Fukushima: Unit 1 Cover Removal & Demolition Work To Begin Soon
TEPCO has announced their plan to remove the cover of unit 1 so that debris on the refueling floor can be cleaned off. This work will enable viewing of the spent fuel pool and the condition of the reactor well. The work has come under increased scrutiny after it was discovered that similar demolition work at unit 3 had caused contamination up to 50km from the plant due to the wind blowing radioactive building dust. TEPCO’s … Read entire article »
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Abe Declares He Will Start Japan’s Nuclear Plants No Matter What
Japanese PM Abe made a statement over the weekend that he would restart Japan’s nuclear plants “by some means or other”. Hinting that he would ignore the rule of law or the will of the people as he already has in other unpopular political power grabs this year. He made the statement at a meeting with business executives in Fukuoka. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Daiichi; Work Begins To Concrete Port A Second Time
Work has begun, to concrete over the port at Fukushima Daiichi for a second time. Initial work to concrete over the port floor was initiated soon after the disaster was brought partially under control. This work will be completed in March of 2015 with monitoring of the work to continue for some time after the work is completed to confirm it is still working. The port has been suspect since 2011 as a contributing factor … Read entire article »
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Japan Moves Closer To Nuclear Restarts, But Who Decides?
Japan’s NRA gave an initial approval towards the Sendai nuclear plant meeting government “safety standards”. There are still other aspects of safety and equipment that NRA would need to approve but there is much more that would have to happen before any reactor was to restart operations. NRA also mentioned they are close to giving an approval to the Takahama nuclear plant. Part of these safety upgrades includes construction of a radiation resistant bunker building/command center … Read entire article »
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Dr. Robert Jacobs Will Be Speaking At Event In Tokyo July 19th
Nuclear historian at Hiroshima University (and SimplyInfo.org member) Dr. Robert Jacobs will be speaking in Tokyo July 19th at an event at the Lucky Dragon Museum. The museum houses the Lucky Dragon fishing ship, exposed to massive amounts of radiation during the US Castle Bravo nuclear test. The crew returned to Japan sick from radiation exposure, some of the crew died. The ship eventually made it impossible for the US to deny the impact of … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 3 Demolition Spread Contamination 50km, Multiple Instances
More information has come out about the contamination caused by the demolition work on unit 3. It was not the government, or TEPCO who found this was happening. Researchers from Kyoto University confirmed the problem in March 2014 and alerted the government. Had the university not been operating dust monitors on a regular basis, this issue likely would not have been admitted or known. 4 trillion becquerels were released in the August 19th incident and spread … Read entire article »
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French Polynesia To Destroy Atomic Testing Victims Memorial
The current president of French Polynesia intends to destroy a national monument to the victims of atomic testing. France conducted 193 atomic bombings of the islands between 1966 and 1974. French President Chirac approved two more bomb tests in 1996, right before the international test ban treaty went into effect. The current president of French Polynesia wants to replace the bomb victims memorial with a site dedicated to president Chirac. The French atomic tests have left the area contaminated with some of the worst contamination located in a crumbling coral reef that could further contaminate the area. You can read more about the memorial and sign a petition here https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/To_Mr_Gaston_Flosse_president_of_French_Polynesia_Dont_destroy_the_monument_of_all_victims_of_nuclear_tests_in_FR_Polyne/?cziZUeb More on the history of atomic testing in French Polynesia can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moruroa The Guardian has more information based on newly declassified documents from … Read entire article »
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4 Trillion Becquerels Released Over 4 Hours From Unit 3 During Demolition
Yahoo News is reporting that over a 4 hour period of demolition work on unit 3 in August 2013, 4 trillion becquerels of contamination were disbursed into the air. Monitoring stations at Futaba, Namie and at the plant were used to make the estimate. It was estimated that a radiation rate of .04 bq/cm was deposited on nearby lands. Plant monitoring for the related dates at Fukushima Daiichi didn’t show significant changes to the monitoring … Read entire article »
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Minamisoma Never Informed Of New Contamination From Fukushima Daiichi
The rice fields were contaminated in August of 2013, the Agriculture Ministry didn’t inform TEPCO until March 2014 and never informed the farmers or the town of Minamisoma. After the news was finally made public this week, residents and the town’s mayor are outraged. A brief review yesterday of the radiation stations in Minamisoma showed no detectable radiation spike between August 16 and 20th at the central library station. Either the levels had been elevated for … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Contaminated Nearby Town During Unit 3 Demolition
TEPCO has admitted to re-contaminating the area around Minamisoma after being confronted by the agriculture ministry. Rice in Minamisoma was found to be over the government radiation limit of 100 bq/kg. Upon further inspection the ministry found it was the outside of the rice plants that had the most contamination rather than the rice kernel itself. This indicated contamination fell on the plants rather than being taken up from the soil. Now TEPCO is admitting on … Read entire article »
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Unit 5 Fukushima Remains On Shared Cooling, No Repair Stated; July 14, 2014
TEPCO again has posted no information about the needed repair of the spent fuel pool cooling system on unit 5 again today. The reactor and pool remain on shared cooling using the RHR system. While this is keeping both within safe temperatures it is not a situation that should become permanent. Graphs below from hourly data feeds. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Disaster Causes Nuclear Workers To Flee To Solar, Creates New Robotic Industry
Workers for TEPCO have been leaving at a rapid pace. Between cuts in pay and the social stigma of working for the company, many have chosen to leave. What is more interesting is how many have left the nuclear industry all together and are now working for new solar power companies. This could become an even larger trend as other nuclear power utilities see their businesses flounder. The disaster has also caused a drastic shift in … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 5 Alternate Cooling, No ETA For System Repair; July 13, 2014
TEPCO still has not given any further information about the needed repair of the leaking valve for the main cooling system used by the spent fuel pool of unit 5. Alternate cooling by sharing the RHR system for the reactor vessel continues as can be seen in the hourly data feeds. Previously reported, the RHR system was having a minor oil leak problem, TEPCO did a temporary fix. This makes restoration of the normal cooling … Read entire article »
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SimplyInfo.org Fukushima & Nuclear News Roundup; July 13, 2014
Some Okuma residents have given up on the idea of returning home and are requesting compensation for their property. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140704_04.html The Sendai nuclear plant in Japan may restart without a functioning offsite emergency center. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201407070029 A German bank invests $1 billion for solar power in Japan. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-07-07/deutsche-bank-lends-1-billion-in-japans-solar-gold-rush Residents of a district in Iitate wonder about the future of their community with the area designated “difficult to return”. Many residents have been returning to maintain their homes and even mow lawns. http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140706-00000518-san-soci Japan’s nuclear regulator may increase safety rules for Fukushima Daiichi http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140709_28.html The governor of Niigata fears for his life over his opposition to TEPCO restarting the Kasiwazaki Kariwa http://saigaijyouhou.com/blog-entry-942.html Journalist finds secret Chinese underground nuclear power plant using Google maps and social media. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/08/the_untold_story_of_chinas_forgotten_underground_nuclear_reactor_yichang_827_plant TEPCO has begun surveying the collapsed corner of unit 3 http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_140711_06-j.pdf After testing air samples, official still have no clue about … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 5 Continues Alternate Cooling
Unit 5 continues to operate on shared cooling with the reactor vessel. Graphs of hourly temperature data pulled today show again, the back and forth trend in temperature changes as they shift cooling between the vessel and the pool. The high temperature seen in the RPV graph is 42.5c. Also mentioned today in TEPCO’s daily reports, unit 6 has returned to cooling the spent fuel pool after a short outage to test the fuel gate. RPV … Read entire article »
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Saturday Quake, Aftershock of 3-11 Quake
The 6.8 quake in Japan on early Saturday morning generated tsunami warnings and caused a few evacuations. So far no significant damage has been reported from the quake. It has however been classified as an aftershock of the 3-11 quake that kicked off the massive disaster in Fukushima. The Saturday quake was closer inland and more south than the epicenter of the 3-11 quake. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org (or www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any … Read entire article »
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6.8 Quake Off Fukushima Coast, Tsunami Warning Issued
A shallow 6.8 quake off the Fukushima coast triggered a tsunami warning. No initial visible damage was noted at Fukushima Daiichi via the video monitoring system. A tsunami warning was issued with an estimated height of 1 meter. Some areas on the coast were asked to evacuate by local authorities. http://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/japan-tsunami-warnung-nach-starkem-erdbeben-nahe-fukushima_id_3985062.html http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/11/japan-issues-tsunami-advisory-after-another-strong-earthquake-rattles-fukushima/ This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org (or www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any of our content in full or in more than a phrase or quote, please … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 5 Experiences Additional Cooling Problem
TEPCO switched the unit 5 spent fuel pool over to sharing the cooling system for the reactor (the RHR system) earlier this week after the valve failure. The reactor and spent fuel pool have been sharing cooling in an alternating fashion for at least two days. Today TEPCO admits that the replacement pump installed for the RHR system in 2012 has been having oil leak problems since June. Yesterday a temporary fix was done to … Read entire article »
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39,000,000 Bq/liter Of Beta Radiation Found At Fukushima Daiichi
The July 9th reading for monitoring well 1-2 at the sea front had this startling reading. 39,000,000 bq/liter of beta radiation (strontium 90 and other beta emitters) found in the water samples taken. The readings appear to possibly be adjustments or delayed reporting of data from last summer as many of the readings have August and September dates but no year clearly appears in the individual reports. Either way that new reading and many of the … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 5 Reactor Temperature Rises
TEPCO’s statements earlier this week that they would use a back and forth method of cooling the spent fuel pool by sharing the reactor cooling system appears to be underway. The reactor temperature has risen 12 degrees Celsius since July 8th. Spent fuel temperature rose but fell down closer to normal over the same time frame. While these changes are not alarming they do warrant close monitoring to assure they are staying within safe ranges … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Prepares For Tropical Storm At Fukushima Daiichi
TEPCO reported to NHK that they are preparing for the incoming tropical storm. Cranes and tank weirs have been prepped for the storm. TEPCO insists they will continue working on some tasks until a warning is issued. Groundwater pumping and frozen wall work will continue until warnings are issued. Other work appears to be suspended. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org (or www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any of our content in full or in more than … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Frozen Wall Problem Claimed To Be Trickle Of Water
TEPCO is claiming a small water flow of 2 milliliters per minute is causing the frozen wall installation in cable trenches to not work. The cable trenches hold highly contaminated water from units 2 and 3. The plan has been to freeze the ends of these trenches so the water can be removed and later these frozen areas would become part of the frozen wall system. TEPCO did not explain why such a small flow of … Read entire article »
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Asahi Shimbun Releases Yoshida Fukushima Testimony In English
Asahi Shimbun has finally released a translation of the Yoshida testimony on the Fukushima Disaster. The interviews caused controversy when originally made public as the central government did not think they should be public record. They later back tracked on this. The first two installments of the translated series are available here. http://www.asahi.com/special/yoshida_report/en/ Yoshida’s statements have been critical for understanding the events of the disaster. Similar testimony exists for many of the workers at the plant that were … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 5 Spent Fuel Pool On Alternative Cooling
Yesterday TEPCO reported that they had restarted the regular cooling system of unit 5′s spent fuel pool. The report indicated that the normal cooling system (the one with the leak) had been restarted. No permanent fix was mentioned. Today’s reports indicate that the pool is being cooled, but is being done by sharing the system used for the reactor. Nothing was mentioned about the repair plan for the leaking valve. The most recent graphs for unit … Read entire article »
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New Robot Inspection Of Fukushima Unit 1
Two robots, sponsored by IRID conducted an investigation of unit 1. The areas between the 2nd and 3rd floors have radiation levels too high for humans to enter for any extended period of time. Robots Rosemary and Sakura were sent in to do a coordinated inspection. Rosemary is equipped with a newer type of gamma camera to record radiation readings. Sakura provides additional views of the other robot and acts as a wireless … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Restarts Fukushima Unit 5 Pool Cooling Without Permanent Fix
TEPCO has announced they have restarted the cooling system for unit 5 just days after stopping it due to a valve body leak. TEPCO mentions in this handout of the restart but there is no permanent fix mentioned as being completed or proposed. Earlier reports said TEPCO would suspend the system until they could determine a permanent fix. Apparently some patch on a cracked valve is now considered a permanent fix. Temps in the spent fuel continue … Read entire article »
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Clock Ticks On Fukushima Unit 5 Cooling Outage As Typhoon Hits Japan
TEPCO reported over the weekend that they found a leak in a valve that is part of the cooling system used for the spent fuel pool of unit 5. The system was stopped as they identified the leak. TEPCO noted they have about 9 days before the spent fuel pool would reach a heat level that they are required to report it to authorities (65 Celsius). The “reactor auxiliary cooling system” was found to have the … Read entire article »
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SimplyInfo.org Fukushima & Nuclear News Roundup; July 7, 2014
Japan city launches legal bid to halt reactor build http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/japan-city-launches-legal/1232354.html Japan government sees delay in restart of world’s biggest nuclear plant: sources http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-japan-nuclear-20140703,0,6322487.story An accounting of what actually happened at Fukushima University as the disaster unfolded has been published at Japan Focus. The changing view of higher education by the government created some interesting events at the institution. http://japanfocus.org/-Nakasatomi-Hiroshi/4136 TEPCO claims to have recovered about 80% of the contaminated water that leaked from bolt together tanks in 2013 http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html Tsunami-proof ‘Great Wall of Japan’ divides villagers http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/29/tsunami-wall-japan-divides-villagers?CMP=twt_gu How Opposite Energy Policies Turned The Fukushima Disaster Into A Loss For Japan And A Win For Germany http://www.forbes.com/sites/amorylovins/2014/06/28/how-opposite-energy-policies-turned-the-fukushima-disaster-into-a-loss-for-japan-and-a-win-for-germany/ Nahara town has set up an organization to clean up abandoned residences and build ties among the town’s residents in the hopes they may move back to the evacuation zone next year. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140630_24.html The US FDA is insisting … Read entire article »
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Welded Water Tanks Installed At Fukushima Daiichi
Welded water tanks to replace the miles of leaking bolt together tanks at Fukushima Daiichi are being installed. The tanks are welded off site and shipped in by barge, ready to install. This allows workers to do the bulk of the work somewhere safe, leaving only the final move and installation to be done in the radioactive areas. This does make one wonder why TEPCO hadn’t thought of this themselves when the first tanks were … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Fuel Removal Suspended For 3 Months
TEPCO announced that work to remove spent fuel from the unit 4 fuel pool will be suspended for 3 months. TEPCO claims this is for an annual crane inspection but didn’t state why an annual inspection would take 3 months, 1/4 of a year. As of the work stoppage 1188 spent fuel assemblies have been removed from unit 4′s spent fuel pool. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research … Read entire article »
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Constitutional Amendment Protests Break Out In Tokyo After Man Sets Himself On Fire
Huge protests broke out in Tokyo today after a man set himself on fire in protest of the current effort by the Abe Administration to remove from Japan’s constitution the renunciation of war. Article 9 of Japan’s post war constitution bars the country from waging war on another country. Even with considerable opposition from the public, the Abe administration has pushed for the constitutional change. The man’s condition isn’t currently known after the incident on … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Submits Plan For Fuel Removal At Unit 3 Fukushima Daiichi
TEPCO submitted plans to the NRA for spent fuel removal from unit 3. This included more detail on how they intend to install a cover and remove transit casks from the building. The defueling building cover bridges the original reactor building, putting the load on the existing scaffolding system and an accessory building. This structure avoids contact with the reactor well, known to have high radiation levels. TEPCO did not mention any measures to prevent radiation issues from the fuel canal between the reactor and the spent fuel pool. They also do not mention anything about worker exposures or how human work would be conducted. Estimated radiation levels in the area are as high as 1 sievert/hour. The fuel casks would be moved out of the pool to the left side … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Corium Experiment Creates Unexpected Result
As part of an ongoing series of corium experiments our research team has been doing, the newest experiment created a quite unusual result. The newest experiment, the fifth in a series conducted by Edano, took the top range of assumed melt mass and ran the experiment with a sustained high heat. Upon completion it was noticed that a modest amount of the lead had left the pedestal but what was in the pedestal was much … Read entire article »
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SimplyInfo.org Fukushima & Nuclear News Roundup; June 29, 2014
METI will solicit more research work for ways to remove the melted fuel from the Fukushima Daiichi reactors including ways that don’t involve flooding the containment structures. http://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201406/20140628_61031.html The mayor of Osaka has threatened to sell off all the stock shares the municipality has in Kansai Electric unless they end their efforts to restart nuclear reactors. Osaka is the largest shareholder in Kansai Electric. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-27/osaka-mayor-threatens-kansai-electric-selloff-over-atomic-plants TEPCO admits they don’t know if the groundwater bypass is working. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/06/28/national/impact-of-fukushima-groundwater-bypass-eludes-tepco/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+japantimes+(The+Japan+Times%3A+All+Stories)#.U68AlfldUrk More evacuees are buying new homes according to the government. There was no mention if they are paying for them with compensation payouts or otherwise. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140626_05.html The Sendai nuclear plant in Japan has submitted an additional safety report. The NRA is expected to have a decision about possible restart in August. No nuclear plants in Japan will be online during the … Read entire article »
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Japan’s Nuclear Utilities Face Problems All Around
Two Japanese nuclear power utilities have received bail outs from Japan’s state backed bank. Hokkaido and Kyushu power companies both received bail outs. Both companies are heavily invested in nuclear power. Meanwhile nine power utilities in Japan held their annual shareholder meetings this week. All involved shareholder calls to end the use of nuclear power by the companies. All were rejected by the utilities. TEPCO’s shareholder meeting was particularly chaotic with multiple calls for the company to … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Admits Deep Groundwater Contamination & Leak To Sea
TEPCO has been doing further groundwater investigations at the plant including testing for contamination at various depths to understand what layers are carrying most of the contamination. They now admit that contamination can make it into the deep groundwater layer and could be leaking out to sea. This is something both the NRA and various researchers have speculated since early this year. TEPCO noted that the pressure in the deep layer is less than the water … Read entire article »
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WIPP Filter Replacement Complete, New Federal Investigation Begins
DOE has announced that the filter change out at WIPP has been completed. This was the process of changing out all of the filters involved in the two filtration systems used to attempt to prevent radioactive contamination from leaking out of the facility. Filter change outs of the HEPA and other systems were completed, clean up of the area near the filter banks appears to be still underway. The DOE office of enforcement is launching a … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 4; 1122 Spent Fuel Assemblies Removed
There are 411 spent fuel assemblies left to remove from unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi. 1122 have been removed as of Monday of this week. While this is significant progress, the remaining assemblies include some of the heavily damaged ones that will require careful handling, special equipment and come with huge risks. TEPCO has not specifically outlined the equipment or procedures that will be used to remove the more damaged assemblies in the pool. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/index-e.html This article … Read entire article »
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IRID Works On Four New Torus Robots For Fukushima Daiichi
IRID has announced ongoing testing work on four new robots to be used to inspect inside reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. The purpose of the robots, developed with IHI and Toshiba is to assist in determining how the containment vessels are leaking with the focus being on leaks into the torus room. SC-ROV will be used to inspect the outer surface of the torus tube (suppression chamber). It is able to stick to the metal pipe of … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Begins Decontamination Of Unit 3 First Floor
TEPCO has begun the further decontamination of the first floor of unit 3. Robots Meister and Sora are doing the work, Meister is hooked to a vacuum collector rig outside the building. Misc debris not already removed is being collected and some surface cleaning is being done. This is an attempt to lower contamination levels further to allow human sustained entry into the building. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_140620_06-e.pdf This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the … Read entire article »
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