Japanese nuclear industry highlights 2020.01
① Ikata nuclear power plant (NPP) problems. The security of Reactor No.3 is under serious doubts, after two incidents that under certain circumstances could be the cause of hazardous accidents. The first incident (January 12) was a failure during routine inspections, when taking away the control rods from the nuclear reactor. The second incident (January 25) was a sudden cut of the external primary energy source that feeds the cooling system; fortunately, the emergency system came in on time. This reactor is the only one, of three that the company “Yonden” runs, that received permission to be restarted after the Fukushima disaster.
② Reuse of contaminated (radioactive) earth. The Ministry of Environment is working on a plan (省令案) to use the contaminated earth (除染土) in diverse public works across the country (dike construction, roads, railroads, artificial islands, fill agricultural lands…). As the Certified nonprofit Organization FoeJapan describes, the principle in handling radioactive waste is to concentrate and isolate it, not disperse it. The earth that is object of this plan, is that that has less than 8,000 Bq/kg in the Prefecture of Fukushima. Note that the standard for reuse concrete or iron exposed to radiation (like the materials in a nuclear reactor) is of 108 Bq/kg (Cesuim 134 and 137). And this Organization claims that many things are left open in this plan by MOE, the most worrisome is that it fails to assign responsibilities to the entities (public and privet) that would be supposed to plan, prepare, enforce and actually handle this earth. Plans like this had been proposed at the prefectural level, but inhabitants and local authorities of cities of Fukushima (南相馬, 二本松…) have mobilised to refuse this actions. Also, this plan is not known by the general public (FoeJapan) and no debate has been undertaken to agree what to do with this contaminated earth. Not to mention the risks that the diffusion of radioactive earth could mean to ecosystems, specially when it is washed away by rain, floods and other natural phenomena; besides, some of the radioactive isotopes in this earth, have longer lifetimes than that of the purposes it is supposed to fulfill.
http://www.foejapan.org/energy/fukushima/200131.html
③ Radioactive waste washed away by rivers. As there is no final disposal place set for the radioactive contaminated materials (soil, etc.) there are several provisional places, where this materials are stored in plastic bags. The typhoon number 19 passed over Fukushima and some of these bags were washed away by the near-by river. The Minister of Environment (Koizumi) said that the bags were found intact, and that there had been no damage to the environment. However, there are videos where workers are taking empty bags from the river back to the provisional storage place. The Ministry said that those bags were originally empty, but radiation tests confirmed that there was radiactive materials in those bags.
https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASN1K34NGN17UGTB003.html
③ Radioactive waste washed away by rivers. As there is no final disposal place set for the radioactive contaminated materials (soil, etc.) there are several provisional places, where this materials are stored in plastic bags. The typhoon number 19 passed over Fukushima and some of these bags were washed away by the near-by river. The Minister of Environment (Koizumi) said that the bags were found intact, and that there had been no damage to the environment. However, there are videos where workers are taking empty bags from the river back to the provisional storage place. The Ministry said that those bags were originally empty, but radiation tests confirmed that there was radiactive materials in those bags.
https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASN1K34NGN17UGTB003.html