IAEA Urges TEPCO on Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Water Disposal

LIES: ‘Treatment of contaminated water can remove all radioactive substances except tritium, which also exists in nature. As things stand, other radioactive substances also remain because the purification process is premised on the water being stored. In the event of this water being released into the ocean, or disposed of in another way, the tritium would of course be diluted and the other substances brought to or below allowable levels by purifying the water again.’

1. Radioactive tritium does not exist in nature.
2. Other radioactive substances remain in the radioactive water because both of their radionuclides removal systems failed to do fully the job.
3. In the event of this radioactive water being released into the ocean those radionuclides would not be “diluted’ but only scattered through the ocean, affecting all marine life and contaminating our food chain.

 

 

IAEA’s report sensible on Fukushima N-plant contaminated water disposal
November 18, 2018
An international organization has provided some sensible advice. The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. must act quickly to move ahead with decommissioning reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
A review team of the International Atomic Energy Agency has compiled a preliminary summary report that urges a quick decision on the disposal method for the massive volume of water being stored at the power plant. The report warns that storage tanks will reach capacity in three to four years.
Groundwater enters the damaged nuclear plant buildings, where it becomes contaminated by radioactive substances. TEPCO purifies this water and stores it in tanks that stand in vast rows on the nuclear plant’s premises. There is little space available for more tanks.
The IAEA team hit the nail on the head with its concern that getting stuck on this problem could slow down the entire decommissioning process.
The review team came to Japan at the request of the Japanese government. The team is expected to objectively evaluate the current status of the decommissioning process, and to convey information about this situation to the world. The team will soon write a report containing its findings and advice, based on information including that gleaned from a visit to the site.
Given its role is to provide advice, the team’s report did not mention in detail any specific water disposal methods. However, at a press conference, the team’s leader pointed out that releasing such water into the ocean — an option under consideration by the government — is commonly done by many nuclear power facilities.
It also has been made clear that gaining the support of the Fukushima prefectural government and others will be a major precondition for any water disposal option.
Explain clearly to public
All steps need to be taken to keep the negative effects of harmful rumors about radiation to a minimum. The government and TEPCO should painstakingly continue to hold dialogue with local communities.
The review team also recommended how information about the disposal of treated water should be provided to the public.
Treatment of contaminated water can remove all radioactive substances except tritium, which also exists in nature. As things stand, other radioactive substances also remain because the purification process is premised on the water being stored. In the event of this water being released into the ocean, or disposed of in another way, the tritium would of course be diluted and the other substances brought to or below allowable levels by purifying the water again.
Distrust of the government and TEPCO has heightened because this fact has not been well-publicized.
On its website, TEPCO has posted information about the quality of water that has been treated. The review team said TEPCO should work to provide relevant information “in an easy-to-understand manner.”
Technical information delivered without proper explanations also will not be understood among the general public. Ingenuity will be required.
The decommissioning process has shifted from the emergency response immediately after the accident to a more stable situation and a phase in which work should be steadily implemented. The review team expressed awareness of this point, but also showed concern over ongoing problems, such as difficulty in removing fuel from reactor No. 3’s storage pool.
Difficult challenges lie ahead, including removing fuel debris. This will be a long process that takes 40 years. The technology and human resources development called for by the preliminary summary report must not be neglected.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005357348

IAEA urges quick plan on Fukushima radioactive water cleanup
November 18, 2018
TOKYO (AP) — Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency urged the operator of Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Tuesday to urgently decide on a plan to dispose of massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water stored in tanks on the compound.
A 13-member IAEA team told reporters in Tokyo after a weeklong review that managing nearly 1 million tons of radioactive water is critical to the plant’s safe and sustainable decommissioning.
The IAEA team said in a preliminary report that hundreds of tanks currently used to store the water over large areas of the plant’s compound can only be a temporary solution and must be removed “urgently.”
The cores of three reactors at the plant suffered meltdowns following a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of northeastern Japan.
Radioactive water has leaked from the damaged reactors and mixed with groundwater and rainwater at the plant. The water is treated and stored in large tanks.
More than 7 ½ years since the accident, officials have yet to agree on what to do with the radioactive water. A government-commissioned panel has picked five alternatives, including the controlled release of the water into the Pacific Ocean, which nuclear experts say is the only realistic option. Fishermen and residents, however, strongly oppose the proposal.
That option faced a major setback this summer when the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., acknowledged that the water, which it said had been carefully treated, was not clean enough. It said the water contains cancer-causing cesium and other elements in excess of allowable limits for release into the environment.
The IAEA interim report said TEPCO could run out of space for tanks in a few years, and the water storage adds to safety risks and could hamper the decommissioning of the plant, which is already an unprecedented challenge.
It said the water problem has improved recently because of measures such as an underground frozen wall installed around the reactor buildings to keep the radioactive water from mixing with groundwater. It suggested that TEPCO could further reduce the amount of contaminated water by cutting back on the use of cooling water injected into the reactors because the temperature of the melted fuel has fallen significantly.
IAEA mission leader Christophe Xerri told reporters that it is uncertain whether all of the melted fuel can ever be successfully removed because too little is known about the damage to the cores of the three reactors.
TEPCO and government officials plan to start removing the melted fuel in 2021. Robotic probes inside the reactors have detected traces of damaged fuel but its exact location, contents and other details remain largely unknown.
“If you don’t have the information it’s very difficult to say it’s possible or not” to remove all the fuel, Xerri said.
The team’s final report from its review is expected in late January.
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2018/11/18/iaea-urges-quick-plan-fukushima-radioactive-water-cleanup/2049924002/?fbclid=IwAR2YaM-t-dDeHcjfbdttTho4j1t4v-89qz5zrRwSPABOKrUmk1g-Sa-kBlo

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IAEA urges Japan to reach decision soon on handling of radioactive water at crippled Fukushima nuke plant

 

The growing number of tanks storing radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 plant can be seen in February.

 

November 14, 2018
The growing number of tanks storing radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 plant can be seen in February.
A team of nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency urged Japan this week to reach a decision quickly on what to do with treated water that contains low toxicity radioactive tritium, which is accumulating at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
“We advised the Japanese government that … (a) decision should be taken very rapidly for the disposition path for water which is stored in these tanks,” said Christophe Xerri, leader of the 13-member team, on Tuesday following a nine-day review of progress on scrapping the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
The facility was damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
“There is space limitation, so some solution has to be decided and implemented,” Xerri said, adding that the volume of treated water containing tritium in tanks is expected to reach the planned capacity within the “coming three to four years.”
As of last Thursday around 970,000 tons of tritium-containing water was stored on the premises of the plant, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.
The government has studied options for the tritium-containing water, including releasing it into the sea, as it is regarded as not harmful to humans.
The tainted water has been stored in tanks after being produced as a byproduct of cooling the plant’s reactors, which suffered core meltdowns following the 2011 disaster.
But local fishermen and residents have expressed concern about discharging the water, fearing the potential impact on food.
“Controlled discharge to the sea is something which is applied in many nuclear facilities, so it’s not something which is new,” Xerri said.
“Our review was not to advise the Japanese government on one solution or another one,” he added.
“It is up to the Japanese government to decide — in engaging with stakeholders, of course — on the option Japan wants to implement,” he said.
Toyoshi Fuketa, who heads the Nuclear Regulation Authority, has described discharging the water into the sea as the “only” solution.
Tepco has been running the Advanced Liquid Processing System, said to be capable of removing almost all radioactive materials from the toxic water except tritium.
It was the fourth such review conducted by a team of experts from the Vienna-based agency, following two in 2013 and one in 2015.
The IAEA will issue its final report by the end of January 2019.
Xerri said his team was impressed by the progress that has been made at the plant since the previous review, including the full operation of a frozen soil wall around the reactors that has reduced the volume of groundwater that enters the reactor buildings.
But he acknowledged many challenges in the decommissioning process, which is set to take “30 to 40 years or even more,” including the removal of melted fuel from the reactors — seen as the hardest part.
When asked about the possibility of discarding the fuel — the location and volume of which remaining within the reactors is yet to be grasped due to high levels of radiation — Xerri said, “We don’t have enough information to tell you yes or no.”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/14/national/iaea-urges-japan-make-decision-treated-radioactive-water-crippled-fukushima-nuke-plant/?fbclid=IwAR10h4F1walNk1hOujMjrwNbnuqm7xhkl4Ri91mmLZ6pk-igVMa-TYXvOdE#.W-2FBPZFzIW

Local Fury and Health Concerns as Japan Plans to Dump a Million Tons of Radioactive Fukushima Water Into Ocean

One nuclear specialist argued that the Japanese government’s reported plan “cannot be considered an action without risk to the marine environment and human health”

by Jake Johnson, staff writer on Thursday, October 18, 2018

In a move that has sparked outrage from local residents and dire health warnings from environmentalists, the Japanese government is reportedly planning to release 1.09 million tons of water from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean despite evidence that it contains “radioactive material well above legally permitted levels.”

While both the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco)—the company that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant—have claimed that radioactive material in the water has been reduced to indetectable amounts and that only “safe levels of tritium” remain, documents obtained by the London-based Telegraph suggest that the cleaning system being used to decontaminate the water “has consistently failed to eliminate a cocktail of other radioactive elements, including iodine, ruthenium, rhodium, antimony, tellurium, cobalt, and strontium.”

“The government is running out of space to store contaminated water that has come into contact with fuel that escaped from three nuclear reactors after the plant was destroyed in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan,” the Telegraph reported. “Its plan to release the approximately 1.09 million tons of water currently stored in 900 tanks into the Pacific has triggered a fierce backlash from local residents and environmental organizations, as well as groups in South Korea and Taiwan fearful that radioactivity from the second-worst nuclear disaster in history might wash up on their shores.”

One document the Telegraph obtained from the government body charged with responding to the 2011 Fukushima disaster reportedly indicates that the Japanese government is perfectly aware that the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) is failing to eliminate radioactive materials from the water stored at the Fukushima site, despite its claims to the contrary.

Last September, the Telegraph notes, “Tepco was forced to admit that around 80 percent of the water stored at the Fukushima site still contains radioactive substances above legal levels after the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry held public hearings in Tokyo and Fukushima at which local residents and fishermen protested against the plans.”

Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist with Greenpeace, argued that even so-called “safe” levels of tritium are harmful to humans and marine life.

“Its beta particles inside the human body are more harmful than most X-rays and gamma rays,” Burnie told the Telegraph, adding that there “are major uncertainties over the long-term effects posed by radioactive tritium that is absorbed by marine life and, through the food chain, humans.”

The Japanese government’s reported plans to release the water into the Pacific despite these warnings “cannot be considered an action without risk to the marine environment and human health,” Burnie concluded.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/18/local-fury-and-health-concerns-japan-plans-dump-million-tons-radioactive-fukushima?amp&fbclid=IwAR0eIMGig1otrwQLZfpQj2S4HGTJzEYp6JcDexHt5_uH92bAu-1F-cZRFOM

Fukushima nuclear plant owner apologizes for still-radioactive water

TOKYO (Reuters) – The owner of the Fukushima nuclear plant, destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami more than seven years ago, said water treated at the site still contains radioactive materials that for years it has insisted had been removed.

 

Storage tanks for contaminated water are seen through a window of a building at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan, February 23, 2017.

 

The admission by Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) could ruin its chances of releasing the water into the ocean, a move the nuclear regulator says is safe but which local fishermen oppose.

Tokyo won the bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics more than five years ago, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declaring that Fukushima was “under control” in his final pitch to the International Olympic Committee.

The nearly one million tonnes of stored water at the wrecked plant, enough to fill about 500 Olympic swimming pools, still contained detectable levels of potentially harmful radioactive particles, Tepco told a government committee on Oct. 1.

Tepco apologized to the committee under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is looking into ways to dispose of the water.

A spokesman at Tepco confirmed the findings and the apology.

 

A 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered meltdowns at three of the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s six reactors, spewing radiation into the air, soil and ocean and forcing 160,000 residents to flee, many of whom have not returned.

It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier.

Hundreds of deaths have been attributed to the chaos of evacuations during the crisis and to the hardship and trauma refugees have experienced since then, but the government only last month acknowledged for the first time that one worker at the plant had died from radiation exposure.

Documents on the government committee’s website show that of 890,000 tonnes of water held at Fukushima, 750,000 tonnes, or 84 percent, contain higher concentrations of radioactive materials than legal limits allow.

In 65,000 tonnes of treated water, the levels of radioactive materials are more than 100 times government safety levels.

Radioactive readings of one of those isotopes, strontium-90, considered dangerous to human health, were detected at 600,000 becquerels per liter in some tanks, 20,000 times the legal limit.

Tepco has for years insisted that its purification processes remove strontium and 61 other radioactive elements from the contaminated water but leaves tritium, a mildly radioactive element that is difficult to separate from water.

 

Tritium is regularly released after dilution in normally operating nuclear plants.

“We will filter the water in the tanks one more time to bring the levels to below regulatory limits before release into the ocean if a decision is made to do so,” the Tepco spokesman said.

The water build-up has come about because Tepco must pour water over the three reactors to keep the melted uranium fuel at a safe temperature.

Groundwater flowing from the hills above the plant enters the reactor basements, where it mixes with highly radioactive debris. That gets pumped out and treated before being stored in tanks that are fast filling up.

And a costly “ice wall” is failing to keep groundwater from entering the basements, a Reuters analysis of the Tepco data showed earlier this year.

The groundwater seepage has delayed Tepco’s clean-up and may undermine the entire decommissioning process.

Nearby residents, particularly fishermen, oppose ocean releases of the treated water because they fear it will keep consumers from buying Fukushima products.

Many countries, including South Korea and China, still have restrictions on produce from Fukushima and neighboring areas.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-disaster-nuclear-water/fukushima-nuclear-plant-owner-apologizes-for-still-radioactive-water-idUSKCN1ML15N

TEPCO bungles it again in dealing with Fukushima tainted water

Rows of tanks store water contaminated by radioactive materials at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant

 

October 9, 2018

Disturbing new revelations about increasing amounts of radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have undoubtedly further darkened the already dim prospects for solving this tricky and complicated challenge.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the nuclear plant destroyed by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, has said the filtering system to decontaminate the polluted water, known as ALPS (advanced liquid processing system), has failed to remove such radioactive elements as strontium 90 and radioactive iodine.

On Sept. 28, the utility acknowledged that about 80 percent of the water in storage tanks for ALPS-treated water on the plant premises exceeded government standards for radioactive materials.

TEPCO previously claimed that the ALPS system could remove all radioactive elements except for tritium, a mildly radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

But the fact is that of the 890,000 tons of water treated by the ALPS system and stored in the tanks, about 750,000 tons contain higher concentrations of radioactive materials than levels permitted by the safety regulations for release into the ocean.

In 65,000 tons of treated water, the levels of strontium 90 are more than 100 times the safety standards, according to TEPCO. The levels are as high as 20,000 times the standards in some tanks.

In explaining the reasons for this failure, TEPCO pointed to problems with the ALPS system shortly after it was first installed. The utility also reduced the frequency of the replacement of absorbents for removing radioactive materials to keep the system running as long as possible.

The company had long known these facts, but was less than eager to share them with the public.

TEPCO says it has disclosed the data on its website. But it is virtually impossible for an uninformed third-party information seeker to detect such problems in the massive reams of data.

The company deserves to be criticized for having deliberately concealed these inconvenient facts.

The utility reported the facts to an industry ministry subcommittee dealing with the problem of radioactive water and apologized. It appears that the company is not yet fully aware of its responsibility to solve this problem as the operator of the plant where an unprecedented nuclear accident occurred.

The ministry, for its part, should be held accountable for its failure to ensure appropriate disclosure of the information by TEPCO. The subcommittee should be faulted for concentrating its attention almost exclusively on tritium.

Tackling this formidable challenge requires debate from a broad perspective based on diverse information.

This point has been underscored afresh by the latest revelations.

The consequent radical changes in the basic assumptions concerning the problem of radioactive water have brought the process of figuring out a workable way to deal with the challenge back to square one.

TEPCO plans to treat the contaminated water with the ALPS system again to lower the levels of radioactive materials below the safety standards.

This approach, however, is expected to make the water treatment process far costlier and more time-consuming than originally expected, possibly affecting the entire project to decommission the crippled reactors at the plant.

The biggest blow comes from the serious damage the revelations have caused to TEPCO’s already strained relationship with local communities.

To build a broad consensus on how to cope with the problem, the government and the utility should work together to ensure timely and adequate information disclosure and set up opportunities for dialogue with local residents.

A system should also be created to promote a national conversation on this issue.

The tanks to store treated water is expected to be filled to capacity by around 2020, according to the government.

But no time limit should be set for debate on the problem. There is no shortcut to a solution.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201810090025.html

S. Korean activists demand Japan not dump Fukushima’s radioactive water into the sea

October 8, 2018

SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Yonhap) — South Korean environmental groups on Monday urged Japan to reverse its recent decision to release radioactive water that has accumulated in the Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea after treatment.

Korea Radioactive Watch, the Korean Federation For Environmental Movement and other civic groups held a joint news conference in Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul, denouncing the decision by the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. to discharge Fukushima’s contaminated water into the ocean as “unacceptable.”

 

   “A release of Fukushima’s radioactive, contaminated water will threaten the safety of the waters of South Korea and other neighboring nations that share the Pacific Ocean, as well as the waters in the vicinity of Fukushima,” the activist groups said.

South Korean environmental activists hold a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Oct. 8, 2018, to protest against Japan’s decision to release the Fukushima nuclear plant’s radioactive, contaminated water into the sea.

 

In March 2011, a major earthquake and a subsequent tsunami triggered a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The South Korean groups went on to argue that cost reduction appears to be the main reason for Japan’s push to discharge Fukushima’s radioactive water into the sea without checking its contamination condition.

“The Japanese government should disclose all information related to Fukushima’s radioactive water and listen to the opinions of its neighboring countries about how to dispose of the contaminated water. The South Korean government should sternly protest to Japan and take aggressive countermeasures,” the groups said.

They also insisted that water contaminated by high concentrations of radioactive materials collected around the Fukushima plant buildings after the 2011 accident and that the amount is estimated to reach about 940,000 tons.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2018/10/08/0200000000AEN20181008006000315.html

South Korean Prime Minister Expresses Concern about Tokyo’s Plan to Release Fukushima Nuclear Plant Radioactive Water

 

PM Lee calls for prudent decision by Japan on water from Fukushima plant

Seoul’s Prime Minister expressed serious concerns over reports that Japan is planning to dump water into the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear power plant which was badly damaged seven years ago.

In Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Lee Nak-yon noted that 80 percent of the water from the plant has been deemed by the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, to be too contaminated to be released.

However, TEPCO adds, the water has been treated.

The PM urged Japan to make a prudent decision, and instructed the relevant South Korean ministries to convey the government’s position on the matter.

He stressed the ocean does not belong to any one country, but a resource to be shared by the world, and that dumping such water would have a big impact on the marine environment.

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=224350

 

Seoul to Express Concern over Tokyo’s Plan to Release Fukushima Plant Water

South Korea plans to deliver its concern over media reports the Japanese government is mulling releasing treated water from a nuclear plant damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

An official of Seoul’s Foreign Ministry revealed the plan to reporters on Tuesday, saying that given the influences of radiation-related issues and public sensitivity to them, it’s a legitimate concern for South Korea as a neighboring country.

The official said the government will seize a proper opportunity to deliver its concern to the Japanese government and seek cooperation to address the issue.

The move comes after reports emerged that the Japanese government might release water at one of the Fukushima nuclear power plants after purifying it. However, the Japanese media reported more than 80 percent of the purified water still contains radioactive elements.

http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/news_view.htm?lang=e&Seq_Code=139728