Finally, after weeks, local police and firefighters are searching for victims within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant.
300 personnel from Fukushima Prefecture have begun the operation. They are wearing protective gear. Some will dig through debris, while others monitor radiation levels. So far 10 bodies have been found.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, apologized for a statement he never made. It concerned the possibility that people would not be able to return home in the radiation zones.
The statement was actually made by a special adviser to the Prime Minister, 
Kenichi Matsumoto, who had explained that the they were considering building what would be a refugee city, based on Germany’s eco-friendly models, just in case people could not go home.
Some people in Japan seemed to ignore the possibility of building new self sustaining committees, and were upset about not being able to go home. Even if they “went home” they still need to rebuild, and the suggestion to follow the German model is still good.
Tearing down, and cleaning up Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant will take ten years, according to the builder of the GE designed reactors, Toshiba, and that’s not until the current situation is brought under control.
Toshiba’s plan involves the help of four U.S. companies as well.
Phase one will likely to take several months to years. It involves cooling and stabilizing reactors and spent fuel pools, while preventing radioactive water from increasing.
Phase two could take five years: Safe removal, and storage, of nuclear fuel rods from the pools and pressure vessels.
Final phase another five years: Dismantling the reactors and clearing the land, will take another 5 years.
”As there is believed to be around 20,000 tons of water (in the No. 2 reactor turbine building and the trench connected to it), we’re feeling the difficulty of lowering the level of the water in a stable manner.”-Nishiyama Hidehiko, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
It’s not just 20,000 tons of contaminated water in Reactor 2, there is another 60,000 tons in reactors 1 and 3 to deal with, and no mention of how much water is leaking from Reactor 4. Now Tokyo Electric Power Company confirms the local ground water, not just the ocean, is contaminated.
TEPCo says radiation in ground water has risen several dozens of times in one week. It includes iodine-131 and cesium-137. On 06 April cesium levels were at 1.4 becquerels, on Wednesday it had risen to 53 becquerels. The readings for iodine-131 are much higher, on Wednesday it had hit 400 becquerels.
Just how much contaminated water has TEPCo been able to safely remove? 660 tons, that’s all. Thousands of tons has spilled out into the ocean, and into local ground water. One official thinks it will take three months to remove the tens of thousands of tons of contaminated water, and that needs to be done before they can deal with anything else.
The United States is sending several huge water storage tanks to help with the contaminated water removal. It must be put somewhere safe, because the water is nuclear waste.
The problem of the spilling waste water is being blamed on the dumping of sea water, as an emergency cooling operation.
Fukushima Daiichi is still showing temperature problems, but employees say they can not trust the instrumentation. One employee says one gauge will show overheating while another gauge shows normal!
Hitachi is rushing to fill orders for giant turbine power generators. One of their first orders was sent off today. It’s being sent to Ibaraki Prefecture.
The turbine generator weighs 50 tons, and took an hour and a half to be hauled nine miles to the shipping yards.
Hitachi says it is being swamped with orders since it’s become clear the problems with nuclear generated power will last well into summer.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of Japan, has asked three nuclear power plants to inspect their reactors for damage. This after the agency realized that the 11 March earthquake was stronger than what many nuclear power plants were designed to withstand.
Since then Japan has had more than 400 aftershocks, several in the 5 to 6 magnitude range, and at least two of magnitude 7. There is concern that nuclear plants already damaged by the 9.0 quake, will be further weakened by the aftershocks.
Work at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant has been continually interrupted by aftershocks. Currently employees are moving diesel generators to higher ground, because there is concern that there could be another big quake caused tsunami.
Fukushima Daiichi is not the only nuke plant damaged by the 11 March quake. Fukushima DaiNi, just a few miles away, has been struggling to keep its reactors cool, using external power. Also, in Miyagi Prefecture, there is Onagawa nuclear plant (owned by Tohoku Electric, not to be confused with Tokyo Electric). It too, has been struggling to keep its fuel pools cool with external power. One aftershock cut the power lines running to the plant. Onagawa had all its reactors shut down for maintenance prior to 11 March, so all the active fuel rods are in the spent fuel pools.
Matsumoto Kenichi, special adviser to Prime Minister Kan Naoto, says they are looking at using Germany’s eco-friendly city models to build a new home for refugees from the failed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The concern is that so much contamination has spread around the 30km (18.6 miles) danger zone, that people will not be able to return for 30 years or more (just like Chernobyl).
The proposed refugee city would be based on eco-friendly projects undertaken by several German cities. The city should be self sustaining, and have no more than 100,000 residents. As in the German experiments, residents would grow their own crops, and produce their own electricity, which could be sold on the power grid. There would also be no car zones, and pedestrian only zones.
Japan should consider the German model for all its cities, not just a refugee city.
Subaru (also called Fuji in Japan) is stopping production in Louisiana. Just like other car makers, it’s because of lack of parts. The production shut down will take place on April 15, April 18 and April 25.
Subaru says the employees will be given other work on those days, so they can still be paid.
Tokyo Electric Power Company operates several nuclear power plants in Japan, not just Fukushima Daiichi. Some of those plants went off line because of the 11 March disasters. In fact many nuclear plants run by other companies are off line, that’s why the electricity shortage in Japan is so bad.
TEPCo announced that they will restart one reactor at their Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, in Niigata Prefecture. The KK plant has four reactors. Reactor 1 is operational, but 2 through 4 are shut down.
They hope to get Reactor 3 up and running by the end of the year. Part of the delay is from a government ordered earthquake reinforcing program for the reactor buildings.
“Children have been rejected from evacuation centers. It’s really sad for them to be told, ‘Don’t come near, don’t come near’.”-Abe Sadayasu, Minamisoma City official
Adding insult to injury, many Japanese evacuees are reporting they’re being turned away from emergency shelters for health reasons.
The latest evacuees are coming from recently expanded nuclear evacuation zones. Emergency shelter operators believe the new evacuees are contaminated with radiation, and think it will spread to the other people in the shelters.
Surprisingly it’s not just shelters that have a fear of radiation, it’s Japanese hospitals. An 8 year old girl, with a skin condition, was refused treatment at a hospital for fear it was caused by radiation.
The current round of evacuees must show official ‘radiation free’ documents, or go through radiation contamination screening, before being let into shelters. Prefectural governments are now issuing radiation free certificates.
A shelter operator, who doesn’t want his name published, said they are doing it for “peace of mind” of the evacuees already in the shelters.
Even hotels are refusing customers from areas that are near the nuclear evacuation zones. “When I explained that I was from an area that was not even in the voluntary evacuation zone… the clerk responded: ‘You can’t stay here unless you have been tested and can prove you’re not a ‘hibakusha’.”-evacuee from Fukushima
Hibakusha is a term originally applied to survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, by the U.S., during World War 2. It’s a negative term, and you’re treated like a Leper (someone with Leprosy). The discrimination that’s taking place, against evacuees from radiation zones, shows how ignorant the Japanese people are when it comes to radiation. Which is amazing since they’ve experienced first hand nuclear attacks.
