東京電力福島第一原発にたまり続けている低濃度の汚染水対策で、除去が難しい放射性物質トリチウム（三重水素）について経済産業省の作業部会は１９日、分離は困難とする評価をまとめた。さらに五つの処分方法を検討した結果、水で薄めて海に放出する方法が最も短期間で安く処分できると評価した。
福島第一原発の敷地内には、溶け落ちた核燃料を冷やすための注水などで発生した汚染水が約８０万トンたまっている。放射性セシウムなどを多核種除去設備ＡＬＰＳ（アルプス）で取り除いているが、トリチウムは水分子をつくる水素そのものが放射化したもので、いまある設備で分離するのが困難だった。
経産省は、約３０億円を投じてトリチウムの分離方法を公募。企業６社と１大学が応じた。国内外の専門家に評価を依頼したところ、「すぐ実用化できる技術は確認されなかった」と結論づけた。企業独自によるコスト試算も、１４１億円から１８兆円と幅があった。
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SPOKANE, Wash. — Fluctuations inside a huge tank of radioactive waste raised concerns on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state over the weekend, and workers prepared Monday to pump out the area of the leak.
A federal contractor said the amount of nuclear waste that has been leaking between the two walls of the underground tank for several years grew dramatically this weekend.
None of the waste appears to have escaped from Tank AY 102 into the environment, the contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions, said.
But workers were trying Monday to determine why the waste that leaked between the tank walls rose by about 8 inches on Sunday and then dropped by half an inch.
Hanford is located near Richland, Washington, and for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons, including the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The site contains a huge volume of radioactive waste that will cost billions of dollars and take decades to clean.
[…]
The most dangerous nuclear wastes at Hanford are stored in 28 giant double-walled tanks similar to AY 102. There are also 149 older single-walled tanks that contain wastes.
Tank AY 102 is Hanford’s oldest double-shell tank and since March was being emptied of its 750,000 gallons of radioactive waste because of the leak between the two walls, which is called the annulus. Less than 100 gallons of waste was estimated to have leaked into the annulus in recent years, drying in three separate patches.
But Hanford officials said that on Sunday an alarm in the annulus sounded, after the waste level rose to more than 8 inches deep. Several hours later the waste level in the annulus dropped by about half an inch.
Read more at Workers study cause of fluctuations in nuclear waste tank
Related article: Leak worsens in massive Hanford tank holding nuclear waste Loading via KGW.com
ASTANA – A concert to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was held April 14 in the capital at the National University of Arts. The concert featured Kazakh traditional tunes played on musical instruments from the Western world, composed by a British composer Nicholas Singer. Among the guests of honour were distinguished Kazakh nuclear disarmament activists.
President and founder of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement and Kazakhstan’s famous poet Olzhas Suleimenov gave opening remarks. The massive popular movement, initially protesting against Soviet nuclear weapons testing in Kazakhstan, was the cornerstone of the nascent nation’s nuclear disarmament efforts in the 1980s and 1990s and an important step the country took at a crucial time in its history.
On Aug. 29, 1991, four months prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree to shut down the ill-fated and infamous Semipalatinsk nuclear test site that saw some 456 nuclear explosions.
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As part of Nazarbayev’s global efforts, the antinuclear weapons initiative and an online petition The ATOM Project has amassed over 250,000 signatures and is growing. Its Honorary Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov, a painter born without arms, was also present at the concert and addressed the audience.
The National University of Arts and a London-based company Spring Films were the initiators and organisers of the event. Spring Films is filming a documentary Sow the Wind in Kazakhstan, starring Kuyukov, about the lives of the people who are fighting for a nuclear-weapons-free world through their paintings, music and arts.
Read more at Concert of Traditional Kazakh Songs Honours 25th Anniversary of Closure Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site
OSAKA – Despite official assurances of no abnormalities at nuclear power plants in Kyushu and nearby areas after a series of earthquakes rocked the region, calls in and outside of Japan are growing to shut down the nation’s only two operating reactors at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Since Thursday, the Meteorological Agency has recorded nearly 530 quakes at level 1 or above on the Japanese intensity scale in Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures. This includes more than 80 registering a 4 or higher on the scale. The agency has warned that seismic activity in the region may continue over the next week, possibly prompting more deadly landslides.
But despite the frequency of the quakes, the Sendai plant, just over the border from Kumamoto in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, has continued to generate electricity since the initial magnitude-6.5 quake rocked Kumamoto on Thursday, followed by a magnitude-7.3 temblor early Saturday.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday morning it had confirmed there were no abnormalities at the Sendai plant or at the nation’s other nuclear facilities.
It said the seismic intensity measured by the earthquakes was well below the level at which reactors should be switched off.
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But with continued quakes and aftershocks, fears are growing about what the constant shaking could mean in terms of cumulative damage that could result in a nuclear crisis.
An online Japanese- and English-language petition by a former Kumamoto resident to shut down the Sendai plant had drawn over 42,000 signatures worldwide as of Monday morning, while anti-nuclear activists in Fukui Prefecture have also criticized Kyushu Electric Power Co. and the NRA for continuing to operate the plant.
In Saga Prefecture on Sunday, about 100 mayors and town heads belonging to the Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan added their voices, calling for the central government and the NRA to re-evaluate the way earthquake safety standards for nuclear power plants are calculated.
They also want the government to grant localities within 30 km of a nuclear power plant the legal authority to approve or reject reactor restarts.
The decision to keep the Sendai reactors running is also drawing criticism overseas.
Read more at Despite assurances, quakes prompt calls to switch off Japan’s nuclear reactors
原子力規制委員会は１９日、熊本県を中心に九州地方で地震が相次いでいることを受け、運転中の九州電力川内原発（鹿児島県）に関する意見がメールや電話で計約３４０件寄せられていると明らかにした。大半が川内原発の運転停止を求める内容という。
規制委事務局の原子力規制庁によると、熊本県益城町で震度７を記録した１４日の地震発生以降、１８日午後８時４４分までに寄せられたメールは２３５件。電話やファクス、はがきなどでも約１００件の意見が寄せられた。
【「あなたにとって復興とは？」福島の保護者たちにアンケート】でも紹介した切実な声。実に多くの声をいただいたのですべてを紹介することはできないが、ここでは、可能な限りその結果を紹介したい。回答数は82。うち81.93％以上が女性と、圧倒的に多かった。
【Q5福島第一原発事故後の、お子さまの健康状態についてお聞かせください】、【Q6福島第一原発事故後の、保護者さまの健康状態についてお聞かせくださ い】という質問について、ともに【特に変化は感じない】と答えたのは全体の3割程度。大人では50.6％が【疲れやすくなった】と回答。そのほか大人、子 供両方で【鼻血が頻繁に出る】、【アレルギーがひどくなった】といった回答も見られた。
次に【Q10被ばくの不安を、まわりに気兼ねなく相談できますか？】という質問には61.45％が【できない】と回答。多くの人が悩みを明かすことができない現状が明らかになった。
また【Q12事故後、避難・移住をしましたか？】という質問では86.75％が【した】と回答。その理由について【Q13上記で「した」と答えた方は、そ の理由をお聞かせください】という質問については91.78％が【避難指示区域外だが、危険を感じたので避難した】と回答した。
さらに、【Q14今も自主避難を継続しておられる方に質問です。母子または父子避難ですか？家族での避難ですか？】については53.97％が【父子・母子 避難】と回答。その理由について【Q15今も自主避難を続けておられる方は、その理由をお聞かせください】という質問には90.32％が【健康被害が心配 だから】と回答した。
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The U.S. Department of Energy released a statement Monday calling the leak an “anticipated” outcome of an ongoing effort to empty the tank in question. The Washington state Department of Ecology said, “There is no indication of waste leaking into the environment or risk to the public at this time.”But one former tank farm worker said the leak should be considered a major problem.
“This is catastrophic. This is probably the biggest event to ever happen in tank farm history. The double shell tanks were supposed to be the saviors of all saviors (to hold waste safely from people and the environment),” said former Hanford worker Mike Geffre.
Geffre is the worker who first discovered that the tank, known as AY-102, was failing in 2011. In a 2013 series, “Hanford’s Dirty Secrets,” the KING 5 Investigators exposed that the government contractor in charge of the tanks, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), ignored Geffre’s findings for nearly a year. The company finally admitted the problem in 2012.
Until now, the leak found by Geffre was very slow. The liquid would almost immediately dry up, leaving a salt-like substance on the floor of the two-foot space between the tank’s walls, called the annulus.
Approximately three weeks ago, work began to pump out the contents of AY-102, which has the capacity to hold one million gallons of the deadly waste. The state of Washington has been pressuring the federal government, which owns Hanford, to pump out AY-102 for three-and-a-half years because of the cracking and slow leaking discovered by Geffre in 2011. Sources told KING the disturbance caused by the pumping must have exacerbated the leak: essentially blowing a hole in the aging tank allowing the material to leak more quickly into the outer shell.
Tank AY-102 is one of 28 double-shell tanks at Hanford (there are 177 underground tanks total) holding nuclear byproducts from nearly four decades of plutonium production on the Hanford Nuclear Site, located near Richland. Initially the plutonium was used to fuel the bombed dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in World War II.
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The new leak poses problems on several fronts. The outer shell of AY-102 does not have the exhaust or filtration system needed to keep the dangerous gases created by the waste in check. Workers have been ordered to wear full respiratory safety gear in the area, but the risk remains.“The hazards to workers just went up by a factor of 10,” said Geffre.
In addition, the breakdown calls into question the viability of three other double-shell tanks at Hanford that have the exact design of AY-102.
“The primary tanks weren’t designed to stage waste like this for so many years,” said a current worker. “There’s always the question, ‘Are the outer shells compromised’”?
[…]
Read more and watch 4-minute video.
東京電力福島第一原発事故後、関東を中心に活動する民間団体「関東子ども健康調査支援基金」は十七日、日立市内で甲状腺エコー検査を実施した。県北地域に住む五～十八歳の子ども約百人が受診した。
二〇一三年秋、子どもへの放射能の影響を調べようと、茨城、千葉両県の市民が基金をつくった。ボランティアの医師の協力で、茨城など関東五県で集団検査を実施している。検査は年に一度行っており、日立市は今回で三回目。
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小学三年生の長女（８つ）を連れてきた市内の母親（５１）は「なかなか放射能への不安を口にできない中、検査を受けられるのはありがたい」と話した。 （山下葉月）
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Soon after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Penn Law professor Eric Feldman received a call from a colleague in Japan, who lamented that the legal academy had paid so little attention to the issues triggered by disasters. There were huge numbers of displaced people; tens of thousands of deaths; millions of destroyed and damaged homes; a seriously damaged and leaking nuclear power plant; and only the faintest legal framework for deciding who should be compensated, and how much they should receive.
Feldman realized that these complex legal issues demanded attention. He worked closely with a group of Japanese and international legal scholars to study the problems laid bare by Fukushima in the two years following the disaster. Not satisfied that they had fully explored the area, he then created a new course at Penn Law: the “Disasters and the Law” Global Research Seminar.
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Although disasters have affected the lives of billions of people, and have had a profound economic and political impact, they are mostly uncharted territory for legal scholars. Feldman, an expert in Japanese law, comparative public health law, and torts, knew of only one casebook on the subject, and less than a handful of legal scholars who identify as experts in the intersection of law and disasters.“There are almost no law-and-disaster-focused classes in the United States,” said Feldman. “To call it a field is an exaggeration.”
Japan is highly disaster-prone, Feldman explained, subject to earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis. And disasters have implications for almost every branch of law. “There are not a lot of areas in the law school curriculum that aren’t touched by this,” he noted. Criminal law, procedure, contracts, international law, corporate law, tort law, and administrative law were all at play at some stage of the disaster life-cycle.
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In Japan, the group’s first stop was the Fukushima site. Even with a semester of preparation, the students were still shocked by what they saw.“In class, it’s easy to learn about the events leading to the disaster, the evacuation of the area, and response activities,” said Leia Andrews L’17. “We knew that the disaster had displaced hundreds of thousands of people. But the impact of a site visit is almost unexplainable. We saw firsthand an entire region full of destroyed homes and no people. Five years post-disaster, a lack of effective disaster-recovery policy is much more tangible when you see homes with their exteriors ripped off and people’s belongings still inside.”
The students also had the opportunity to meet with government officials from Iwaki City, near the Fukushima site, and members of the central government, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They noted that some officials were tirelessly devoted to the work of restoring Fukushima, while others seemed more interested in presenting an image of progress, rather than confronting the difficulties of the process.
The students even had the chance to meet with officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Authority. “These meetings allowed us to get a sense for how the Japanese government is thinking about the recovery effort and its lessons,” said Nathan Swartz L’17. “Our meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Authority was particularly interesting as it gave us the chance to hear about how the Japanese nuclear regulators are approaching the process of reactivating Japan’s nuclear reactors.”
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Read more.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has said radioactive material could potentially be flown to and from Scotland and the US.
Last month, the UK and US governments agreed that material could be exchanged, with the UK receiving a type of uranium used to diagnose cancer.
The NDA is funding improvement work to enhance the runway at Wick John O’Groats Airport.
The airport is about 30 miles (48km) from the Dounreay nuclear site.
Under the UK-US deal, it has been proposed that highly enriched uranium (HEU) stored at Dounreay be sent to the US.
The NDA said flying the material was among options being considered, but also said no decisions have been taken.
‘Larger aircraft’
A spokeswoman for the NDA said: “The protection of the public and personnel is of paramount importance at all times. For those reason we are unable to disclose information about the transport arrangement that’s could jeopardise the security of this material.
“It has been proposed that a quantity of HEU may be exchanged with the US in return for material to be used in the production of medical isotopes for Europe.
“The upgrades to the airport in Wick will be done to ensure that this is one possible option to allow the transport to take place.”[…]
Read more.
A nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois. Taken by photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com).
