Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Update on 27/11/12

Reactor 4's spent fuel pool has been unstable since the Fukushima disaster, and another big earthquake of magnitude 7 or more, which could happen any time, might cause the whole structure to collapse, leading to a fire and more explosions.  There are some other ongoing problems as well.  Because of the very high level of radioactivity on the site, workers can only stay there for a short time and can only manage to do quick temporary jobs.  They have also been using cheap materials for things such as the tubes for containing radioactive water, so these are not going to last for long.  Another problem concerns the storage space for radioactive water; the tanks are 89.2% full already.  Because all of the reactors need to be kept cool all the time, lots of water is being poured over and injected into the cooling pipes.  However recent reports have suggested that the level of water has been decreasing.  Tepco (the company that owns the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants) says they don’t know why this is happening, but I think *Prof. Koide’s answer is right – lots of water has been leaking through many cracks in and around the reactors and their buildings since the earthquake last year.  He kept suggesting that a huge underground dam should have been built before the radioactive water could leak into the sea and contaminate underground water sources, but Tepco decided to postpone it because it was too costly.

*Prof. Koide - The Truth About Nuclear Power http://www.japanfocus.org/-Koide-Hiroaki/3582
Recent measurement shows the level of radiation is getting very high at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants.
According to Tepco’s report on 27/11/12, an atmospheric dose on the first floor of Reactor 3 building is getting very high - One location showed 4.78Sv/h (=4780mSv/h). The robot was sent to investigate the damaged pipe for contaminated air from the turbine building.
On 11/7/12 it was 360mSv/h when the survey robot stopped working when it was sent to the basement floor of reactor 3 building in order to record the sound of the area where they thought water had been leaking.  It was 1.3Sv/h a year ago.
(Link) For more details: http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/11/reactor3-got-worse-than-last-year-5-svh-on-the-first-floor-of-reactor3-3-6-times-worse-than-last-year/ 

1mSv per year is a legal limit of ionized radiation dose in Japan. This regulation was set up to meet compromising level after the amount of ionized radiations that were released into the air by nuclear bomb experiments.     Therefore 20mSv per year is very high for our everyday life, especially vulnerable children.  People in Fukushima have been forced to live in such high radiation area.  Therefore it’s well beyond the imaginable level how dangerous it is for Tepco workers to be on the site even if they wear special clothes to protect them.

4780mSv per hour is equal to 41872.8mSv per year! 

Those workers who work at very high radiation area are often homeless people and people who lost their jobs.  I heard that 60% of the Tepco workers are from Fukushima prefecture that lost their jobs and houses after earthquake and tsunami.  I also heard that yakuza (Japanese mafia) get involved to find workers in Osaka and Tokyo poor area.  When people are in crisis financially, they prefer paying off their debts rather than taking care of their body. Some of them didn’t know what kind of job they are getting till they arrive. 　Some reports said that some of them developped  radiation relative symptoms such as losing hair and teeth and white blood cell counts going down, etc. Nobody would know if they die by receiving high dose of radiation.  Those people are not registered properly with Tepco company.  Therefore there is no record to show and prove how much radiation dose they have been getting. This is one of the examples how nuclear energy is relying on people who are in the weak social position for dealing with such a dangerous energy source.

Report: Japan failing at health checks for Fukushima workers

http://enenews.com/fox-news-japan-failing-health-checks-fukushima-workers-report-tv-fine-fukushima-theyre-audio
 

Protest against Nuclear Power Plants at Hinkley in UK – Dawn Blockade shuts Hinkley Point for 5 hours, 4 arrested Nov. 23, 2012

Please support UK anti nuclear campaign!  Here is their report:

http://southwestagainstnuclear.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/dawn-blockade-shuts-hinkley-point-for-5-hours-4-arrested/  

At 6am this morning 10 protestors blockaded access to EDF energy’s nuclear sites at Hinkley Point, preventing the morning shift from starting work. 4 people in arm locks formed a barrier across the main access road at Wick Moor Drove in a bid to prevent further ground clearance work at the planned Hinkley C site and to protest at EDF’s plan to extend the life of aging reactors at the Hinkley B station.
Sitting beneath a banner saying “Nuclear Power – not worth the risk” Bristol tree-surgeon Zoe Smith said, “We want the destruction of land at the proposed Hinkley C site to stop. EDF still don’t have planning permission for the new nuclear plant, the governments energy policy is in tatters. With Centrica pulling out and the long awaited Electricity Reform Act delayed, there is not even enough investment to finish the project.  If the Tories fix the electricity price for nuclear so that the project can go ahead it will leave a radioactive waste
dump here for hundreds of years.” The early morning blockade caused long tailbacks for scores of workers contracted in to perform maintenance work on the the existing reactors at Hinkley B, EDF have signalled their intention to re-licence the reactor again in 2016.
Bridgwater mum Nikki Clark from South West Against Nuclear said, “Not only do we not need new nuclear, we certainly don’t need to extend the life of the existing reactors even further. Just this year alone reactor no 4 in the B station has scrammed at least three times. EDF like to call these emergency shutdowns ‘unplanned outages’ but this deliberately conceals the fact that these ageing reactors are now in a dangerous condition. In 2008 the regulators threatened British Energy with closure of the site. The reactors do not have any fewer cracks in the graphite core now than they did then. Do we have to have our own Fukushima here in Somerset before we abandon this insanity and embrace a renewables revolution in the UK?”.......

Yamashita Admits Exaggerating Safety of Being in Fukushima

(Source) http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=8013

(Reference) Unbelievable comments from Dr. Yamashita http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOgaBUDFeb4&feature=related

I apologize for exaggerating the safety of radiation exposure under 100mSv/y. I am sorry for causing anxiety and distrust.
I admit there was miscommunication about protection from radiation and health risk from the emergency situation just after 311, which was my fault….” 
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I don’t think “admitting what he did is enough.  He should resign from the position as an advisor and leave Fukushima or go to a jail which might happen because lots of citizens in Fukushima have been accusing him.  But before he does there are lots things that he can do to help Fukushima children.  1. Helping to evacuating children who live in high radiation zone into 1mSv/y area  2. Setting up 2^nd test for all the children who developed nodules and cysts and organizing regular tests at least every 6 months.   4. Bringing more　GEsemiconductor equipments (it’s much better than WB counter) for urine tests for children.  I heard there aren’t enough of them because lots of them are used to check the radiation amount in beef!  5. Informing the data of the test to the parents, etc….