Tag Archives: GE

Fukushima

Cooling partially restored at Fukushima Daiichi, cause of power outage still unknown

19 March 2013/07 Jumada l-Ula 1434/29 Esfand 1391/08 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Tokyo Electric Power Company says they’ve restored cooling of spent fuel pools on the number 1, 2 and 4 reactors. This is the first time TEPCo mentioned Reactor 2 as being affected by the power outage.  Cooling for Reactor 4 pool is being powered by emergency generators.

Cooling is still on hold for the fuel pool on Reactor 3, and a shared pool in Fukushima Daiichi’s  compound.  TEPCo hopes to have cooling restored by tomorrow.

TEPCo has inspected the switchboards from three high voltage distribution systems, and say it appears nothing is wrong with them.   Ironically the electric power company still doesn’t know what caused the massive power outage.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Cooling of Fukushima Daiichi on hold for second day!

19 March 2013/07 Jumada l-Ula 1434/29 Esfand 1391/08 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

For the second day now, cooling of spent fuel pools on the General Electric designed reactors 1, 3 and 4 is not taking place (1, 3 and 4 are the ones that exploded).   Another spent fuel rod pool and a water decontamination system are also affected.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says they’ve found the reason why they lost power yesterday; three high voltage distribution systems failed.

TEPCo says two were fixed but they can’t figure out the problem with the third, they suspect a switchboard.  TEPCo officials said something shorted out the switchboards, but they don’t know what. Apparently all three systems must be working in order to cool the fuel rod pools.

TEPCo has two more days to fix the problem before temps in fuel pools exceed safety limits.  If not they will resort to fire engines to pump water into the pools.

 

 

Fukushima

Cooling at Fukushima Daiichi stops, TEPCo does not know why!

18 March 2013/06 Jumada l-Ula 1434/28 Esfand 1391/07 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that for an unknown reason the cooling of stored nuclear fuel rods, at the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi power plant, has stopped.

There was an electrical power blackout affecting 2100 spent fuel rods in storage pools for reactors 1, 3 and 4.  TEPCo says temps have been rising slowly but steadily every hour.

A forth pool with 6300 fuel rods was also affected, as well as the water decontamination system.

TEPCo does not know what is causing the power outage.  They claim cooling of the melted reactors have not been affected.

 

Fukushima

2 years later, 22-thousand tons of tsunami debris about to hit North America, follwed by radiation contamination!

15 March 2013/03 Jumada l-Ula 1434/25 Esfand 1391/04 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Japan’s Environment Ministry says the main part of the mass of tsunami debris, from the 11 March 2011 earthquake caused tsunamis, will begin hitting the Pacific coast of North America by April.

Using computer models they predict about 220000 tons of debris could come ashore. Japan has already paid Canada and the United States $6 million USD to help clean it up.

Following behind the tsunami debris could be radioactive debris from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear melt downs.

Researchers from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology are following radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean.  They say the water near the GE designed reactors is still showing 100 becquerels per liter of cesium 137, far higher than Japanese safe limits.

They added that in the 12 months following June 2011 (when they started tracking it) that 16.1 trillion becquerels of cesium 137 was poured into the Pacific Ocean!  The main ocean current is bringing that contamination towards North America.

The University researchers also concluded that most of the contaminated water is coming from underground sources, not from rainwater runoff as first claimed by Tokyo Electric (TEPCo), the operator of Fukushima Daiichi.  TEPCo officials now agree that the contaminated water is not from rain runoff, and admit they have yet to find the source.

For two years now, radioactive contamination has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean!

Fukushima

2 years later: External water injection partly to blame for Fukushima Daiichi melt downs.

A study involving analysts working for NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation), and University scientists, found that the initial effort to cool the reactors of Fukushima Daiichi, using fire pumper trucks, was a failure and helped caused the melt down of at least three reactors.

The researchers concluded that 55% of the water never made it to the reactors.  This is because there was no power.  Water entering the cooling system ended up in condenser units rather than the reactors, because the system’s pumps were not working.

Since the 11 March 2011 nuclear disasters Japanese nuclear plants, and local fire departments have been practicing cooling down reactors using fire trucks.  The study showed that if there is no power to operate the internal pumps in the nuclear plant’s cooling system, then at least half the water injected by fire pumper trucks is wasted.

Fukushima

One thousand companies refuse to pay their electric bills!

04 March 2013/21 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/14 Esfand 1391

One thousand companies are refusing to pay their higher electric bills, in Japan.

Back in April 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) raised their rates by an average of 14.9%.  This was to help cover the costs of dealing with the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

The thousand businesses formally stated they will not renew electricity contracts with TEPCo. TEPCo officials say they have no choice but to shut off power to those companies.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Lies exposed about people being exposed to radiation, & more fish turning up with outrageously higher levels of contamination!

28 February 2013/17 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/10 Esfand 1391

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo), operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi General Electric reactors, revealed that rock trout caught in the Pacific Ocean near the nuclear power plant, contain 510000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram!!!

Holy crap retiring Popeman, the official safe limit is only 100 becquerels per kilogram!!!

The fish was caught on 17 February 2013.  This is yet more proof that the GE designed disaster reactors are still pumping massive amounts of radiation into the ocean.  (and remember, the prevailing ocean current brings that radiation straight to the west coast of North America)

And here’s proof that contamination is increasing: Back in December 2012 they caught a fish that had 234000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.  So in the past two months the levels went up by 256000 becquerels!

And for more insult to injury, TEPCo has refused to make mandatory yearly reports on the the amount of radiation contamination that employees encounter!  That’s according to the Japanese Radiation Effects Association (REA).

Officials with the REA say TEPCo stopped making the reports in 2011 (the year of the melt downs). 21000 employees have been involved in trying to contain the ongoing nuclear disaster. TEPCo publicly apologized and gave the excuse that they’ve been having problems “digitizing” the info, and they hope to submit the two years of missing data to the REA in March 2013.

 

Fukushima, Technology

Muslim scientist invents new nano water filter to cleanup radioactive cesium and even strontium!

22 February 2013/11 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/04 Esfand 1391

12 years ago an Egyptian scientist moved to Japan, to work with the National Institute for Material Science to create new water filters with nanotechnology.  Sherif El-Safty’s motivation was to help North African countries filter well water, which has a high rate of arsenic contamination.

After the 11 March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster his Japanese colleges discovered that not only was his nanofilter working on natural contaminants, but it was cleaning up radioactive iodine as well.  Safty had been ordered back to Egypt by the Egyptian government, but returned to Japan, along with his family, after getting the news about the filter.

Safty focused on refining the filter, after three months he came up with nanofilters for radioactive iodine, cesium and even strontium.

The nanofilter (made up of HOM dust) traps the radiation in its itsy bitsy pores (one millionth of a millimeter).  In a lab demonstration Safty showed how a magnet can be used to pull the nanofilters out of the water.

This is not the first time that Safty’s, and his co-researchers’, experiments with HOM mesoporous carriers resulted in success.  Last year they created optical sensors that could detect and remove tiny bits of cobalt and gold from urban ore (discarded cell phones, computers, etc).

The Japanese government has just approved the experimental use of the nano water filters at Fukushima Daiichi, as the GE designed disaster reactors are still pouring out contaminated water.

Fukushima

Nearly two years later, Fish still contaminated with radiation!

18 February 2013, fish being caught off the Pacific coast of Chiba Prefecture, in Japan, are contaminated with 130 becquerels of cesium per kilogram! The new (higher) official safe limit is 100.

The area is 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Fukushima Daiichi, where several GE designed reactors melted down in March 2011.

This is the first time that fish caught near Chiba Prefecture has exceeded the government safe limits.  However, back in December 2012, sea bass were already showing 60 becquerels of cesium per kilogram. Some fisheries voluntarily stopped accepting the fish back then.

This shows that radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean is ongoing, almost two years after the multiple melt downs.

Fukushima

Fukushima Daiichi still deadly! 40 years to go before it might be safe!!! More proof nuke disaster reactors are not worth the risk!

01 February 2013, almost two years since three GE designed reactors melted down at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi, and the latest tour given to Japanese reporters shows it’s still spewing radiation.  The entire clean up process is expected to continue until Gregorian year 2051!!!

Here’s more of what NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) reporter, Akira Hombo, discovered at Fukushima Daiichi.

“The highest reading was on the ocean side of the building that houses the number 3 reactor. It was over 1,300 [micro sieverts per hour].”

“The most important task remains to cool down the melted fuel….could be as hot as a one million watt heater….heat emitted by one thousand electric stoves in a small space. If these units aren’t kept consistently cool another melt down could happen.”

“Work has already started at the number 4 unit….since this reactor didn’t melt down.”

“The entire [clean up/decommissioning] procedure will take until 2051, that is 40 years after the accident.”

Hombo Akira explained that Tokyo Electric Power Company is facing three major problems in getting the decommissioning work done.

1: Radiation is so high that even existing robots are failing after just a few hours inside the reactors.  New robots must be built that can withstand such high levels of radiation.

2: There are not enough trained workers, and there are ongoing problems with the way subcontractors hire and train their employees.

3: There is currently nowhere in Japan to store the massive amount of radioactive material that will be coming from Fukushima Daiichi.