Nukeblog update Jan 8, 2012: Unit 4 Pool Leaking? Fukushima Ghost Towns

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2012/01/tank-w-1a-is-out-of-the-ground.html

Tank W-1A is out of the ground! Radioactive saga at ORNL approaches an end

UCOR, the Department of Energy's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge announced today that workers had excavated Tank W-1A -- an undergound waste tank responsible for radioactively polluting the groundwater in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's historic central campus. The 4,000-gallon stainless-steel tank was commissioned in 1951 and used for decades for collection and storage of liquid radioactive wastes from the lab's nuclear research and production.

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from google alert:

Fukushima lays bare Japanese media's ties to top The Japan Times By DAVID MCNEILL Is the ongoing crisis surrounding the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant being accurately reported in the Japanese media? Official lines: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano on April 17, 2011, during his first visit to Fukushimaafter ... See all stories on this topic »

The Japan Times

2 towns at risk of disappearing / Okuma, Futaba face uncertain future due to ...
The Daily Yomiuri
How will the government help the estimated 25000 people who lived in areas where residency likely will be prohibited for an extended period due to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant? In particular, Okuma and Futaba towns in Fukushima ...
See all stories on this topic »SDP head Fukushima to seek fifth term
The Japan Times
Mizuho Fukushima decided Saturday to seek her fifth term as leader of the Social Democratic Party, sources said. As no other member of the small opposition party is expected to file for the leadership race, Fukushima, 56, is considered a shoo-in to ...
See all stories on this topic »

Reactor Reax: Nuclear Industry Report Salem-News.Com (WASHINGTON DC) - This week in Reactor Reax we hear more about the ongoing problems in Japan based on the recent tsunami and nuclear disaster in Fukushimaprefecture. An LA Times report details the short-circuiting of the US nuclear renaissance of new ... See all stories on this topic »

Salem-News.Com

No renegotiation or raise in cost required, says Nuclear Power Corporation
Business Standard
France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has observed that the evolutionary pressurised reactors (EPRs) proposed for the 9900-MW in Ratnagiri district along the Konkan Coast has safety applications to face accidents like the one that Japan's Fukushima ...
See all stories on this topic »Japan govt eyes Tepco common shares-Jiji
Reuters
| TOKYO Jan 8 (Reuters) - Japan's government is preparing to take control of Tokyo Electric Power Co, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, by buying a majority stake in its common shares, Jiji News Agency said. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Scientists Testing Sick Seals For RADIATION GreaterKashmir.com Scientists in Alaska are investigating whether local seals are being sickened by radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Scores of ring seals have washed up on Alaska's Arctic coastline since July, suffering or killed by a mysterious... See all stories on this topic »

GreaterKashmir.com

Michael Sadler: A New Year's energy resolution
ReporterNews.com
The Fukushima nuclear reactors were disabled by the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Financial markets were erratic due to the political upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa, prompting a release from international oil stockpiles to ...
See all stories on this topic »Tiny particles may illuminate reactor cores
Sacramento Bee
The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned that a team of researchers from the university is developing technology to use elementary particles from space to see into the interiors of crippled reactors at theFukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. ...
See all stories on this topic »

http://www.scribblelive.com/Event/Japan_Earthquake5

The Tokyo Web article Fukushima Diary refers to about ongoing issues at #4 SFP:

January 08, 2012


Seven to one day a week in January, in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the water level suddenly dropped in the tank adjacent to the spent fuel pool in Unit 4 in the afternoon one day. Seen the effects of earthquakes recorded in the Kanto and Tohoku depth of 4 previously.
Tank water is reduced by evaporation, this time about five-fold decrease in the normal pace. Initially, TEPCO suspected leak. In the subsequent investigation, no water leakage due to the earthquake, and found that was most likely just a temporary stop water flow into the tank from the pool.
On the other hand, weed cogon 刺Sari the treated water flows through the hose to the high concentration of contaminated water, causing a leak from the field behavior has been plagued by small holes. TEPCO was aggregated since last July, Kenji was also twenty.
Cyclic injection into the reactor must continue over time is important to keep these small problems resolved soon. TEPCO has been kneading measures. www.tokyo-np.co.jp

by lillymunster 8:30 AM

• SFP temps all in 20's or below www.meti.go.jp
  by lillymunster 8:15 AM
  • Reply
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• From the Newest TEPCO plant status report. But this claims it was the clean water side of the cooling loop for the pool. This wouldn't account for a drop in sfp levels:
  
  -At around 1:00 pm on January 8, at circulating cooling system for spent
  fuel pool of unit 4, we found water leakage from 4 points of cooling pipe
  of air fin cooler (System B) when we tried to conduct scheduled switching
  of air fin cooler (From System A to System B). Currently, we are
  investigating the cause of the leakage. Leaked water is purified water
  (pure water)* and is not contained radioactive materials. Now we secluded
  the air fin cooler from the system to prevent the spread of water leakage.
  In addition, the cooling of spent fuel pool has no problem because we are
  currently using air fin cooler (System A) to cool spent fuel pool.
  * Purified water (pure water): The water from Sakashita dam www.tepco.co.jp

Debunking of Mangano & Sherman by Alfred Körblein (a scientist with many papers on radiation-induced infant mortality) in German : www.strahlentelex.de

by Ian 7:56 AM

• Water level is still decreasing at reactor 4
  Posted by Mochizuki on January 8th, 2012
  
  Following up this article http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/01/emergency-mail-from-tepco-to-mass-media-about-reactor-4/ From the article of Tokyo newspaper(1/8/2012 JST), it turned ou that the decreasing water level problem at reactor 4 was not stopped, it has been on-going at least until 1/7/2012. It is assumed that the water in the cooling system is flowing into the container vessel instead. Because nothing has [...]
  fukushima-diary.com
  by Edano 6:56 AM
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• seems that they have major problems with #4 sfp since the big quake on jan 1. maybe the pool cracked ?
  by Edano 6:52 AM
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • Reactor 4 : Spent fuel pool was boiling without water after 1/1/2012
    Posted by Mochizuki on January 8th, 2012
    
    Following up this article about the decreasing of water level at reactor 4… The blogger woman in Minamisoma leaked information from an actual Fukushima worker. According to her post, after the earthquake of 1/1/2012, the pipe of spent fuel pool for reactor 4 was broken, the pool completely lost its water. The worker stated, Sooner [...]fukushima-diary.com
    by Edano 6:49 AM
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  • @Edano that is significant, I've been wondering what to start researching and that would be a good one to try and get sources....
    by dean 6:42 AM
  • if the story is correct, they found corium under #2 ...
    by Edano 6:41 AM
  • maybe the drilling under #2, but we have a complete news blackout, we only have the worker tweets, nothing official anymore.
    by Edano 6:41 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/09/fukushima-cleanup-environmental-disaster?newsfeed=true



Fukushima nuclear cleanup could create its own environmental disaster

Decontaminating the Fukushima region to remove radioactive particles will not be possible without removing large amounts of soil, leaves and plants
• Winifred Bird for Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 January 2012 12.19 EST