Monday, February 04, 2013

Inside Fukushima: TEPCO releases pics from inside nuclear plant after tsunami (PHOTOS)

Heaps of debris, power lines downed, smoke rising from demolished roof of what used to be the Fukushima reactor before the devastating tsunami hit the plant in March 2011 – TEPCO offers photos taken in the weeks after the disaster.
­Fukushima operator, Tokyo Electric Power, released 2,145 pictures it took between March 15 and April 11. Some of them were taken by the workers. TEPCO also took them from other sources after asking employees and subcontractors to submit any photos they took.
The company said it received more pictures than they published February 1, but decided to withhold 849, citing "protection of sensitive data" relating to nuclear technology.

The photographs are the evidence of the chaos workers had to deal with in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami as they struggled to prevent the world's worst nuclear disaster for a generation.
Some pictures show machines spraying water into the No. 4 reactor to cool the fuel rods.
Among the photos are images of the wreck of the No. 3 reactor building after a hydrogen explosion on March 14, 2011.
Almost two years on from the disaster the clean-up operation is far from complete.
The tsunami on March 11 in 2011 resulted in a reactor meltdown and the release of radioactive material.
Hundreds of thousands of homes and other structures were destroyed by the inundation.
The natural disaster claimed around 19,000 lives and hundreds of thousands evacuated. Some 160,000 are still not allowed to be back to their houses in the vicinity of the power plant. Scientists say it could take up to 40 years to make some parts of the area safe again while others warn it may never be habitable.
This is the largest release of images and follows the first set of 600 photos made public in September 2012.
.rt.com
4/2/13

4 comments:

  1. Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant leaking contaminated water....

    As much as 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from a storage tank at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, contaminating the surrounding ground, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Saturday.

    The power company has yet to discover the cause of the leak, detected on one of seven tanks that store water used to cool the plants reactors, a spokesman for the company, Masayuki Ono, said at a press briefing.

    The company plans to pump 13,000 cubic meters of water remaining in the tank to other vessels over the next two weeks.

    The facility was the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in March 2011 when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a tsunami that destroyed back-up generators and disabled its cooling system. Three of the reactors melted down.

    The storage tanks, pits excavated at the site in the wake of the disaster, are lined with water proof sheets meant to keep the contaminated water from leaking into the soil

    Work to decommission the plant is projected to take decades to complete.

    http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=308866&R=R101
    6/4/13

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    Replies
    1. Διαρροή μολυσμένου νερού από το πυρηνικό εργοστάσιο της Φουκουσίμα....

      Η εταιρία που διαχειρίζεται το πυρηνικό εργοστάσιο της Φουκουσίμα ανακοίνωσε στη διάρκεια της νύχτας πως υπάρχει διαρροή μολυσμένου νερού από υπόγεια δεξαμενή στο έδαφος. Η Tepco εκτιμά πως η ποσότητα του μολυσμένου νερού που έχει διαρρεύσει φτάνει τους 120 τόνους.

      Μέχρι τώρα δεν έχουν γίνει γνωστά τα αίτια της διαρροής.

      Η υπόγεια δεξαμενή διαθέτει τρεις ειδικές επιστρώσεις που εμποδίζουν το νερό να περάσει στο έδαφος.

      Η δεξαμενή με διαστάσεις 60 Χ 53 μέτρα βρίσκεται σε βάθος έξι μέτρων και απέχει περίπου 800 μέτρα από τον ωκεανό. Η Tepco θεωρεί ότι υπάρχει πολύ μικρή πιθανότητα το μολυσμένο νερό να έχει φτάσει στη θάλασσα.

      Η εταιρία άρχισε το πρωί του Σαββάτου τη μεταφορά με τη βοήθεια αντλιών των 13.000 τόνων νερού από την δεξαμενή που προκλήθηκε η διαρροή σε άλλη.

      Χθες Παρασκευή, η Tepco ανακοίνωσε την διακοπή λειτουργίας τους συστήματος ψύξης της δεξαμενής εξαντλημένων καυσίμων από τον αντιδραστήρα 3. Η λειτουργία αποκαταστάθηκε λίγες ώρες αργότερα.

      http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=355823
      6/4/13

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  2. Fukushima : hausse phénoménale du taux de césium radioactif.....

    Le gérant de la centrale accidentée de Fukushima a annoncé mardi 9 juillet avoir constaté une multiplication par 90 en trois jours du niveau de césium radioactif dans un puits de prélèvement situé entre les réacteurs et la mer. Cette énième mauvaise découverte suscite de nouvelles interrogations sur la propagation de l'eau souterraine contaminée.

    Selon les prélèvements effectués le 8 juillet, l'eau souterraine en un point situé à environ 25 mètres de la mer contenait 9 000 becquerels de césium 134 par litre et 18 000 becquerels de césium 137, contre respectivement 99 becquerels/litre et 210 becquerels/litre trois jours auparavant. Le facteur de multiplication dans ce court laps de temps est de 91 fois dans le premier cas et 86 fois dans le second.

    INCERTITUDES SUR UNE POSSIBLE CONTAMINATION

    "Nous ne sommes pour le moment pas en mesure de dire si l'eau contaminée s'écoule ou non dans la mer", a déclaré Tepco à la presse. Le groupe promet toutefois de renforcer les contrôles et de prendre des dispositions pour empêcher de contaminer davantage l'océan Pacifique voisin.

    Le 5 juillet, Tepco avait déjà découvert au même endroit un niveau phénoménal d'autres éléments radioactifs, en l'occurrence une quantité de strontium 90 et d'autres éléments produisant des rayons bêta, de 900 000 becquerels/litre. Le 8 juillet, le niveau de ces substances était à peu près identique, 890 000 becquerels/litre, soit plusieurs milliers de fois le plafond admis pour l'eau de mer.

    Tepco avait expliqué que le point de prélèvement se situe là où passe un tuyau et où s'étaient déversées de grandes quantités d'eau contaminée le mois suivant la catastrophe nucléaire, soit en avril 2011. Cela n'explique toutefois pas l'augmentation soudaine des quantités de césium.

    La centrale Fukushima Daiichi a été ravagée par le séisme et le tsunami du 11 mars 2011 dans le nord-est de l'archipel. Du combustible a fondu dans trois des six réacteurs du site, d'où la présence de nombreux éléments radioactifs alentour.
    http://www.lemonde.fr/japon/article/2013/07/09/fukushima-hausse-phenomenale-du-taux-de-cesium-radioactif_3444531_1492975.html#ens_id=1845440&xtor=RSS-3208
    9/7/13

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  3. Japan Reports Soaring Fukushima Groundwater Radiation...

    TOKYO, July 9 (RIA Novosti) - Radioactive cesium levels in one of the observation wells at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in north-east Japan have jumped up 90 times over the past 3 days, the NHK television said Tuesday.

    NHK cited a report from Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant’s operator, saying that “9,000 becquerels of cesium 134 and 18,000 becquerels of cesium 137 per liter of water at a well between the No. 2 reactor building and the sea” were recorded on Monday.

    TEPCO experts have been unable so far to determine the cause of the sudden rise in cesium levels, or to assess the impact of the spike on the nearby ocean.

    In addition, seawater in the port next to the Fukushima plant has been showing increasing levels of radioactive tritium since May, the company said.

    Fukushima NPP was partially destroyed in March 2011, when Japan was hit by a massive 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing tsunami, claiming over 15,000 lives and triggering a number of explosions at the plant.

    The tsunami caused a partial meltdown at three of the nuclear plant’s reactors. Radiation leaked into the atmosphere, soil and seawater, making the accident the world's worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl.

    Japan will need at least 40 years to recover fully from the nuclear catastrophe, scientists say.

    Some 315,000 victims are still living in a temporary housing unable to return to their houses in the plant’s vicinity.
    http://en.rian.ru/world/20130709/182135356/Japan-Reports-Soaring-Fukushima-Groundwater-Radiation.html
    9/7/13

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