Risk of Hydrogen Explosion From Leaking Containers At Fukushima

by Hiromi Kumai / Asahi Shimbun / May 23, 2015 / Inspections of containers holding contaminated water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant found that at least 10 percent have leaks, which could trigger a hydrogen explosion. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant’s operator, reported its findings at a meeting with a study group from the Nuclear Regulation Authority on May 22. It said no radioactive water was … Continue reading

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Pumps At Fukushima Plant Halted, Toxic Water Leaking Into Ocean – TEPCO

via RT.com / April 21, 2015 / All the eight water transfer pumps (pictured) at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power station have been shut down due to a power outage, leading to a leak of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator said. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) reported a power outage on Tuesday, according to Kyodo news agency. It follows the line of the toxic leaks that … Continue reading

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TEPCO Finds New Source Of Radiation Leaking Into Sea

via channelnewsasia.com / February 25, 2015 / The operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant said on Tuesday it had found a pool of highly contaminated water on the roof of a plant building and that it had probably leaked into the sea through a gutter when it rained. The finding comes four years after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc’s Fukushima … Continue reading

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Plan C Also Failed In Plugging Reactor 2 Trench…Now What?

via EX-SKF.blogspot.com / November 24, 2014 / Plan D of Course! But first, recall that Plan A was to install freezing pipes at the head of the trench leading from Reactor 2 turbine building to create an ice plug so that the extremely contaminated water that had been sitting in the trench since the very beginning of the nuclear accident could be pumped out. TEPCO started the work in April … Continue reading

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TEPCO to bury Fukushima plant trench with concrete to control radioactive water

via mainichi.jp / November 23, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has decided to bury a trench at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant using concrete after an effort to completely stop the flow of radiation contaminated water failed, it has been learned. TEPCO reported its plan to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on Nov. 21, and the NRA approved it, saying that the plan can at … Continue reading

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Meltdown at Fukushima Reactor 3 Worse Than Thought

via NHK World / August 6, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says the damage to nuclear fuel in one of its reactors may be worse than previously thought. Tokyo Electric Power Company engineers have been working to size up damage at the plant from the March 2011 accident and start the process of decommission. Officials with the utility now say most of the nuclear … Continue reading

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?Fukushima has 9 days to prevent ‘unsafe’ overheating

via RT.com / July 6, 2014 / Fukushima operator TEPCO has been forced to switch off the cooling system at mothballed Reactor Unit 5, after it was discovered that it had been leaking water. In nine days, if the system is not repaired, temperatures will exceed dangerous levels. Engineers have discovered that 1,300 liters of water leaked from a cooling system intended to stabilize the temperature of the spent fuel … Continue reading

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TEPCO Reports On Radioactive Substance Leak

via NHK World / July 1, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant estimates that it recovered about 80 percent of a radioactive substance that leaked with contaminated wastewater last year. About 300 tons of wastewater contaminated with radioactive substances leaked from a storage tank at the plant in August 2013. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, submitted a report on the leak to Japan’s … Continue reading

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TEPCO: Contaminated water may have leaked from storage tanks

via NHK World / June 6, 2014 / The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says more than 3 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from barriers surrounding storage tanks. Tokyo Electric Power Company made the announcement on Friday following the discovery of water leaking around 2 of its storage tanks on the hillside earlier this week. The tanks contain rainwater with radiation levels above government-set … Continue reading

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Fukushima’s Cesium-137 levels ‘50% higher’ than previously estimated

via RT.com / May 10, 2014 / The amount of Cesium-137 leaked from the Fukushima nuclear power plant could be worse than expected, a Japanese research team has concluded. They believe 50 percent more of the radioactive material could have escaped into the atmosphere and seawater. The original estimate of 13,600 terabecquerels was made by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the power station. However, a new report … Continue reading

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TEPCO accidentally fills Fukushima basements with contaminated water

via Press TV / April 15, 2014 / Authorities at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant say the facility’s basements have been mistakenly filled with highly contaminated water. The basements were flooded with about 200 tons of cooling-tank radioactive water after pumps were turned on by mistake. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), says the water didn’t have a pathway to reach the ocean or leak out to … Continue reading

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TEPCO: August water leak far more toxic than first annouced

via Japan Times / April 12, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday that toxic water found to have leaked last August at one of the huge tanks at the accident-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was far more contaminated than initially announced. After recalculating the radiation level, Tepco said the water contained 280 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive materials such as strontium-90, instead of … Continue reading

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On Again, Off Again: TEPCO shuts down decontamination system amid leaks

via Press TV / March 25, 2014 / Officials at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant say they have switched off a key decontamination system used to clean radiation-tainted water after workers discovered leaks. This comes as the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) spotted the defect just hours after the system came back online. The firm has repeatedly switched off the system over a series of glitches since trial … Continue reading

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Fukushima water decontamination might be suspended indefinitely

via RT.com / March 20, 2014 / Treatment of radioactive water at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant might be indefinitely suspended after malfunctions crippled the water purification process and recontaminated thousands of tons of partially purified water, Japanese media reported. The failure in the system, known as the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), is the latest setback in Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO) uphill battle to stockpile radioactive water, which … Continue reading

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Hitachi develops robots to probe Fukushima No. 1 plant

via Japan Times / March 20, 2014 / Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. say they have developed robots to detect cooling water leakage points and the condition of nuclear fuel at the disaster-struck Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. One robot can move through narrow pipes by changing shape and another can move through radioactive water to perform research related to the task of removing melted nuclear fuel. The … Continue reading

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Human error cause of contaminated water leak at Fukushima

via Enformable.com / February 24, 2014 / Last week officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that extremely radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. According to the utility over 100 tons of water containing 240,000,000 becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substances leaked out of the storage tanks over a period of nine hours before the leak was discovered.  The … Continue reading

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Highly radioactive water leaks from storage tank

via NHK World / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says water containing extremely high levels of radioactive substances has leaked from a storage tank. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials said the leak was found on Wednesday night in one of the many tanks being stored on the mountain side of the reactor buildings. They say the leaked water contained 230-million becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting … Continue reading

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Water leaks from barrier found at Fukushima plant

via NHK World / February 16, 2014 / The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says officials have found water leaks at 7 locations in a barrier that surrounds tanks holding contaminated water. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials said they confirmed on Sunday that water had leaked from the barrier near the Number 4 reactor. It’s one of 30 barriers in the compound. The officials said the amount … Continue reading

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TEPCO fears 3-cm hole in Fukushima reactor No.2

via RT.com / January 30, 2014 / The suppression pool of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit No. 2 reactor may have a 3-centimeter hole in it, through which the highly radioactive water might be leaking out, the plant operator said. The information is based on the data gathered by a robot sent into the suppression pool at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel earlier in January. The … Continue reading

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Reactor 3: Water Leak Most Likely From Inside Pressure Vessel

via EX-SKF / January 19, 2014 / This is today’s update on the water leak from the MSIV (Main Steam Isolation Valve) Room of Reactor 3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. (Previous posts on the subject are here and here.) TEPCO says they did the nuclide analysis of the water sample that the robot collected. The temperature and the levels of contamination indicate it is the water that comes … Continue reading

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Reactor 3: Water Leak From MSIV Room Could Be A Huge Problem

via EX-SKF / January 18, 2014 / TEPCO released the video which was being taken by the robot on the first floor of Reactor 3 and which was being monitored by a TEPCO employee who noticed the water. The flow looks significant and fast. From TEPCO’s photos and video library, 1/18/2014: Location of the MSIV Room:   Radiation levels on the 1st floor of Reactor 3, from yesterday’s post: The … Continue reading

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Water leak found inside reactor 3

via NHK / January 18, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has found water pouring into a drain inside the number 3 reactor building. Tokyo Electric Power Company says it is yet to determine where the water comes from, or how much radioactive material it contains. The company said that the water leak was spotted on the first floor of the reactor … Continue reading

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TEPCO to siphon off radioactive water from tunnels under Fukushima plant

via Russia Today / January 6, 2014 / The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant plans to start cleaning underground tunnels believed to be part of the sources of radioactive materials poisoning the groundwater in the area. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will first block the flow of tainted water between the damaged buildings and the tunnels. Workers will begin burying pipes in the ground to carry … Continue reading

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‘Duct tape, wire nets’ were used to mend #Fukushima water tanks

via Russia Today / January 5, 2014 / As TEPCO began preparations for the cleaning of the drainage system with tons of leaked radioactive water at the Fukushima power plant, a former employee reveals the reason for so many leaks was cost cutting measures such as using duct tape, Asahi reported. Yoshitatsu Uechi, auto mechanic and tour-bus driver, worked at the devastated nuclear power plant between July 2 and Dec. … Continue reading

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Radioactive cesium detected in deeper groundwater

via NHK World / December 20, 2013 / Tokyo Electric Power Company says radioactive substances have been detected in water samples taken from deep underground at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Highly radioactive substances had been detected in previous months in shallow groundwater that was found to be leaking into the ocean. But for the first time in December, TEPCO investigators detected radioactivity in groundwater taken from a … Continue reading

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Hilarious NRA Meeting: Saving Money Comes Before Monitoring Leaks Inside the Harbor

via ex-SKF / December 10, 2013 / What’s more pressing at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is not measuring radiation levels around the SGTS pipe where 25 sieverts/hour radiation source may be inside (to be sure, again, this 25 sieverts/hour was NOT measured but derived by calculation), nor removing the fuel assemblies from the Spent Fuel Pool on the top floor of Reactor 4 (again, not individual “fuel rods” that … Continue reading

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Japan proposes more steps to store Fukushima water

via Associated Press / December 3, 2013 /  A government panel proposed additional measures to lessen the radioactive water crisis at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant, saying Tuesday that current plans are not enough to prevent the risk of a disaster. Officials on the Industry Ministry’s contaminated water panel also said that the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant could run out of storage space for contaminated water within two years if current … Continue reading

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Water decontamination system in trouble

via Voice of Russia / December 2, 2013 / A trouble-prone system used to decontaminate radioactive water at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant was switched off Sunday because of a chemical leak, the plant’s operator said. Hydrochloric acid, used to neutralise alkaline water being decontaminated, was found seeping from a pipe joint, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said in a statement.   The joint was wrapped in a vinyl bag … Continue reading

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Sources: Japan considering extra $100 million for Fukushima water crisis

via Reuters / November 28, 2013 / Japan is considering more than $100 million in extra government spending to handle contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, boosting the budget allocation by at least a fifth, government officials familiar with the matter said. The additional budget allocation of between 10 billion and 15 billion yen aims to accelerate work on containing leaks and decontaminating the water, said the officials, … Continue reading

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Robot pinpoints leaks on Fukushima unit 1

via NHK World / November 14, 2013 / A robot at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has for the first time identified exactly where highly radioactive water is leaking from a reactor. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Wednesday succeeded in sending a remote-controlled robot close to the lower part of the No.1 reactor’s containment vessel. The lower section is filled with contaminated water injected to … Continue reading

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JGov Denies Fukushima Water “Leaking Into Open Ocean”

via ex-SKF / October 21, 2013 / The ex-McKinsey management consultant never ceases to entertain (albeit in a bad way). The last I heard Mr. Toshimitsu Motegi was when he said there would be more space to install storage tanks for contaminated water once Reactors 5 and 6 at Fukushima I NPP were decommissioned, casting doubt about his intelligence level. He was also pontificating over the talk between TEPCO and … Continue reading

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Heavy rains overflow barriers surrounding Fukushima water tanks

via RT / October 20, 2013 / Water has overflowed at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is attempting to discern the quality of the water and possible radioactive substances which could have been spilled. TEPCO announced on Monday that the water overflowed in 12 areas of the plant. Heavy rains caused water to flow over the barriers of an artificial embankment which surrounds a dozen … Continue reading

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EDITORIAL: Abe should confront the reality of Fukushima radiation leaks

via The Asahi Shimbun / Sep 21, 2013 / In the wee hours of Sept. 20, a strong earthquake measuring a 5-plus on the Japanese seismic scale struck Fukushima Prefecture. Its epicenter was in the Hamadori area in the eastern part of the prefecture, where the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located. Even though it caused no damage to the some 1,000 storage tanks within the plant … Continue reading

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EDITORIAL: Abe should confront the reality of Fukushima radiation leaks

via The Asahi Shimbun / Sep 21, 2013 / In the wee hours of Sept. 20, a strong earthquake measuring a 5-plus on the Japanese seismic scale struck Fukushima Prefecture. Its epicenter was in the Hamadori area in the eastern part of the prefecture, where the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located. Even though it caused no damage to the some 1,000 storage tanks within the plant … Continue reading

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Update: Tritium rises further in groundwater around #Fukushima Daiichi

via NHK World / Sep 14, 2013 / The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says that it found sharply rising tritium levels at a monitoring well near a waste water storage tank. Tokyo Electric Power Company says the level of radioactive tritium at one of the wells rose to 130,000 becquerels per liter on Thursday. That’s more than twice the government-set level for its release into the … Continue reading

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Situation at Fukushima ‘not under control’, says Tepco official

via euronews.com / Sep 13, 2013 / A senior official from the company which operates the stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima in Japan has admitted that the situation there is “not under control”. However, within hours Tepco released a statement saying the official, Kazuhiko Yamashita, meant to say something different. His comments came in response to a question at a meeting with the opposition Democratic Party. The politician asked … Continue reading

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#Tritium levels spike 15-fold in three days

via RT.com / Sep 12, 2013 / In just three days, readings of tritium in groundwater near the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant have soared more than 15 times, the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant admitted. Results of recently tested water taken from the well some 20 meters south from a number of storage tanks have showed that levels of tritium have now reached 64,000 becquerels per liter. Back … Continue reading

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Abe’s assurance to IOC on nuclear plant called into question

via Japan Times / Sep 10, 2013 / One question that emerged among the public immediately after Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Olympics was whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an incorrect statement, or told an outright lie, about the contaminated water issue at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. During the Tokyo bid delegation’s final presentation before the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires on Saturday, … Continue reading

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#Fukushima Water Problem Will Be A Decade Says TEPCO Consultant

via Fukuleaks.org / Sep 9, 2013 / TEPCO consultant Dale Klein told Der Spiegel that the ongoing water crisis at Fukushima Daiichi will be an ongoing problem for another decade. The plant will be out of tanks in November on top of the dire need to replace all of the bolt together tanks at the plant since they were discovered to be leaking already. Generating even more water for at … Continue reading

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#Fukushima leak rate hits record high

via Press TV / Sep 4, 2013 / Recent radiation readings at Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant depict that the level of radioactive water leak from the site has reached its highest level ever, officials say. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) announced the radiation level of the water leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was as high as 2,200 millisieverts (mSv) (20 percent) on Wednesday, while it was … Continue reading

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Fukushima water release unavoidable: Japan nuke watchdog

via Press TV / Sep 2, 2013 / Japan’s nuclear watchdog says contaminated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant will have to be released into the ocean eventually. Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Chairman Shunichi Tanaka made the statement during a governmental session held in response to growing concerns about the plant operator’s ability to deal with a worsening water crisis. He also said the water would be discharged once … Continue reading

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New radioactive hotspots suggest more leaks at #Fukushima

via RT.com / Sep. 1, 2013 / Several new hotspots reading potentially lethal doses of radiation have been detected near the tanks storing the radioactive water, forcing the operator to admit there might be even more leaks at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The high radiation readings were detected during the daily inspection on Saturday near three water tanks and one pipe stretched between the tanks and the plant, … Continue reading

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Japan Regulator urges monitoring of crippled #Fukushima plant

via Press TV / Aug 29, 2013 / Japan’s nuclear regulator says the impact of the radiation-contaminated water leaks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is not known and it needs to be monitored more closely. The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said on Thursday that Fukushima plant leaks cannot be stopped instantly, warning that the level of monitoring is not enough. “We cannot fully stop contaminated water leaks … Continue reading

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TEPCO sidelined by Japanese government as #Fukushima leaks continue

via SMH.com.au / Aug 27, 2013 / The Japanese government has lost patience with the efforts of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to get the crippled reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant under control. Toshimitsu Motegi, the minister of trade and industry, visited the plant on Monday to determine progress on decommissioning three reactors damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in March, 2011. Tepco admitted last week that hundreds … Continue reading

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Fishing ban reinstated off #Fukushima coast

via International Business Times / Aug. 23, 2013 / A ban on fishing along the coast of Fukushima prefecture was greeted with frustration and anger by locals on Friday (August 22), in the aftermath of the latest contaminated water leak from the crippled nuclear reactor. In the port of Onahama, just 61 kilometers (37 miles) south of Fukushima Daiichi, fishermen who were forced to stop fishing were furious at the … Continue reading

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TEPCO: Deteriorated seams, contortion cause tank leak

via CNTV.cn / Aug. 25, 2013 / The operator of Japan’s wrecked nuclear plant has attributed this week’s massive leak of contaminated water to deteriorated seams and a possible contortion of a storage tank. Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco rushed to reassemble the tanks after the triple meltdown in March 2011. The quick fix was designed to last till 2016 until it worked out a more permanent solution, but has … Continue reading

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#TEPCO pleads for international help as crisis deepens

via Russia Today / Aug. 22, 2013 / TEPCO, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, admits it needs overseas help to contain the radioactive fallout, after 18 months of trying to control it internally. It comes after the latest leak at the facility was deemed a “serious incident.” “Many other countries outside of Japan have experienced decommissioning reactors, so we hope we can consult them more and utilize their … Continue reading

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‘Serious radiation incident’: Japan to radically raise the severity level of Fukushima leak

via RT.com / Aug. 21, 2013 / Japan will drastically raise the gravity of the latest Fukushima leak to Level Three, which is considered a “serious radiation incident” on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) for radiological releases. “Judging from the amount and the density of the radiation in the contaminated water that leaked…a Level Three assessment is appropriate,” read the document used during Wednesday’s weekly meeting of Nuclear Regulation … Continue reading

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Tritium levels in #Fukushima bay highest since measurements began – reports

via RT.com / Aug. 19, 2013 / Readings of tritium in seawater taken from the bay near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has shown 4700 becquerels per liter, a TEPCO report stated, according to Nikkei newspaper. It marks the highest tritium level in the measurement history. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has detected the highest radiation level in seawater collected in the harbor of the crippled nuclear plant in the … Continue reading

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Toxic puddles found near water tanks at #Fukushima

via Japan Times / Aug. 20, 2013 / Puddles of water with extremely high radiation levels have been found near water storage tanks on the premises of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, nuclear regulators and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday. The radiation level, measured around 50 cm above the toxic water, stood at about 100 millisieverts per hour, Tepco said, while acknowledging that the … Continue reading

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