Eight Months Later Fukushima Dai-ichi Sparks Another Nuclear Crisis
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda
New concerns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility came as a reactor in southern Japan was restarted and brought back online, marking a first since the March 11 disaster created an outcry over the safety of Japan’s nuclear power sites.
Radioactive particles associated with nuclear fission have been detected at Japan’s tsunami-damaged atomic power plant, officials said this Wednesday, suggesting one of its reactors could have a new problem.
http://youtu.be/HtJsYtfzwJM
Utility officials said gas from inside the Fukushima plant’s No. 2 reactor indicated the presence of radioactive xenon, which could be the byproduct of unexpected nuclear fission. Boric acid was injected through a cooling pipe as a precaution because it can counteract nuclear reactions.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said there was no rise in the reactor’s temperature or pressure. The company said the radioactive materials had not reached the point when nuclear reactions are self-sustaining and the detection of the xenon would have no major impact on workers’ efforts to keep the reactor cool and stable.
During a press conference, Mr. Sonoda, an MP and parliamentary spokesman for the Japanese cabinet office, in an effort to increase confidence in the efficiency of decontamination procedures, drank a glass of water scooped up from pools inside the plant. One reporter said, “Mr. Sonoda was looking nervous, hands trembling, as he drank a glass of water.”
Reporters at the press conference say Mr. Sonoda was looking nervous, hands trembling, as he drank a glass of water scooped up from pools inside the plant.
Reporters at the press conference say Mr. Sonoda was looking nervous, hands trembling, as he drank a glass of water scooped up from pools inside the plant.
Water collected from beneath two reactor buildings is decontaminated then used for tasks such as watering plants, which has been the subject of safety concerns in the media. Speaking at the offices of TEPCO, the operator of the plant, Mr Sonoda said: “Just drinking decontaminated water doesn’t mean safety has been confirmed, I know that. Presenting data to the public is the best way.”
His decision to drink water is not the first time a politician has performed such a duty to calm public health concerns. Japan’s former prime minister, Naoto Kan, and his chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, both ate food from Fukushima following the nuclear crisis. Their actions echo the decision of John Gummer, the former Tory MP and British agriculture minister, to eat hamburgers with his four-year-old daughter in front of the media in 1990 at the height of the mad cow disease scare. In that instance, Mr Gummer’s actions backfired as a surge in BSE cases followed, leading to a collapse in confidence in beef safety and a public inquiry into his handling of the crisis.
TEPCO remains optimistic that it will achieve cold shutdown, when the reactors are stabilized, and the water is no longer at boiling point, by the end of the year. The government also announced that journalists would be able to visit the plant for the first time on November 12.
Because the half-life of the isotopes detected is short, the xenon was likely created recently. But officials said the level was so low that further tests would be required to confirm the measurements were not an error. The Japanese government has decided to drastically expand the scope of areas where preparations will be made for residents to evacuate or stay indoors in the event of a nuclear power plant accident.
The Cabinet Office’s Nuclear Safety Commission, which is studying a revision of the guidelines on disaster precautions and responses, has decided to expand the size of these areas from the current eight kilometers to 10 kilometers around a nuclear plant, up to 30 kilometers. These extended zones include prefectural capitals, densely populated areas and industrial complexes.
In addition, an emergency evacuation preparation zone, where some residents were told to stay indoors, was later set for areas between the 20-kilometer and 30-kilometer evacuation zones. The designation remained in place for months, which caused difficulty in securing food supplies and posed many other inconveniences for people in the zone.
“We have confirmed that the reactor is stable and we don’t believe this will have any impact on our future work,” said TEPCO spokesman Osamu Yokokura. He said no “radiation leaks outside the plant were detected”. Hiroyuki Imari, a spokesman with the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency said, the detection of the gas was not believed to indicate a major problem, but its cause was being investigated.
The plant is the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) exclusion zone has been in effect since the earthquake and tsunami crippled the facility northeast of Tokyo, sending three of its reactors into meltdowns, setting off fires and triggering several explosions.
TEPCO reported significant progress toward stabilizing the facility saying, it has essentially reached a “cold shutdown.” Even so, a Japanese government panel says it will take at least 30 years to safely decommission the TEPCO facility.
Theodora Filis is an accomplished journalist, editor, writer, and blogger. Theodora's articles on Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking), Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), Nuclear Fallout's, Poisonous Chemicals and Ground Water Pollutants have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. Theodora has been a guest speaker on several radio shows, is a college instructor, and the Contributing Editor for UK Progressive Magazine, Moderator for LinkedIn Climate sub-group, and the Publisher & Editor of The Gaia Reports. You can view Theodora's blog "The Gaia Reports" here: http://thegaiareports.weebly.com/#/
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Non-issue. Earlier this week the xenon was determined to have come from spontaneous fission (normal decay process), not from recriticality. No other signs of recriticality were seen (increased temperature & pressure) and the combination of mixed fuel & control rod material in core debris, degraded core geometry and boric acid in the coolant water make the chance of recriticality winnowingly small. Reactors are very sensitive to geometric arrangement and material concentration of fuel, moderator (water), and neutron absorbers (boron, structural & control material) and in the case of the damaged Fukushima-Daiichi reactors, none of the changes to the core or coolant favor recriticality; this is a matter of basic reactor physics.
The original AP article was light on detail and speculated at recriticality without appropriate due diligence or technical review. AP can be faulted for speculative reporting as a for-profit first-to-the-punch organization; I would expect better from progressive media.