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Sun, 2011-03-20 10:15 — mdmcdonald
Nuclear Engineering Issues

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Japan Mulls Strictly Enforcing Evacuation Zone Near Plant

Wed, 2011-04-20 22:13 — Kathy Gilbeaux

AP - by Elaine Kurtenbach and Mari Yamaguchi - April 20, 2011

TOKYO -- Japanese authorities may for the first time strictly enforce their evacuation zone around a crippled nuclear plant, citing concerns Wednesday over radiation risks for residents returning to check on their homes.

About 70,000-80,000 people were living in the 10 towns and villages within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked its power and cooling systems, setting off the worst nuclear power crisis since the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl.

Virtually all of the residents left when the government ordered the area evacuated on March 12, but some occasionally have returned and police cannot legally block them. There currently is no penalty for violating the zone.

"We are considering setting up 'caution areas' as an option for effectively limiting entry" to the zone, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan will meet with local officials and evacuees to discuss the plans during a visit to the affected region Thursday, Edano said.

Robot in Japanese Reactors Detects High Radiation

Mon, 2011-04-18 23:33 — Kathy Gilbeaux

AP - AOL News - by Mari Yamaguchi - April 18, 2011

TOKYO -- Readings Monday from robots that entered two crippled buildings at Japan's tsunami-flooded nuclear plant for the first time in more than a month displayed a harsh environment still too radioactive for workers to enter.

Nuclear officials said the radiation data for Unit 1 and Unit 3 at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant - collected by U.S.-made robots that look like drafting lamps on treads - do not alter plans for stabilizing the complex by year's end under a "road map" released by the plant operator Sunday.

With the public growing increasingly frustrated at the slow response to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crises, parliament grilled Prime Minister Naoto Kan and officials from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

"You should be bowing your head in apology. You clearly have no leadership at all," Masashi Waki, a lawmaker from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, shouted at Kan.

"I am sincerely apologizing for what has happened," Kan said, stressing that the government was doing all it could to handle the unprecedented disasters.

TEPCO's president, Masataka Shimizu, looked visibly ill at ease as lawmakers heckled and taunted him.

Radioactivity Rises in Sea Off Japan Nuclear Plant

Sat, 2011-04-16 20:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

AP - by Mari Yamaguchi - April 16, 2011

TOKYO -- Levels of radioactivity have risen sharply in seawater near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, signaling the possibility of new leaks at the facility, the government said Saturday.

The announcement came after a magnitude-5.9 earthquake jolted Japan on Saturday morning, hours after the country's nuclear safety agency ordered plant operators to beef up their quake preparedness systems to prevent a recurrence of the nuclear crisis.

There were no reports of damage from the earthquake, and there was no risk of a tsunami similar to the one that struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant March 11 after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake, causing Japan's worst-ever nuclear plant disaster.

Since the tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems, workers have been spraying massive amounts of water on the overheated reactors. Some of that water, contaminated with radiation, leaked into the Pacific. Plant officials said they plugged that leak on April 5 and radiation levels in the sea dropped.

Map of Radiation Measurements - by Greenpeace Team

Fri, 2011-04-15 21:35 — Kathy Gilbeaux


View Map of Radiation Measurements by Greenpeace team in a larger map

Map - Nuclear Power Plants in Japan

Sat, 2011-04-09 01:32 — Kathy Gilbeaux

http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_images/pdf/ENGNEWS01_1302313380P.pdf 

Map - Japan Nuclear Power Plants

Sat, 2011-04-09 01:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Aftershock Batters Nuclear Plants

Sat, 2011-04-09 01:22 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Friday, April 08, 2011 14:14 +0900 (JST)

 

Aftershock batters nuclear plants

Fukushima Isotope Data - by Global Dirt Assessment Team

Fri, 2011-04-08 02:23 — Kathy Gilbeaux

This data was taken by a Global DIRT assessment team within 2km (1.2 miles) of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Data was collected using a Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation SAM 940 Defender / Revealer. The map below represents only readings which contained isotope levels (about 451 of the 1654 current readings). Be sure to check back as this page will be constantly updated.

http://www.globaldirt.org/map/ 

U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant

Wed, 2011-04-06 22:50 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The New York Times - By JAMES GLANZ and WILLIAM J. BROAD - Published: April 5, 2011
United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Radioactivity in Sea Up 7.5 Million Times - Marine Life Contamination Well Beyond Japan Feared

Wed, 2011-04-06 15:53 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Japan Times - by Kanako Takahara - April 5, 2011

Radioactive iodine-131 readings taken from seawater near the water intake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's No. 2 reactor reached 7.5 million times the legal limit, Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted Tuesday.

The sample that yielded the high reading was taken Saturday, before Tepco announced Monday it would start releasing radioactive water into the sea, and experts fear the contamination may spread well beyond Japan's shores to affect seafood overseas.

The unstoppable radioactive discharge into the Pacific has prompted experts to sound the alarm, as cesium, which has a much longer half-life than iodine, is expected to concentrate in the upper food chain.

According to Tepco, some 300,000 becquerels per sq. centimeter of radioactive iodine-131 was detected Saturday, while the amount of cesium-134 was 2 million times the maximum amount permitted and cesium-137 was 1.3 million times the amount allowable.

The amount of iodine-131 dropped to 79,000 becquerels per sq. centimeter Sunday but shot up again Monday to 200,000 becquerels, 5 million times the permissible amount.

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