Fukushima Report Delayed as TEPCO Gets New Chance to Explain

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20. When ridicule is all you have, that's not much of an argument. Here, learn something:

[font size="2"]Second mobile strontium removal unit at Fukushima, February 2015 (TEPCO handout)[/font size]

Continuing Surprises (Mostly Unfortunate) For Japan Nuclear Industry

by Sandy Dechert
CleanTechnica, May 5th, 2015

The fourth anniversary of the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi no. 1 power plant passed in relative quiet, but events there have hardly become less troubling. The good news first: TEPCO and its contractors have now completed the move of all spent and fresh fuel from the high and wide-open secondary containment of reactor Unit 4 to a safer ground-level location. They performed the work on time and almost without incident, despite the fears of many nuclear scientists and policymakers. Removal of molten fuel debris in Units 1, 2, and 3 will be more challenging, but Japan’s extensive experience with robotics should be helpful there, says Dr. Dale Klein, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and now chair of TEPCO’s Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee.

SNIP...

The Los Angeles Times quotes Edwin Lyman, coauthor of Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster and a nuclear expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, as saying that the post-accident management of water “has been a lot more complex than anyone imagined. If they are going to be restarting plants in Japan, they need to think harder about it.”

Kurion, a California company that TEPCO contracted with last year on water contamination, says it has a system that can separate tritium from water, but it must be scaled up to deal with volume present at Fukushima. Its president believes that the process would take 5-8 years. Setup would cost about $1 billion and operating costs would be several hundred million dollars a year.

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Making matters worse for Japan’s nuclear industry on the whole is this development reported by Kyodo News:

“The nation’s nuclear regulator determined… that a reactor at Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tsuruga nuclear plant on the Sea of Japan coast sits right above an active geological fault, a conclusion that may force the operator to permanently shut down the unit.”

Another April development occurred in Fukui prefecture, where a court blocked Kansai Electric Power from restarting two reactors at its Takahama site, warning of “imminent danger” to the surrounding area if the reactors were restarted. But on April 22, a court on Kyushu, third-largest of the country’s four main islands, rejected vociferous attempts to block restarting of two reactors at Kyushu Electric’s Sendai plant because of active earthquake faults and a nearby volcano.

CONTINUED...

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/05/continuing-surprises-mostly-unfortunate-japan-nuclear-industry/