility, there was a problem in accounting for background radiation.
The revised amount of cesium-137 is still below the level that TEPCO views as the upper limit for releasing groundwater, which is less than one becquerel.
Currently, about 400 tons of groundwater seeps into the crippled reactor buildings every day, where it becomes contaminated with radioactive substances. This means that the total volume of toxic water is increasing by the same amount daily.
To slow the rate of accumulation of polluted water, TEPCO has created a system to direct part of the groundwater into the ocean by pumping it out before it flows into the reactor buildings. The groundwater is stored in tanks before it is discharged.
But the utility has not been able to fully operate the system amid concern from local fishermen that dumping groundwater may affect the marine environment.
The latest revelation could undermine the credibility of related data presented by TEPCO, possibly making it hard for the utility to get the nod to discharge the groundwater and standing in the way of the overall plan to tackle the massive amounts of radioactive water at the plant.
Kyodo News, June 04, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130604p2g00m0dm041000c.html
Fukushima survey finds 12 confirmed, 15 suspected with thyroid cancer
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) — A study on the impact of radiation on Fukushima Prefecture residents from the crippled atomic power plant has found 12 minors with confirmed thyroid cancer and 15 others with suspected cancer, a prefectural health panel said Wednesday.
The figures were taken from about 174,000 people aged 18 or younger whose initial thyroid screening results have been confirmed, researchers at the Fukushima Medical University, which has taken a key role in the study, said.
Compared with a previous report in February, the confirmed diagnoses of thyroid cancer were up from three and suspected cases up from seven.
The prefecture’s thyroid screenings target roughly 360,000 people who were aged 18 or younger when the March 2011 crisis erupted at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station following a major earthquake and tsunami.
But Hokuto Hoshi, who heads the prefectural panel looking into the radiation impact on local residents’ health, said at a news conference that the most recent cases “so far do not say that (these are the) effects of radiation.” Hoshi is a regular board member of the Fukushima Medical Association, a group of physicians in the prefecture.
The initial phase checks the size of lumps and other symptoms and categorizes possible cases into four groups depending on the degree of seriousness. Those in the two most serious groups are picked for secondary exams.
In fiscal 2011, after confirming test results from about 40,000 minors, the prefecture sent 205 for secondary testing. Of the 205, seven were diagnosed with thyroid cancer, four came out with suspected cases, and another person had surgery but the tumor was found to be benign.
In fiscal 2012, of about 134,000 minors with confirmed initial screening results, the prefecture sent 935 to secondary testing. Among them, five were confirmed to have thyroid cancer while there were 11 suspected cases.
Kyodo News, June 05, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130605p2g00m0dm041000c.html
High-level radiation zones reduced to 1/4 after 2011 crisis
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Areas most seriously contaminated by the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster saw the size of high-level radiation zones in March reduced to less than one-fourth of the level of November 2011, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday.
About seven months after the nuclear accident occurred, zones with radiation over 19 microsieverts per hour accounted for 27 percent of the total area that has been designated as “difficult to return to for at least five years.”
But the proportion of the zones dropped to 16 percent as of June 28, 2012, and to 6 percent as of March 11 this year, according to aircraft monitoring surveys.
The government is expected to use the data in its planning to enable evacuees to return to their homes following the world’s worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
After the Fukushima Daiichi complex achieved a stable state of cold shutdown in December 2011, the government has been reclassifying evacuation zones to places designated as “difficult-to-return,” or “habitation-restricted.”
The difficult-to-return zones, which are defined as areas with radiation over 50 millisieverts per year, currently total about 320 square kilometers, excluding the 3-km radius from the plant.
The NRA also decided to further revise its nuclear disaster mitigation guidelines compiled in the wake of Fukushima crisis by adding details over the preparation of iodine tablets, which help prevent thyroid cancer.
In the guidelines, people living within a 5-km radius of a nuclear power plant will be given a supply of iodine tablets so they can promptly take the pills after an accident occurs.
Local governments are asked to purchase the tablets and conduct explanatory meetings to residents before distribution. Doctors will attend the meetings to explain about the side effects, the timing of taking the pills and other precautions.
Japan currently does not have iodine formula for infants that can be distributed ahead of time, so the NRA urges in the guidelines to evacuate infants before the plant’s situation reaches a stage where citizens in general are asked to flee, an official said.
Kyodo News, June 06, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130606p2g00m0dm037000c.html
Small leak found at water storage tank at Fukushima Daiichi plant
TOKYO (Kyodo) — The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Wednesday that it found radioactive water dripping from one of the newly installed steel tanks that is being used in place of the leaky underground water storage cisterns.
The amount of leaked water is estimated to be around 1 liter. A Tokyo Electric Power Co. official told a press conference that there is no need to worry about the impact on the external environment and the company is studying the cause.
The tank was installed on the south side of the plant in May so TEPCO could transfer part of the over 20,000 tons of contaminated water held in underground cisterns, which were found to have leaks in April.
According to TEPCO, workers found radioactive water leaking from the surface of the steel tank at a rate of one drip per several seconds at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday.
The tank is built of steel plates held together by bolts and the dripping was observed at the junctions of the plates.
Tightening the bolts failed to stop the leak so TEPCO removed some of the contents inside the troubled container so the height of the water was lower than the point where the leak occurred.
TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono said the latest incident will not cause the company to drastically change its handling of radioactive water that is accumulating at the site as a result of it being injected into the three crippled reactors to keep them cool.
Ono also said there were three similar leaks involving the same type of steel tanks in 2012.
Kyodo News, June 06, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130606p2g00m0dm038000c.html
4 members leave Fukushima panel overseeing prefectural health survey
A Fukushima Prefectural Government panel set up to monitor tests of residents’ health in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant announced the exit of four members and the introduction of a new goal at a meeting on June 5.
The panel, which earlier came under fire over “secret meetings” to harmonize the opinions of its members, announced that it would change its goal from “alleviating anxiety” of residents to “maintaining and promoting the health of prefectural residents into the future.”
Four panel members from Fukushima Medical University including Vice President Shunichi Yamashita, a leading figure in the Fukushima Prefectural Government’s health survey, have stepped down.
The move came in response to growing distrust among prefectural residents that members were working on the basis that there are no adverse health effects from radiation leaked during the nuclear crisis. By having people associated with the university, which is leading the tests, step down from the panel, officials hope to establish objectivity and neutrality in its evaluation of the prefectural health survey.
New members of the panel include Shuji Shimizu, a professor at Fukushima University who has pursued the issue of nuclear-related payouts, and Hirosaki University professor Shinji Tokonami, who has been conducting health checks in collaboration with the Fukushima Prefecture town of Namie.
The panel announced in a meeting June 5 that nine more children from the prefecture had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer during testing, bringing the total number to 12. Another 15 are suspected of having cancer.
“In a large-scale survey, we would expect to find this many cancer cases. But large-scale surveys are not normally conducted, and we can’t draw comparisons,” said panel member Kazuo Shimizu, a professor at Nippon Medical School.
The prefectural government has now provided data on the results of local government bodies’ thyroid cancer tests and lists of cancer patients to the panel. Previously it had withheld the data on privacy grounds.
Mainichi Shimbun, June 06, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130606p2a00m0na013000c.html
Over 10,000 people have yet to apply for redress from Tepco
An estimated 11,000 of 160,000 residents in 13 coastal municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture have yet to file compensation claims over the nuclear crisis, it was learned Thursday.
Their right to request redress from Tokyo Electric Power Co. may expire as early as September 2014 as the three-year right to make a claim under the Civil Code will expire, sources said.
Tepco began accepting claims in September 2011.
The utility and municipalities that issued evacuation orders after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis started intend to urge those who have yet to make claims to apply soon, the sources said.
According to a tally by Tepco, 165,824 people in the 13 municipalities have applied for provisional compensation.
Of them, 11,214 people have yet to file full compensation applications. By municipality, the figure stands at 6,101 in Minamisoma, the most among the 13 municipalities, followed by 1,114 in Namie and 832 in Tomioka.
The Diet enacted a special law in May to allow people seeking out-of-court settlements with Tepco to file uits even after rights to compensation claims expire.
Given that most of the people in question have not made applications to the public body handling the out-of-court settlements, they are unlikely to be covered by the special law, the sources said.
Jiji Press, June 7, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/07/national/over-10000-people-have-yet-to-apply-for-redress-from-tepco/#.Ubpx9NjuLRY
Tepco admits culpability in Fukushima farmerÅfs suicide
Tokyo Electric Power has conceded the Fukushima nuclear meltdown disaster played a part in a farmer’s 2011 suicide, lawyers said Thursday, its first admission of culpability in such a case.
The utility has reached an out-of-court settlement with the family of Hisashi Tarukawa, a Fukushima farmer who took his own life 12 days after three reactors at Tepco’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant experienced core meltdowns, spewing radioactive fallout across wide regions, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate and sending the local farming and fisheries industries into tailspins.
It was the first time Tepco has accepted in a settlement that the nuclear disaster at its plant was a factor in a suicide, the lawyers said, adding that the terms of the settlement package were not being made public.
The government has officially recognized that at least 80 people had committed suicide as of last December because of the Fukushima disaster.
Tarukawa, 64, hanged himself from a tree in a vegetable field after authorities banned shipments of some farm produce from Fukushima because of fears it was radioactive.
“I just didn’d want Tepco to keep saying no one was killed because of the nuclear accident,” said Kazuya Tarukawa, the dead man’s 37-year-old son.
He said he still wanted the company to make an official apology for his father’s suicide.
“Does Tepco think everything is finished if money is paid?” he asked.
“I want them to come to my house under the name of the company and bow to my father’s altar. My fight is not over yet.”
Lawyer Izutaro Managi said companies facing lawsuits are often reluctant to give official apologies for fear that this could be interpreted as an admission of full culpability.
Tepco declined comment on the details of the settlement.
Although the natural disaster that spawned the nuclear emergency claimed more than 18,000 lives, no one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the meltdown catastrophe.
However, tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and businesses in the area around the site, and many remain evacuated, with scientists warning some places may have to be abandoned forever.
The cash-strapped operator of the crippled plant, which remains in a precarious state, faces growing compensation claims from Fukushima victims, including the relatives of suicide victims like Tarukawa.
Last month, the 35-year-old widow of a cattle farmer filed a lawsuit against Tepco, demanding \126 million in damages after her husband killed himself when he was ordered to stop shipments of milk due to the disaster.
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, according to the OECD, with around 30,000 people taking their lives each year.
Doctors have warned that the earthquake-tsunami and nuclear crises were resulting in higher than usual incidences of mental health problems, noting the uptick in suicides in the region was probably a consequence.
AFP-Jiji Press, June 7, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/07/national/tepco-admits-culpability-in-fukushima-farmers-suicide/#.Ubpz6djuLRY
Data reveals that 75 percent of decontamination work in housing areas remains unfinished
Only one-fourth of work to decontaminate housing areas following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis had been completed in seven prefectures in the Kanto and Tohoku regions by this March, the Ministry of the Environment said.
The government targeted 58 municipalities in regions outside Fukushima Prefecture as decontamination areas, whose progress would be regularly monitored.
According to the latest data, decontamination work had been completed on 98 percent of schools and daycare facilities — as well as 80 percent of parks and public gymnasiums — by the end of March.
In the area of housing, however, the process has been slow. While the number of decontaminated houses increased by 10,000 from December last year to reach a total of 34,500, this figure is still only one-fourth of the 138,700 total homes that have requested the work.
In addition, only 1 percent of the cleaning has been completed on forests near residential zones, even after municipal governments reviewed the original plan and reduced the size of the areas that were originally scheduled to be decontaminated.
Meanwhile, radiation levels in 14 districts of Fukushima Prefecture that were designated as model decontamination zones were revealed for the first time after the government monitored them for over one year. According to the data, radiation levels were reduced by an average of 60 percent after the decontamination work was performed at the end of 2011, and then dropped a further 19 percent in October last year, and still another 25 percent in March this year.
Officials said the decreases in radiation levels occurred mainly as radioactive cesium naturally decayed, and was also washed away by rains.
Mainichi Shimbun, June 08, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130608p2a00m0na012000c.html
Last no-go zone designation lifted in Fukushima Prefecture
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) — The Japanese government lifted the last no-go zone designation in Fukushima Prefecture on Tuesday, more than 26 months after the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The town of Futaba, the last no-go zone, has been reorganized into zones where residents’ return is viewed as difficult and those where preparations can be made for the lifting of evacuation orders.
No-gone zones located within 20 kilometers of the devastated nuclear plant were designated in nine municipalities in April 2011 and were gradually eliminated.
But zones where residents’ return is viewed as difficult are still in force in a wide area around the plant.
All residents of Futaba, numbering 6,520, have evacuated from the town, with its municipal government now located in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo.
The zones where residents’ return is viewed as difficult due to estimated annual radiation exposure exceeding 50 millisieverts cover 96 percent of the town’s former population and area.
Kyodo News, May 28, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130528p2g00m0dm038000c.html
Ground freeze urged to curb seepage into Fukushima No. 1 radioactive basements
To reduce the flow of groundwater into the crippled reactor buildings at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant, the government told Tepco on Thursday to freeze the soil around them.
Walls of frozen soil can be created by inserting pipes into the soil and injecting them with coolant. Tokyo-based major general contractor Kajima Corp. came up with the idea.
A panel under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry discussing ways to lessen the radioactive water at the Fukushima plant drew up a draft report the same day that suggests using frozen-soil walls to keep the groundwater at bay. METI Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told Tepco President Naomi Hirose to take measures based on the report.
The report recommended creating frozen-soil walls to encircle the buildings housing reactors 1 to 4, all of which are damaged and their basements are continuously accumulating groundwater seeping in that is becoming radioactive.
Kajima said frozen-soil walls have zero permeability and are relatively easy to construct quickly, although they are mainly a short-term fix.
Even if a blackout halts the power to cool the pipes, the soil would remain frozen for several months, according to Kajima.
These merits prompted the METI panel to favor frozen-soil walls over other options, including building clay walls.
But long-term operation of frozen-soil walls can be costly, because powere will be continuously needed to keep cooling the pipes, METI officials said, adding the cost to build and maintain the system is also an unknown. Pipes and coolant would need periodic replacement for long-term use, Kajima said.
The panel’s draft report said the government and Tepco hope to create the frozen-soil walls between April and September 2015.
A rough estimate suggests that groundwater seepage into the basements would be reduced from 400 tons to 100 tons once the frozen-soil walls are built.
Kazuaki Nagata, Japan Times Staff Writer, May 31, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/31/national/ground-freeze-urged-to-curb-seepage-into-fukushima-no-1-radioactive-basements/#.Ua1HGdiz640
Fukushima village residents to receive new compensation over mental damage
An alternative dispute resolution (ADR) entity in charge of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant has decided to approve compensation for mental damage from radiation exposure for about 180 residents in the Nagadoro district in the Fukushima Prefecture village of Iitate.
Lawyers for the village residents said June 2 that the Nuclear Damage Claim Dispute Resolution Center notified the residents and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) of its decision.
It is the first time that the center has given its stamp of approval for redress for mental damage from radiation exposure. The residents and TEPCO will initiate negotiations based on the center’s approval and such talks are likely to affect other residents around the crippled nuclear power plant who are seeking compensation.
The 180-odd residents stayed in the Nagadoro district of southern Iitate for at least two days after March 15, 2011 when high-levels of airborne radiation were detected due to the nuclear crisis, their lawyers said, adding the center has proposed paying 500,000 yen each to ordinary residents and 1 million yen each to pregnant women and children aged 18 years or younger for mental damage from radiation exposure.
The proposed redress is separate from a monthly payment of 100,000 yen to Fukushima residents over mental damage from having been forced to evacuate from the nuclear disaster. The center advanced the redress proposal in late May.
According to the Fukushima Prefectural Government’s disaster headquarters, airborne radiation levels shot up to 40 microsieverts per hour at the Iitate village office from March 15, 2011, following the onset of the nuclear disaster but the village was designated a no-go zone as late as April 22, 2011. Radiation levels in the Nagadoro district were particularly high. Even after a reclassification of contaminated areas in July last year, an annual accumulative radiation dose topped 50 millisieverts (about 9.5 microsieverts per hour), keeping the district a “difficult to return” zone.
The residents had demanded 5 million yen each for mental damage from radiation exposure. But Katsunobu Kobayashi, one of their lawyers, said, “Despite a limited amount of money, the center recognized the state’s and TEPCO’s responsibilities over radiation exposure despite their attempts to ignore them. It is socially important.”
A TEPCO spokesman said the utility cannot comment on individual cases but hopes to appropriately deal with the case.
Separately, the Fukushima Prefecture town of Namie has asked the center to approve compensation for mental damage from radiation exposure for over 10,000 town residents.
Mainichi Shimbun, June 3, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130603p2a00m0na016000c.html
Hundreds seek damages in Japan nuclear crisis
TOKYO (AP) — Hundreds of residents and evacuees from just outside Fukushima say they have been unfairly denied full compensation despite high radiation levels in their area caused by Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster.
Nearly 700 residents from the Hippo district of Miyagi prefecture, just north of Fukushima, are demanding equal compensation to the residents of Fukushima prefecture where the accident occurred.
They demanded Tuesday that the nuclear plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., pay them an additional 70 million yen ($690,000) in damages from the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns and radiation fallout.
They say that some radiation levels in their area top those in Fukushima.
The government’s basic compensation scheme only covers Fukushima residents. About 150,000 Fukushima residents are still displaced. Hundreds of them have filed separate claims seeking greater compensation.
Associted Press, May 21, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130521p2g00m0dm075000c.html
U.N. urges Japan to boost checks for internal radiation exposure from Fukushima disaster
Anand Grover, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, is calling on Japan to expand examinations of internal radiation exposure of people in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, saying a health management survey by Fukushima Prefecture is insufficient.
Grover made the call in a report after conducting research on the radiation exposure issue as a representative of a U.N. team on behalf of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Specifically, the report urges the Japanese government to conduct health checkups on people in areas with exposure doses of over 1 millisievert annually, within or outside Fukushima Prefecture. The report will be submitted to the council in the near future.
In the report, Grover takes issue with Fukushima Prefecture’s action to limit examinations of internal radiation exposure of children to thyroid glands and asking the prefectural government to carry out urine and blood tests to deal with the possibility of developing leukemia and other diseases. He also advises the prefectural government to correct the current procedures, in which image data and reports on thyroid gland tests are not delivered to parents. Instead they are asked to go through cumbersome procedures to request disclosure of information.
In addition, the report urges the central government to limit radiation doses to ordinary people to an annual limit of 1 millisievert and conduct health checks for residents in areas with the potential to top the limit. The report points out that the Japanese government’s evacuation standard of 20 millisieverts a year should be cut to 1 millisievert or less from the standpoint of human rights.
In addition, the report also expresses concern about details of support and the coverage area despite the enactment of a measure in June last year to support children’s health and life after their evacuations from radiation-affected zones. The report urges the central government to offer evacuees from zones with radiation doses of more than 1 millisievert with housing, educational and medical assistance.
Mainichi Shimbun, May 24, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130524p2a00m0na017000c.html
Fukushima debris disposal falling short
The disposal of debris in Fukushima Prefecture from the March 2011 calamities will not be completed by the end of fiscal 2013, as originally planned, the Environment Ministry admitted Tuesday.
According to the ministry, the magnitude 9.0 quake and the monstrous waves it spawned generated 25.9 million tons of rubble in the three worst-affected prefectures in Tohoku – Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. In response, the government set a deadline for completing the removal process by the March 2014 end of this fiscal year.
But while Miyagi and Iwate are likely to meet this target, Fukushima hasnÅft been able to keep pace, mainly because the ensuing nuclear crisis has severely hindered and delayed cleanup efforts.
“As for Fukushima, completion (of the debris removal) will be difficult” to achieve by the target date in light of the three meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told reporters.
He said his ministry will come up with a new time frame and disclose it this summer.
“We will do our best to accelerate the process,” Ishihara vowed.
Although Miyagi and Iwate remain unable to process and dispose of the vast amount of rubble left behind by the quake and tsunami, more than a dozen prefectures have volunteered to accept nearly 700,000 tons of debris for incineration or burial.
But the circumstances are different in Fukushima, where most of the rubble around the wrecked nuclear plant remains untouched. Even the processing of debris that workers have managed to gather has been delayed, as the central and prefectural governments have struggled to secure temporary storage facilities and find ways to lower the rubbleÅfs radiation levels.
The ministry also revealed Tuesday that 3.2 million tons of tsunami-related debris, or 32 percent of the total, had been removed from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima as of March 31. In addition, around 9.2 million tons of quake-related rubble, some 58 percent of the total, had been removed from the three prefectures by the April 1 start of fiscal 2013.
Jun Hongo, Japan Times Staff Writer, May 7, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/07/national/fukushima-debris-disposal-falling-short/#.UZGA_0pOj1U
(Information from Jiji added)
Radiation level at Fukushima plant boundary could exceed limit: TEPCO
TOKYO (Kyodo) — The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex said Tuesday that the radiation level around the plant’s boundary is expected to exceed a self-imposed limit due to steps taken to address recently discovered leaks in underground radioactive water storage tanks.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. set a target to keep the site-boundary dose below 1 millisievert per year, but it now expects the dose at one point in the southern area to rise to up to 7.8 millisieverts, company officials said.
TEPCO unveiled the estimate as it decided to transfer around 23,000 tons of polluted water stored inside leaky underground tanks to more reliable containers above ground. About a third of the liquid has already been pumped out from the troubled cisterns.
According to the estimate, the increase in radiation level will be highest at the plant boundary close to a location where part of the contaminated water will be transferred.
Kyodo News, May 08, 201
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130508p2g00m0dm044000c.html
TEPCO eyes dumping groundwater from Fukushima plant
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to discharge some groundwater that has flowed into the premises of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, after finding that its radiation level is the same as in the rivers in surrounding areas, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
At the Fukushima plant groundwater flows into reactor buildings and gets mixed with highly radioactive water that is accumulating inside. But TEPCO has created a dozen wells to pump out the groundwater before it seeps into the buildings and becomes contaminated.
As a trial, TEPCO has pumped out about 200 tons of groundwater using the wells. Its density of radioactive substances was “the same as rivers in surrounding areas,” according to company officials.
TEPCO hopes to hold a meeting with local fishermen next Monday to seek approval of its planned release of the groundwater, they said.
Water once used to cool the damaged reactors is currently recycled as coolant. But the total amount of contaminated water is increasing because of an influx of about 400 tons of groundwater every day.
When the planned system for discharging groundwater before it seeps into the complex buildings begins fully operating, TEPCO expects the total amount of groundwater inflow to be reduced to about 300 tons a day.
Kyodo News, May 08, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130508p2g00m0dm098000c.html
Tepco to expose fuel pool for extract
Tepco said Thursday it plans to temporarily remove a cover placed around the reactor 1 building at the Fukushima No. 1 plant to prepare for taking spent fuel out of the cooling pool.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. installed the cover in October 2011 to prevent further release of radioactive substances after a hydrogen explosion destroyed the roof and walls of the building in March 2011.
A Tepco official said that dismantling the cover, which will start in the fall, is expected to lead to a Ågslight riseÅh in the radiation level, but the impact will be Ågminimal.Åh
Kyodo News, May 11, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/11/national/tepco-to-expose-fuel-pool-for-extract/#.UZGXzUpOj1U
Clinic opens in fallout-hit Namie, Fukushima Prefecture
NAMIE, FUKUSHIMA PREF. — A makeshift clinic has opened in the town of Namie, becoming the first medical facility to offer service within 20 km of the meltdown-hit power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
The clinic, which opened Thursday at the town hall, will take care of residents who are temporarily visiting their homes.
The ongoing realignment of Fukushima’s evacuation zones resulted in Namie’s no-go zone status being lifted last month. Evacuees from the coast, where 80 percent of its 20,000 residents lived before the nuclear crisis in March 2011, are now allowed to visit their homes in the daytime.
“Although infrastructure restoration is important, town residents cannot return home without anxiety unless a medical institution is back,” Namie Mayor Tamotsu Baba said at the clinic’s opening ceremony. “I’m very happy to see the opening of the makeshift clinic.”
A doctor and a nurse will be at the clinic every Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to treat mainly acute diseases such as heat stroke as well as injuries incurred during debris removal work.
Local authorities say that about 1,100 Namie residents visit their homes each day but had to be taken to hospitals in neighboring Minamisoma to be treated for disease or injuries until the clinic opened.
Jiji Press, May 11, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/11/national/clinic-opens-in-fallout-hit-namie-2/#.UZHwjkpOj1U
Terrorist drill held for Fukushima nuclear plant
Police and the Japan Coast Guard conducted a joint drill Saturday to prepare for a possible terrorist attack on the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
About 150 officers and other people, including members of a special assault team of the police, participated in the drill at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant, about 10 km from Fukushima No. 1. Both plants are operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The National Police Agency fears the stricken Fukushima No. 1 could make for a tempting target for terrorists because the cooling systems there are still highly fragile.
The drill was conducted on the assumption that three terrorists were hiding in a cargo ship berthed at a pier at the facility.
Kyodo News, May 12, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/12/national/terrorist-drill-held-for-fukushima-nuclear-plant/#.UZH7dUpOj1U
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