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Recent Events
- updated by MAHW on 3/31 @ 5:51 PM mst
Kyodo News
More signs of serious radiation contamination in and near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected Thursday, with the latest data finding groundwater containing radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold and the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in nearby seawater rising to the highest level yet.
- Newly released high res aerial photos of the plant: Sometimes a few pictures are worth a few thousand words.
- The Economist has a must read synopsis looking at the contribution of corporate culture to this crisis (h/t: Just Bob)
Outside experts say that repeated flaws in the company’s nuclear operations have denuded its board of specialists in atomic power. Mr Shimizu is the third successive president to have been hit by a nuclear accident. “This company is really rotten to the core,” says Kenichi Ohmae, a management consultant and former nuclear engineer.
--snip--
About 250km away, at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear-power plant, hundreds of TEPCO employees and some subcontractors are trying to prevent further leaks of radioactive material from three damaged nuclear reactors and various sources of spent fuel. Their conditions are close to intolerable. At times, they have been exposed to more radiation in a few hours than they are supposed to endure in a year. Their rations are biscuits and canned food. They have a blanket each, and sleep on the floor. Some have lost homes and families to the tsunami that left 27,690 dead or missing. TEPCO sees them as soldiers. “We don’t think they are heroes. They are doing what they should,” an official says.
- updated by boatsie on 3/30 @ 11:40 PM pst
IAEA says radiation levels twice as high as its criterion for evacuation were detected in a village 40 kilometers away from plant. Pressure on Japan to widen evacuation zone.
Radiation 4,385 times higher than the legal standard has been detected in seawater at a location 330 meters south of the plant.
TEPCO stepping up efforts to remove radioactive water pooled around reactors sourcesHaveeru online and Kyodo Live Feed
- updated by louisev on 3/30 @ 17:30 pst
Based on measurements of I-131 and Cs-137 in soil, sampled from 18 to 26 March in 9 municipalities at distances of 25 to 58 km from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, the total deposition of iodine-131 and cesium-137 has been calculated. The results indicate a pronounced spatial variability of the total deposition of iodine-131 and cesium-137. The average total deposition determined at these locations for iodine-131 range from 0.2 to 25 Megabecquerel per square metre and for cesium-137 from 0.02-3.7 Megabecquerel per square metre. The highest values were found in a relatively small area in the Northwest from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. First assessment indicates that one of the IAEA operational criteria for evacuation is exceeded in Iitate village. We advised the counterpart to carefully access the situation. They indicated that they are already assessing.
Source: IAEA Briefing 3/30/2011
More Recent Events
- updated by louisev on 3/30 @ 17:30 pst
TOKYO —
Masataka Shimizu, president of Tokyo Electric Power Co, which operates the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, fell sick March 16 and took some days off from the liaison office between the government and the utility firm, TEPCO officials said Sunday.
While Shimizu was away from the office set up at the firm’s headquarters, he collected information and issued instructions from a different room of the headquarters building to address the troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station hit by the March 11 quake and subsequent tsunami, the officials said. He has already recovered and come back to work at the liaison office, they said.
A TEPCO spokesperson declined to elaborate on his health condition, but said he did not fall over or need to be hooked up to an intravenous drip.
Shimizu has not appeared in public since attending a press conference on March 13, two days after the catastrophe that wreaked havoc on northeastern and eastern Japan.
Source: Japan Today
- updated by boatsie on 3/29 @ 10:110 pst.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says the government and experts are considering whether to cover the reactor buildings with a special material, to stop the spread of radioactive substances.
Tokyo Electric Power Company is struggling to drain off highly radioactive water that has leaked from 3 reactors at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the levels of radioactive substances detected are low, at one-to-ten percent of those occurring in an operating nuclear reactor.
The agency says the type of radioactive substances found in the water in the tunnel indicates some relation to the contaminated water in the basement of the No.1 reactor turbine building. It says the water in the tunnel will not be released into the sea.
Source: Kyodo Nuclear News Feed
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