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Tag: The Tokyo Electric Power Company

  • Fukushima plant’s fallout around Globe.Video.

    VIENNA/SINGAPORE (Kyodo) Radioactive substances released from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station have already reached the United States and Iceland, and are expected to go around the globe in two to three weeks, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization said.

    The amount will be too small to affect humans, the Vienna-based CTBTO said Thursday.

    The commission operates a network of monitoring facilities at 63 locations around the world, including Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture.

    A senior official at the commission’s monitoring department said figures observed in Takasaki continue to go up and down and the amount of radioactive substances from the Fukushima plant can’t be said to be on the decrease.

    Small amounts of radioactive substances were already detected at observation facilities in western California on March 18 and in Iceland on Tuesday, and they are expected to reach European countries in a few days, according to the official.

    Diplomatic sources at the International Atomic Energy Agency said many Southeast Asian countries are worried about the adverse effects of the radioactive substances.

    But Japan’s Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency said it doesn’t expect any impact on other countries, citing data observed so far.

    On Thursday, Singapore’s food safety authority said it has found radioactive contaminants in four samples of vegetables from Japan.

    The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said the contaminants were found in vegetables imported from Chiba and Ehime prefectures, in addition to Tochigi and Ibaraki.

    As a result, it said it will suspend food imports from Chiba and Ehime. On Wednesday, the ministry suspended the import of foods such as seafood, meat, milk, fruits and vegetables from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma, the four prefectures worst hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami.

    The vegetables found tainted were “mitsuba” Japanese wild parsley from Tochigi, “nanohana” rape seed plant from Chiba, “mizuna” Japanese mustard from Ibaraki and perilla leaf from Ehime.

    http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110326a8.html

    The government on Monday told Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures to suspend shipping of spinach and kakina, a locally produced leaf vegetable, following the detection of radioactive substances at levels above the provisional limits under the Food Sanitation Law. It also told Fukushima Prefecture to suspend shipping of raw milk for a similar reason. The radioactive substances apparently came from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The government the next day called on people to limit consumption of spinach, cabbage and a few other leaf vegetables from Fukushima Prefecture.

    http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20110325a1.html

    Related:

    Tokyo (CNN) — Despite being urged not to hoard bottled water, residents
    of Japan’s capital on Wednesday snapped it up in droves after testing
    showed radioactive material in tap water at levels unsafe.

    The city’s water agency said the spike was likely caused by problems at
    the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, located 240 kilometers (150 miles)
    away. Earlier Wednesday, Tokyo government officials advised residents
    not to give tap water to infants or use it in formula after tests at a
    purification plant detected high levels of radioactive iodine.

    Grocery store owner Seiji Sasaki said he noted a sudden increase of
    customers. He had 40 cases of water in his store, but they were gone
    quickly.

    Meanwhile, officials evacuated some workers at the Fukushima plant
    Wednesday afternoon as a black plume of smoke billowed above one of the
    reactors, plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The cause of the
    smoke was unclear.

    The team of seven workers were planning to inspect gauges and
    instrumentation at reactor No. 3, but were unable to determine
    conditions in the control room before evacuating, officials with Tokyo
    Electric and Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

    Workers have been scrambling to cool down fuel rods at the nuclear plant
    since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11 knocked
    out cooling systems.

    Some radiation has been released, officials said, but it was unclear
    whether radiation levels spiked after the black smoke was spotted
    Wednesday. Japan’s nuclear agency said radiation levels near the plant
    had not changed, public broadcaster NHK reported.

    http://groups.google.com/group/bible-prophecy-news/browse_thread/thread/022524470567a9da/20c715140dcfa6a1?lnk=raot&pli=1

  • Radiation Level near Fukushima and Water Bombing Operations.Live Updates.Video.

    Separate desperate battles raged Friday to cool down a spent fuel pool and three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to keep highly toxic radiation from being released into the environment.

     

    News photo

    Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. was also trying to set up new power lines from the outside and connect them to various facilities in the troubled plant in an effort to reactivate cooling pumps and emergency core cooling systems of the troubled reactors.

    If the devices are unbroken and can get electricity, they could be a significant help in Tepco’s efforts to stabilize the crippled plant.

    Tepco was aiming to finish connecting the power lines to the No. 1 and 2 reactor units by the end of Friday, and to the No. 3 and No. 4 units Sunday.

    “We will concentrate on the work to set up the electricity lines from the outside,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

    Meanwhile, data released by Tepco indicated the radiation level at one sampling point at the west gate to the nuclear plant had steadily decreased to 265.0 microsieverts at 11 a.m. Friday from 351.4 microsieverts as of 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

    The west gate, located within the plant’s compound, is 1.1 km west of the No. 2 reactor unit.

    This could be a sign of a steady decline trend in radiation released from the plant, but it is still unclear if it was because of the use of water to cool down the spent fuel.

    Also Friday, Japan raised the severity level for three of the crisis-hit reactors to 5 on the 7-level international scale, the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979, the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

    The provisional evaluation stands at level 5 of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale for the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, as their cores are believed to have partially melted and radiation leaks continue, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said.

    The agency set the level at 3 for the plant’s No. 4 reactor, where an overheating spent fuel pool is also posing risks, and two reactors at the power plant that were undergoing maintenance when the quake struck.

    The unprecedented cooling mission, launched Thursday by the Self-Defense Forces by spraying tons of water at the plant’s No. 3 reactor building, was bolstered Friday.

    SDF firetrucks shot 50 tons of water at the spent fuel pool within the No. 3 reactor building in the afternoon, along with a high-pressure water cannon truck on loan from the U.S. military, after aiming up to 60 tons of water at it and dumping water from two helicopters the day before.

    “Because steam is rising, there is no doubt the water reached the storing pool,” Edano, the government’s top spokesman, said of Thursday’s operation. “But we still don’t have information on how much water” got to the target.

    The spent fuel pools in the power station lost their cooling function in the wake of the March 11 killer quake and tsunami.

    It is also no longer possible to monitor the water levels or temperatures in any of the pools for the four reactors.

    Information from Kyodo added.

    http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110319a1.html

     

  • Fuel rods Fully exposed ,Radiation 1000 times > normal.

    TOKYO, March 12, Kyodo

    The amount of radiation reached around 1,000 times the normal level Saturday in the control room of the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

    The discovery suggests radioactive steam could spread around the facility operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.

    ==Kyodo

    http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/76948.html

    Click Link below.

    How a Reactor Shuts Down and What Happens in a Meltdown

    Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people living between 20 and 30 kilometers of the plant to stay indoors, after radiation equivalent to 400 times the level to which people can safely be exposed in one year was detected near the No. 3 reactor in the plant.

    Residents within a 20-km radius have already been ordered to vacate the area following Saturday’s hydrogen blast at the plant’s No. 1 reactor.

    ”The danger of further radiation leaks (from the plant) is increasing.” Kan warned the public at a press conference, while asking people to ”act calmly.”

    Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the high radiation level detected at 10:22 a.m. after the explosions at the No. 2 and No. 4 reactors ”would certainly have negative effects on the human body.”

    http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78123.html

    Even as workers race to prevent the radioactive cores of the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan from melting down, concerns are growing that nearby pools holding spent fuel rods could pose an even greater danger.

    The pools, which sit on the top level of the reactor buildings and keep spent fuel submerged in water, have lost their cooling systems and the Japanese have been unable to take emergency steps because of the multiplying crises.

    Experts now fear that the pool containing those rods from the fourth reactor has run dry, allowing the rods to overheat and catch fire. That could spread radioactive materials far and wide in dangerous clouds.

    The pools are a worry at the stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant because at least two of the three have lost their roofs in explosions, exposing the spent fuel pools to the atmosphere. By contrast, reactors have strong containment vessels that stand a better chance of bottling up radiation from a meltdown of the fuel in the reactor core.

    If any of the spent fuel rods in the pools did indeed catch fire, nuclear experts say, the high heat would loft the radiation in clouds that would spread the radioactivity.

    “It’s worse than a meltdown,” said David A. Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists who worked as an instructor on the kinds of General Electric reactors used in Japan. “The reactor is inside thick walls, and the spent fuel of Reactors 1 and 3 is out in the open.”

    A spokesman for the Japanese company that runs the stricken reactors said in an interview on Monday that the spent fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants had been left uncooled since shortly after the quake.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15fuel.html?ref=global-home

  • Radiation Level crosses Danger level in Japan.Video.Its effects.

    Radiation levels have risen above the safety limit around Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) nuclear plant hit by a massive earthquake and the company has informed the government of an “emergency situation,” Kyodo agency reported on Sunday.

    The exterior of reactor No. 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is seen in this still image taken from undated file video footage. Japan battled to contain a radiation leak at an earthquake-crippled nuclear plant on March 13, 2011, but faced a fresh threat with the failure of the cooling system in a second reactor. Operator TEPCO said it was preparing to release some steam to relieve pressure in the No.3 reactor at the plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo — which would release a small amount of radiation — following an explosion and leak on Saturday in the facility's No. 1 reactor. Credit: Reuters/NHK via Reuters TV

    It did not mean an immediate threat to human health, the company said.

    The company said earlier that it had started releasing steam from a reactor at the plant. A similar rise in radiation levels occurred after the company released radioactive steam from another reactor to let go of pressure. Then again the company was obliged to inform the government of an “emergency situation.”

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/13/us-japan-quake-tepco-radiation-idUSTRE72B3PJ20110313

    Geiger Counter is used to measure Radiation levels.

    Related:

    The highest recommended limit for radiation exposures is for astronauts-25,000 millirems per Space Shuttle mission, principally from cosmic rays. This amount is beyond the average 300+ millirems of natural sources of radiation and any medical radiation a person has received.

    25,000 millirems per year level was the federal occupational limit during World War II and until about 1950 for radiation workers and soldiers exposed to radiation. The occupational limit became 15,000 millirems per year around 1950. In 1957, the occupational limit was lowered to a maximum of 5,000 millirems per year.

    Average Natural Background: 300 Millirems

    The average exposure in the United States, from natural sources of radiation (mostly cosmic radiation and radon), is 300 millirems per year at sea level. Radiation exposure is slightly higher at higher elevations-thus the exposure in Denver averages 400 millirems per year.

    (A milliRem is 1/1000th of a Rem. According to McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, a Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays. The name is derived from “Roentgen equivalent man.” Wilhelm Roentgen discovered ionizing radiation in 1895 at about the same time that Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.)

    All of these limits are for the amount of radiation exposure in addition to background radiation and medical radiation.

    Adult: 5,000 Millirems

    The current federal occupational limit of exposure per year for an adult (the limit for a worker using radiation) is “as low as reasonably achievable; however, not to exceed 5,000 millirems” above the 300+ millirems of natural sources of radiation and any medical radiation. Radiation workers wear badges made of photographic film which indicate the exposure to radiation. Readings typically are taken monthly. A federal advisory committee recommends that the lifetime exposure be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems (example: for a 65-year-old person, 65,000 millirems).

    Minor: 500 Millirems

    The maximum permissible exposure for a person under 18 working with radiation is one-tenth the adult limit or not to exceed 500 millirems per year above the 300+ millirems of natural sources, plus medical radiation. This was established in 1957 and reviewed as recently as 1990.

    Fetus: 500 Millirems Or 50 Per Month (New Rule Jan. 1, 1994)

    New federal regulations went into effect New Year’s Day, establishing for the first time an exposure limit for the embryo or fetus of a pregnant woman exposed to radiation at work. The limit for the gestation period is 500 millirems, with a recommendation that the exposure of a fetus be no more than 50 millirems per month.

    Weight Variables

    Like alcohol intoxication levels, levels of exposure to radioactivity (due to radioactivity deposited in the body) depend on a person’s weight. A diagnostic tracer of one microcurie of radioactive calcium 45, given orally, would result in an exposure of 3.7 millirems for a 100-pound person, and half of that, 1.85 millirems, for a 200-pound person.

    Therapeutic Radiation

    Therapeutic radiation treatment that is delivered by administering radioactive material via the mouth or by injection usually results in high, very localized doses to a small part of the body, which absorbs most of the radioactivity. The radioactivity concentrates and remains in the target organ (for example, the thyroid) for a longer period of time than does the radioactivity that is distributed to the rest of the body. The radiation exposure for other parts of the body is a function of the amount of radioactivity per pound and the time the radioactivity is present in the tissue.

    http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1994/safe-0105.html

    This figure illustrates the relative abilities of three different types of ionizing radiation to penetrate solid matter. Alpha particles (α) are stopped by a sheet of paper while beta particles (β) are stopped by an aluminium plate. Gamma radiation (γ) is dampened when it penetrates matter.

    In physics, radiation describes a process in which energetic particles or waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizingand non-ionizing. The word radiation is commonly used in reference to ionizing radiation only (i.e., having sufficient energy to ionize an atom), but it may also refer to non-ionizing radiation (e.g., radio waves or visible light). The energy radiates (i.e., travels outward in straight lines in all directions) from its source. This geometry naturally leads to a system of measurements and physical units that are equally applicable to all types of radiation. Both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation can be harmful to organisms and can result in changes to the natural environment.Radiation hormesis is the theory that low doses of radiation can be beneficial toorganisms.

    -(Wikipedia)

    Radiation Effects.

    Certain body parts are more specifically affected by exposure to different types of radiation sources. Several factors are involved in determining the potential health effects of exposure to radiation. These include:

    • The size of the dose (amount of energy deposited in the body)
    • The ability of the radiation to harm human tissue
    • Which organs are affected

    The most important factor is the amount of the dose – the amount of energy actually deposited in your body. The more energy absorbed by cells, the greater the biological damage. Health physicists refer to the amount of energy absorbed by the body as the radiation dose. The absorbed dose, the amount of energy absorbed per gram of body tissue, is usually measured in units called rads. Another unit of radation is the rem, or roentgen equivalent in man. To convert rads to rems, the number of rads is multiplied by a number that reflects the potential for damage caused by a type of radiation. For beta, gamma and X-ray radiation, this number is generally one. For some neutrons, protons, or alpha particles, the number is twenty.

    Hair

    The losing of hair quickly and in clumps occurs with radiation exposure at 200 rems or higher.

    Brain

    Since brain cells do not reproduce, they won’t be damaged directly unless the exposure is 5,000 rems or greater. Like the heart, radiation kills nerve cells and small blood vessels, and can cause seizures and immediate death.

    Thyroid

    The certain body parts are more specifically affected by exposure to different types of radiation sources. The thyroid gland is susceptible to radioactive iodine. In sufficient amounts, radioactive iodine can destroy all or part of the thyroid. By taking potassium iodide can reduce the effects of exposure.

    Dose-rem Effects
    5-20 Possible late effects; possible chromosomal damage.
    20-100 Temporary reduction in white blood cells.
    100-200 Mild radiation sickness within a few hours: vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue; reduction in resistance to infection.
    200-300 Serious radiation sickness effects as in 100-200 rem and hemorrhage; exposure is a Lethal Dose to 10-35% of the population after 30 days (LD 10-35/30).
    300-400 Serious radiation sickness; also marrow and intestine destruction; LD 50-70/30.
    400-1000 Acute illness, early death; LD 60-95/30.
    1000-5000 Acute illness, early death in days; LD 100/10.

    http://www.atomicarchive.com/Effects/effects15.shtml