Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say they will test the ocean for plutonium. They have already found soil samples to be contaminated with the toxic isotope.
TEPCo official Matsumoto Junichi says because plutonium was found in the ground around Fukushima Daiichi, then it’s possible it is getting into the ocean. They will check the ocean floor, because plutonium is heavier than other isotopes, and probably sank.
NHK reporting that the robot sent by the Idaho National Laboratory has measured radiation levels inside reactors 1 and 3.
The robots were sent to Japan to help deal with the damaged Fukshima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The max radiation level inside the Reactor 3 building is 57 millisieverts per hour, while max level in Reactor 1 building is at 49 millisieverts per hour. The readings were taken on the first floor of the buildings.
Normal safe limits, for nuclear employees, are 100 millisieverts, but the Japanese government raised it to an emergency limit of 250 millisieverts. Even at the emergency limit, a worker would exceed it within four and a half hours of exposure.
They will check Reactor 2 building next. NHK video
Robots from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) are about to start work in the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Originally developed to assist with high-risk reconnaissance and the disposal of explosives and hazardous materials, The TALON has been modified for its new job.
The INL is also supplying Japan with radiation-sensing packages for Japanese robots, and a four person team to provide training and advice. NHK video
Japanese media recently listened intently to officials describing their plans to deal with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. If the Japanese are expecting a specific time line, they shouldn’t hold their breath. Clean up of the Chernobyl nuke plant, in Ukraine, is still ongoing, 25 years later.
The current phase of clean up, for Chernobyl, involves building a new radiation proof containment building for the damaged reactor. The graphite fueled reactor is still emitting high levels of radiation.
In 1986 the Soviets (Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union then) buried the reactor in sand, lead, concrete and boric acid. Then they built a concrete tomb around the building. But that’s not enough, over time the tomb is breaking down.
The new containment building is an 18,000 ton metal arch, 110 meters (360 feet) high, 200 meters (656 feet) long and 257 meters (843 feet) wide. They have recently laid the concrete pad for the building, it’s more than one meter (3.2 feet) thick.
The lesson is that when you’re dealing with a nuclear disaster, it’s never ending.
Cumulative exposure to radiation is a real killer. The Japanese town of Namie has a cumulative (build up over time) of radiation at 17,000 millisieverts.
The official acceptable exposure rate, for people in Japan, is 1,000 microsieverts, per year. A millisievert is 1,000 times more than a microsievert, and Namie has hit 17,000 millisieverts since the reactor buildings exploded, in about four weeks.
Cumulative exposure refers to how many times you’ve been exposed to radiation, or, how long you are continuously exposed. Certain radioactive isotopes build up in your body over time, they don’t go away, so the more times you’re exposed the worse it is.
More problems for Tokyo Electric Power Company. Another one of their nuke plants, in Niigata Prefecture, started smoking. The smoke came from a control panel.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant is located on the west side of Honshu, opposite where the 11 March 2011, 9.0 quake hit.
TEPCo officials say the control panel started smoking when they were checking water purification equipment. At this point, they don’t know why.
The K-Max has been offered to help remove spent fuel rods from damaged fuel pools at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The helicopter is remote controlled.
The helicopter will help set up large cranes, that will be used to remove the fuel rods.
The offer was made by Admiral Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, in late March.
The German government announced that they will end the use of nuclear power plants as soon as possible.
Germany is prepared to spend the money necessary to make renewable clean energy sources their main power supply by 2020. Germany will keep its coal and natural gas fire electrical plants in operation.
“Just pointing a measuring device at your food before dinner is pretty much meaningless.”-Katayama Atsushi, Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry.
The Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says you should use scintillation counters to detect iodine-131 in milk and vegetables. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers should be used to trace uranium. Nitric acid and dehydrated samples are turned to ash over a 24-hour period in temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Celsius, in order to detect strontium.
“Just to know what the radiation levels are in your home, it’s relatively straightforward, but when you get to measuring it in food, milk and soil it gets much more complicated.”-Joseph Rotunda, Thermo Fisher Scientific
You could spend $400.00 on a Geiger counter just to measure radiation in and around your home, but lots of things can affect the reading. Things like concrete walls and driveways, granite counter tops and even cell phones.
To save some money, if you don’t think it’s safe to eat, don’t eat it.
“As (Toyota) continues to address its production situation in Japan following the disaster, it has decided that vehicle production from May 10 to June 3 will proceed at approximately 50 percent of normal.”-company statement
Basically the situation for “key component suppliers” (parts makers) is still too unreliable to resume full production.
Toyota says it will continue to evaluate the situation, and make the necessary adjustments to production.