Japan PM steps in to deal with Fukushima

[presence]

File under, "we're from the government and we're here to help"

watch where this one goes...




http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/09/20139252341603840.html

Japan PM steps in to deal with Fukushima
Radiation levels continue to cause concern as plant operator's ability to deal with the situation is questioned.
Last Modified: 02 Sep 2013 11:38

Tepco has said that radiation near a tank holding contaminated waster has jumped 18-fold [EPA]



The Japanese government will take prompt, comprehensive steps
to clean up the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant
amid growing concerns about the plant operator's ability to handle it,


the country's prime minister has said.


Shinzo Abe said on Monday that his government will step forward to take all necessary steps to handle the legacy of the March 2011 nuclear disaster.
He said the government will draw up a fundamental plan to do so "quickly."


Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, said at the weekend that radiation near a tank holding highly contaminated water at the plant had jumped 18-fold, to a level that could kill an exposed person in four hours.


Abe's cabinet is likely to discuss this week funding for the Fukushima clean-up after a series of revelations about leaks of radioactive water at the coastal plant, according to Tadamori Oshima, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's taskforce on post-disaster reconstruction.


Public concern



Al Jazeera's Florence Looi, reporting from Tokyo, said a more detailed plan would be unveiled soon, possibly on Tuesday when the Abe chairs a nuclear response meeting.

"This could be a plan to hire foreign experts, as Tepco intended, or a timeline for decommissioning the plant," she said.


"That could take forty years, with some experts saying it could run to more than 100 years.


"They have reiterated that they might have no choice but to discharge some of the water into the ocean."


If the water were to be discharged, it would be within the prescribed safe levels of radiation, our correspondent explained.

Public concern over Fukushima, revived by the news of leaks of radiated water at the plant, have threatened to further delay the restart of other off-line reactors - a crucial part of Abe's plan for economic revival and a pillar of the turnaround plan Tepco has given its creditor banks.


Paul Scalise, a research fellow at the University of Tokyo, said the continued closure of Japan's nuclear reactors could lead to bankruptcy.


"Tepco and other utility companies have been bleeding financially now since nuclear reactors have been off line," he told Al Jazeera from Tokyo.


"The utility companies are arguing for the nuclear reactors to come back online. What is holding things up is the perception, perhaps rightly, that the reactors are on unsafe territory and are positioned on an earthquake faultline.


"The public is concerned about turning the reactors back online and need reassurances.


"The economy is being impacted greatly through the import of these very expensive fossil fuels, and the reality is that without the nuclear reactors being brought back online, bankruptcy will most likely ensue."\


Radioactive waste water



Japan's nuclear industry, which once provided a third of the nation's power, has nearly come to a halt since an earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima plant more than two years ago, causing reactor meltdowns.


Tepco has been pumping water over the reactors to keep them cool, and storing the radioactive waste water as well as contaminated ground water in ever-growing numbers of above-ground tanks.


Following the discovery of high radiation levels in recent days.Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), has said there is no evidence of new water leaks.


However, he cautioned that the possibility that contaminated water may have leaked from the tanks "is a very serious issue".

"We believe the monitoring of the tanks is a serious issue as well," he said.

"The fact that radiation levels were not measured on a regular basis is an indication that management was not done in a stringent way."

Japan government abandons hands-off approach to Fukushima clean-up



Reuters - ‎21 hours ago‎

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government is moving to take a more direct role in the clean-up of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, as concerns grow over the ability of embattled operator Tokyo Electric to handle the legacy of the worst atomic disaster

Japan reiterates may consider ***DISCHARGING*** radiated Fukushima water into ocean



Reuters - ‎15 hours ago‎

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's nuclear regulator reiterated on Monday that it may have to consider discharging into the ocean water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant that contains radiation below regulatory thresholds. Nuclear Regulation Authority ...

 

[alucard13mm]

What is the difference between letting it melt down and keeping it cooled with water for many, many years that yields many many many tons of contaminated radioactive water?

 

[thoughtomator]

I believe if it's not cooled, it could explode in a potential nuclear chain-reaction event - an accidental nuclear weapon.

 

[JK/SEA]

I believe if it's not cooled, it could explode in a potential nuclear chain-reaction event - an accidental nuclear weapon.

well...that would be one way to neutralize the situation.....

 

[Original_Intent]

I believe if it's not cooled, it could explode in a potential nuclear chain-reaction event - an accidental nuclear weapon.

No, you would get China syndrome, not a nuclear explosion. That requires a trigger detonation, and it must be in such a way to compress the radioactive material.

 

[TheState]

What is the difference between letting it melt down and keeping it cooled with water for many, many years that yields many many many tons of contaminated radioactive water?

The reactors have already melted down, now they're just focusing on cooling the melted debris. If they let it just sit, as the temperature rose, it could possibly release more radioactivity into the atmosphere (since it could cause more material to melt and may find a new path out of the containment building.

I believe if it's not cooled, it could explode in a potential nuclear chain-reaction event - an accidental nuclear weapon.

The fuel in commercial nuclear reactors, like the ones at Fukushima, cannot become a nuclear bomb. The enrichment of U-235 is too low, no matter what configuration the fuel is in.

 

[Demigod]

What is the difference between letting it melt down and keeping it cooled with water for many, many years that yields many many many tons of contaminated radioactive water?

As I have understood it from watching a Chernobyl documentary if the core is not cooled it will start gaining heat and eventually damage the containment ,and if pressure builds up it can even destroy it and release radioactive materials into the atmosphere. So it is bad.

The reactors have already melted down, now they're just focusing on cooling the melted debris. If they let it just sit, as the temperature rose, it could possibly release more radioactivity into the atmosphere (since it could cause more material to melt and may find a new path out of the containment building.

But they can not keep cooling it for the next few decades ,and dumping the water in the ocean is not a solution.

 

[TheState]

But they can not keep cooling it for the next few decades ,and dumping the water in the ocean is not a solution.

The necessary amount of cooling drops over time. The "decay heat" given off by the fuel decreases exponentially. So when the reactor first shuts down, it gives off about 6% of full power, within a day, it's at about 0.5%. So as time goes on, less cooling is needed.

 

[osan]

The necessary amount of cooling drops over time. The "decay heat" given off by the fuel decreases exponentially. So when the reactor first shuts down, it gives off about 6% of full power, within a day, it's at about 0.5%. So as time goes on, less cooling is needed.

That is the case for an intact reactor with a functioning control system. What we have here is a huge congealed mass of fuel merrily burning away for several years now.

The core at Chernobyl disappeared - last I checked nobody knew where it had gone, but there was at one time great fear that the aquifer would be contaminated.

Nuke Fukushima - high yield hydrogen bomb Leave a nice crater 1/4 mile wide and 300 feet deep, do not detonate until all the board members of TEPCO are rounded up and tied to chairs at ground zero. At this point I don't much care what Japan thinks of the idea or anyone else. The materials cannot, thus far, be touched and should be rendered into the least harmful form possible.

This event and its consequences have destroyed the great respect I once had for those people.