Exhaust stack for 2 crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors found damaged: TEPCO
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced on Sept. 18 that it has confirmed that steel struts for the exhaust stack for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant were damaged or fractured in eight locations.
TEPCO, the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station, believes the damage was caused by temblors from the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. In the wake of the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, the exhaust stack was used as a vent system to lower pressure inside the containment vessels for the No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear reactors. The damage was inflicted on one of the key facilities that require the highest durability, and therefore it could affect the screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority of other nuclear facilities across the country for their restart.
According to TEPCO, the exhaust stack, which is about 120 meters tall, was used for both the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors. After checking the exhaust stack with a telescopic camera, of the 440 joints connecting steel struts for the pipe, damage such as cracks and displacement were found in eight of them at about 66 meters above the ground. The exhaust stack is not currently used. TEPCO said “it has a small risk of collapsing at this time” because it has withstood aftershocks from the March 11, 2011 earthquake.
Meanwhile, TEPCO announced on the same day that it has started to dismantle the aboveground storage tank that had leaked about 300 tons of contaminated water. The company plans to finish the demolition work as early as the end of this week in an effort to investigate the cause of the leak, the severity of which was assessed as level 3 (serious incident) on an 8-point international scale. The tank is sitting in an area called “H4,” about 500 meters west from the shoreline. The tank, measuring 12 meters in diameter and 11 meters high and consisting of steel plates joined by bolts, can supposedly hold 1,000 tons of water.
Mainichi Shimbun, September 19, 2013
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Abe urges TEPCO to scrap 2 Fukushima reactors that avoided meltdowns
OKUMA, Japan (Kyodo) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that he urged Tokyo Electric Power Co. to scrap two reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that avoided meltdowns during the 2011 nuclear accident.
Of the plant’s six reactors, the utility is moving ahead to decommission the Nos. 1 to 4 units that suffered meltdowns or hydrogen explosions in the early days of the crisis, but it has not made clear what it will do with the remaining Nos. 5 and 6 reactors that managed to achieve a stable condition called a cold shutdown.
Abe made the request during his visit on Thursday to the Fukushima plant, which continues to be plagued with radioactive water leaks and other problems more than two years since it was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
“I want a decision to be reached on the scrapping of the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors so that TEPCO focuses on accident response matters,” Abe told reporters.
It was Abe’s first visit to the plant in Fukushima Prefecture since a trip last December shortly after he took office. The inspection is designed to demonstrate his desire to take the lead in handling the crisis, officials said.
TEPCO President Naomi Hirose told Abe that he will decide the fate of the two reactors by the end of this year, while also vowing to clean up by the end of March 2015 the massive amount of radioactive water accumulating at the plant, according to the prime minister.
Amid growing concerns over the handling of the toxic water, Abe has said the government will play a major role in tackling the issue, including budgetary spending on necessary measures, and will not leave the issue to TEPCO alone.
He is apparently hoping to show the government is actively involved in handling the crisis especially after Tokyo recently won the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. The capital is some 250 kilometers southwest of the plant.
The Nos. 4 to 6 reactors were under maintenance at the time of the earthquake. The Nos. 5 and 6 reactors achieved a state of cold shutdown, helped by an emergency diesel generator that escaped being flooded.
Kyodo News, September 19, 2013
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Fukushima residents view plan to scrap 2 reactors as a matter of course
Despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s renewed assertion that the situation at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is under control, many residents of Fukushima Prefecture expressed skepticism about his argument, saying they are not quite sure about its validity.
After an inspection tour of the crippled Fukushima plant on Sept. 19, Abe reiterated that effects from contaminated water are fully contained within the bay and the situation at the plant is under control. The Japanese leader originally made the statement before the International Olympic Committee on Sept. 7 to make a pitch for Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Abe also said at the Fukushima plant that he will ask Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to scrap the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors. Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato who has called for decommissioning all reactors at the nuclear plant said Abe’s request to TEPCO follows his prefecture’s wishes. Fukushima residents took Abe’s request as a matter of course.
Yoshii Yoshida, 75, lives in temporary housing in Aizuwakamatsu after evacuating from his house in Okuma, less than 5 kilometers from the nuclear power plant. He blasted Abe’s visit to the plant as a mere formality and urged the prime minister to listen to him and other evacuees who have been left not knowing whether they could ever return to their hometowns since the outbreak of the nuclear disaster triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Kimiko Kuroki, 55, and her 82-year-old mother are from Futaba, another town near the nuclear plant, and now live in a temporary house in the city of Iwaki. Before getting excited about the Tokyo Olympics and the maglev Linear Chuo Shinkansen, Kuroki said the government should give top priority to improving temporary housing and building public houses for victims of the multiple disasters.
Shoichi Yabuki, 76, heads the Iwaki fisheries cooperative which will resume trial fishing on Sept. 26. ’’We have asked the central government to take measures against harmful rumors but the government has done nothing,’’ he said, adding his cooperative has no choice but to resume fishing at its own initiative. He also said Abe should directly explain to him and other local fishermen if the premier continues to maintain that the situation is under control. Akira Egawa, the cooperative’s 66-year-old deputy chief, said Abe should consume Fukushima fish to dispel harmful rumors.
A 28-year-old housewife in the city of Fukushima took her 2-year-old and 8-month-old daughters to the indoor amusement facility Sand Park, designed for young children to play without fear of exposure to radiation. She said she wants TEPCO to scrap the No. 5 and 6 reactors as soon as possible because another temblor may strike again.
A 38-year-old housewife has evacuated from Futaba and now lives with her 12-year-old daughter in the Saitama prefectural city of Kazo. ’’It’s only natural that the (No. 5 and 6) reactors are scrapped. The nuclear facilities probably have been heavily damaged due to the earthquake, and I’m sure all evacuees from the nuclear accident think the reactors have to be decommissioned.’’
Shiro Izawa, mayor of Futaba where the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors are located, said scrapping the two reactors is a matter of course. But he criticized Prime Minister Abe for announcing his request to TEPCO without consulting him in advance. Izawa said he will confirm the Abe government’s real intentions. The mayor also said the central government is totally neglecting evacuees and local governments, in the same way it ignored local communities in its response immediately after the nuclear meltdowns and subsequent efforts to bring the situation under control.
Mainichi Shimbun, September 20, 2013
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