Japan Atomic Power Company said its Tsuruga nuclear plant leaked a small amount of radiation on Sunday, 08 May 2011. But this is not the first time.
On 02 May radiation was detected outside the reactors. JAPCo officials think the radiation leak is coming from the cooling water for the fuel rods. They are shutting down the plant to inspect.
Tsuruga nuke plant is in Fukui Prefecture, directly west of Tokyo.
Radioactive strontium continues to be spewed from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Soil samples taken at the plant, on 18 April, tested positive for strontium 89 and strontium 90.
Strontium collects in your bones and can cause various bone cancers. You get contaminated by breathing it.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says April’s strontium 90 levels are 130 times higher than the levels detected in March! The levels of strontium 89 are 4,400 becquerels per kilogram of soil!
Because of the increase in strontium levels, officials in the Japanese government are advising that readings need to be taken in areas outside the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Once again, you’d think they’d already be doing that.
After first saying no, CEPCo now says OK they will shut down their Hamaoka plant.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu Electric Power Company to shut down their Hamaoka nuke plant, because the plant sits on top of a convergence of fault lines, that could produce an 8+ quake. The plant is not built to withstand such a quake, and the Japanese government wants the plant operators to reinforce the reactors.
The problem for CEPCo is that they have no way to replace the electric power that will be lost when they shut down the reactors. The Japanese auto industry, and other manufacturers, are worried because they are already dealing with supply problems due to lack of electricity. The shut down of Hamaoka nuclear plant will only make the supply situation worse.
CEPCo officials say that, so far, they can not come up with any practical alternative to replace the lost electrical power.
Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki have factories in the prefectures that will be affected by the nuke plant shut down. Also, electronics makers Panasonic, Toshiba and Fujitsu have factories that will be affected by the shut down.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan had asked Chubu Electric Power Company to shut down their Hamaoka nuke plant, because it turns out that it is right over a convergence of fault lines, and scientists expect a magnitude 8+ quake.
Hamaoka is south west of Tokyo. Kan wants CEPCo to shut down the plant, and reinforce the reactors to withstand an 8+ quake.
CEPCo officials studied several options, including how to pay for the cost of reinforcing their nuclear plant. They decided they don’t have the money to reinforce the plant, and it would not be feasible to raise electric rates high enough to pay for it (because customers would refuse to pay the higher rates).
CEPCo also decided that shutting down the plant would make the already bad situation, for Japanese industries dealing with lack of power, even worse.
CEPCo is not ruling out shutting down the Hamaoka plant, if they can do it with out reducing electrical power, and find money to pay for the reinforcing.
A report discovered by Japan’s NHK news, shows that officials knew in February that a major tsunami could hit Japan soon.
The report was put together by the Earthquake Research Committee. It looked at geographical evidence, and recent studies, and came up with a scenario that is exactly like what happened on 11 March. It even named Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures as being the hardest hit!
The conclusion of the report was that the prefectures of north east Honshu needed to make preparations. Even though the report was finish in February, the officials weren’t planning on releasing it until April. Apparently even the experts didn’t think it could actually happen.
Read my November 20, and November 5, 2011, postings about current diesel prices. It’s bad news, it explains why prices are only going up, and how fracking of natural gas is really for fuel production.
May 3, Diesel fuel prices are higher than gas, at the pump.
In Idaho, as of May 3, most gas stations are selling Diesel for about $4.15 per gallon. The highest is $4.50 near Mountain Home. That’s way higher than gas. Most gas stations are selling gasoline around $3.65 per gallon, with the highest at $4.00 near Hailey, Idaho.
Yet Diesel futures are selling for less than gas futures on the commodities market. As of May 2, gas futures, for June delivery, were at $3.34 per gallon. Compare that to Diesel NY at $3.29, and Diesel Gulf at $3.31 per gallon.
So why is Diesel so much higher at the pump?
Many websites say it’s because Diesel must be refined to low sulfur standards. That doesn’t explain the higher price at the pump! The commodity prices paid are for already refined Diesel, so the claim that low sulfur refining is the cause doesn’t work.
Some people say it’s because Diesel is actually in higher demand than gasoline, due to industry (like trucking & airlines, “jet” fuel is actually a form of Diesel/Kerosene) and the military (possibly the biggest user of Diesel, thank the War on Terror). That might be, but normally the commodity price reflects anticipated demand.
Some journalists have asked oil executives about fuel costs, but oil executives can only talk about the price of refined fuels sold on the commodities market, not at the pump.
What about taxes? It turns out that taxes for Diesel are more than taxes for gasoline. In Idaho the average (January 2011) pump tax (combined state/federal) for Diesel is 49.4 cents per gallon. For gas, in Idaho, it’s 43.4 cents. That’s only a 6 cents per gallon difference, so that doesn’t explain the 50 cent per gallon difference in the pump price of Diesel vs gasoline ($4.15 for Diesel minus $3.65 for gas).
By the way, California has the highest tax rates in the country for Diesel at 76 cents per gallon, and gas at 66.1 cents. That’s because California has higher local and state taxes on top of the federal taxes.
So, the only conclusion I can come up with is that Diesel fuel prices, at the pump, are higher than gasoline due to higher taxes for Diesel, and maybe higher demand for Diesel (again that’s usually what drives commodity prices, before it gets to the pump). Maybe gas stations are trying to make up for their extremely slim profit margins on gas prices by jacking up the more stable Diesel prices?
Tokyo Electric Power Company announced early May 2, that another of their nuclear plants in Japan is in trouble. The Tsuruga nuclear plant is having technical problems, resulting in overheating.
The plant is around 450 km (280 miles) west of Tokyo, in Fukui prefecture. TEPCo says the problem is so bad they are considering shutting down the whole plant. There is a possible leak of iodine from Tsuruga nuclear plant #2 reactor’s nuclear fuel assemblies into its coolant.
The city of Koriyama is 50km (31 miles) away from Fukushima Daiichi, well out of the evac zones, yet the soil at their schools are so contaminated they have get rid it.
Starting this weekend, they will remove the top 2 centimeters (.78 inches) of soil from 28 schools. Even after the soil removal, school officials say they will not allow the children to play in the yards for more than one hour per day.
A female employee, working at the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, is contaminated with three times the safe limits for women. She was working at the damaged plant, directing emergency crews.
Tokyo Electric Power Company thinks she was contaminated when taking off the protective suit. They say most of her contamination is internal, so they think she inhaled the radiation. TEPCo is now testing all female employees at the nuke plant. Safe exposure limits for women are set lower than men.
Toyota officials claim they have a better idea of the parts supply problem, but they refuse to go into any detail.
Supplies of microchips, rubber materials and paint additives are the main problems (affected by the loss of electrical power by the shutdown of nuclear plants, most of Japan’s electricity comes from nuclear power). However, Toyota officials refuse to discuss how many parts they might have, or if there are going to be anymore production delays.
One Toyota official said they normally have two and a half months of inventory on hand, but did not elaborate.