New Release from Fukushima
As TEPCO continues to downplay the situation at the disaster area that used to be its Daiichi nuclear reservation, their little problem with contaminated water this past weekend indicates that the recently doubled estimate of contamination present may be low by a factor of 144.
Sunday's halting of initial startup of the Kurion water decontamination system due to high radiation has grave implications for the ability to deal with the contaminated water before it starts spilling over the trenches and into the Pacific. The test run managed to absorb enough cesium in 5 hours as it was designed to absorb over a period of 30 days, indicating that the water may be 144 times as radioactive as admitted by TEPCO just two weeks ago.
If the water on site is indeed that much hotter than previously admitted, INES may have to come up with a new severity level for the Fukushima disaster. And while the water problem has dominated news coverage, yet another spike in airborne contamination occurred the same day.
Apparently that recently reinforced spent fuel pool at unit-4 that our live-in nuclear proponents have repeatedly insisted is perfectly sound is still leaking rather badly as workers discovered that the water level had dropped to a third of its capacity and once again exposed the fuel assemblies. Water was promptly added and no release from this source above 'the usual' daily outgoing steam was reported.
However, TEPCO did announce that an additional ~1.6 billion becquerels of contamination were released on Sunday from unit-2 after workers opened the doors to try and lower the humidity level inside that building. So despite the abject denial of some nuclear proponents and the maddening happy talk from others about how this crisis is all but over, the situation is still grave and a mountain of problems still remain to be dealt with before Fukushima's Daiichi catastrophe could be under any semblance of control.
Meanwhile, back on a Nebraska Floodplane…
Rumors and conspiracy theories about the situation at flood-threatened Ft. Calhoun nuclear plant near Omaha got some press ink over the weekend. Omaha Public Power District, the utility that operates the plant, had to get involved in debunking the rumor that the 'No Fly Zone' imposed over the sandbagged plant was imposed due to leaking radioactive contamination.
So far, utility chief nuclear officer Dave Bannister insists, the plant's spent fuel pool, electrical systems and backup power options are in no danger from the Missouri River floodwaters that have turned this plains plant into a virtual island, noting that "the layers of levees protecting the plant would have to be breached and damage to the reactor would have to occur" before there would be anything of concern to the public.
New "Unusual Event" Declaration
But alas, the streak of constant bad karma being visited upon all things nuclear this spring continues unabated as CBS affiliate news [channel 3] in Omaha reported on Saturday that the Brownville levee south of Omaha is about to break. Emergency management officials gave up on sandbagging operations as futile, declaring the croplands protected by the levee a total loss.
Which led the Nebraska Public Power District to declare an "Unusual Event" at their Cooper nuclear plant 5 counties south of Ft. Calhoun. The Cooper plant is a Boiling Water Reactor with a Mark I containment, just like the melted plants at Fukushima. So far, the Cooper plant has not been shut down despite several levee failures, and many will take heart at the knowledge that its spent fuel pool is on the 4th floor instead of in the ground like Ft. Calhoun's.
Omaha Public Power District still insists that no releases are expected from the down-for-refueling Ft. Calhoun nuke. At least, not airborne releases. What happens to the fuel pool if the water gets in (and back out) after these "several" levee failures has not been addressed in public.