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Head of Japan's nuclear safety panel expresses regret
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Haruki Madarame, the chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, has expressed deep regret over inadequate efforts to enhance the safety of nuclear power generation in the wake of the nuclear crisis, acknowledging the commission's role of monitoring the country's nuclear policy is one of the issues that need to be reevaluated.
In a recent interview with Kyodo News, Madarame, 63, also indicated that he does not cling to the notion that the safety commission must be kept as it is, though saying that its role of presenting basic ideas about nuclear safety "will never fade away."
After the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government has drawn up a report calling for a review of the country's regime for overseeing nuclear power policy.
Madarame's candid admission of problems with nuclear safety administration will likely have some impact on discussions on the fate of atomic power plants as well as on regulatory policy.
On Japan's nuclear safety administration, Madarame, who has been the commission's chair since April 2010, said, "Our country's way of enforcing regulations was perhaps rigid. I am sincerely repenting over this."
A former University of Tokyo professor, he said the commission's oversight activities on nuclear policy "should be evaluated to see if they have been effective."
mdn.mainichi.jp

Part of an interesting acticle - too long to post in full.

New water cleaning system at Fukushima starts then stops.
2011/06/19
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.Just five hours after Tokyo Electric Power Co. started normal operation of equipment to purify highly radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the system had to be switched off at dawn on June 18 because of higher than expected radioactivity around the unit.

The water decontamination process is important to the utility's plans to regain control at the stricken plant because it offers a way of dealing with the approximately 110,000 tons of radioactive water that has accumulated in turbine buildings and elsewhere on the site. Heavy rain is threatening to make that water overflow.

The failure of the system also compromises plans for "cyclic injection" of cooling water into the stricken nuclear reactors, which would allow fuel rods to be cooled on a sustainable basis by reusing contaminated water. That process was originally scheduled to start June 18 but will have to be put back, TEPCO said.

Company officials said they did not know what caused the high levels of radioactivity near the purification equipment and did not know when it would be back in operation.

The latest setback follows a series of problems with the system. It was scheduled to start full operation June 15, but leaks in water from dozens of pipe joints and glitches in computer programs operating the pumps plagued trials of the cleaning devices. Those problems eventually forced TEPCO to cut short the trials and go straight to full operation on 8 p.m. on June 17. Five hours later, the unit was again at a standstill.

The equipment combines a series of cylindrical containers (90 centimeters in diameter and 2.3 meters in height) filled with zeolite, a mineral that absorbs cesium. Radioactive water is carried through pipes linking the containers.

TEPCO planned to replace cartridges whenever radiation levels in excess of 4 millisieverts per hour were detected.

That threshold was set to prevent the exposure of workers to high radiation levels, but TEPCO said a radiation level of 4.7 millisieverts per hour was measured near the intake to one series of cylinders at around 0:54 a.m. on June 18.

A radiation level of 3.9 millisieverts per hour was found at the intake to another series of cylinders.

The containers were expected to be replaced once a month. TEPCO said it was surprised that the threshold had been exceeded in such a short time.

"We halted the operation because we could not decide what was taking place," an official at TEPCO's office in Fukushima said.

There were no signs of water leaks, but the process could only be resumed if the cause was found, the official said.

Slightly past 3 a.m. on June 18, TEPCO began the purifying operation by pumping in low-level radioactive water, which lowered the radiation levels to 1.76 and 0.95 millisieverts per hour, respectively.

TEPCO suspects that the high measurements may be attributable to the passage of highly radioactive water or to residues of sludge that could not be removed during an earlier stage of processing.

The purification equipment was expected to cut radioactive materials present in processed water to between one 1,000th to one 10,000th of original levels, TEPCO said.

But starting full operation of the system would make cleaning of the devices difficult. The interior of the pipes and containers would be contaminated by high levels of radioactivity, making repairs hazardous. Any overhaul would require full decontamination, further delaying the process.

Normal operation of the equipment would also produce 2,000 cubic meters of highly radioactive sludge by the end of the year, which would have to be stored in tanks on the site. No decision has been made on how to process it.

The cesium absorption equipment is made by U.S.-based Kurion Inc., while chemical elimination equipment used in the system is made by the French-based Areva SA. None of the devices have previously been used to purify radioactive salt water.


(This article was compiled from reports by Hiroshi Ishizuka and Naoya Kon.)
www.asahi.com

France detects radioactive material in green tea from Japan
PARIS (Kyodo) -- The French government has decided to dispose of green tea leaves shipped from Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture after detecting radioactive cesium at more than double the European Union's limit at Charles de Gaulle airport in a Paris suburb, its official said Friday.
It is the first item to have surpassed the EU limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram in food imported from Japan since the nuclear crisis erupted March 11 at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, with 1,038 becquerels per kg measured in the 162 kg green tea shipment, they said.
In Japan, Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu issued a comment on the French move, saying he "believes it would not pose any problem at all if the tea leaves are prepared as a beverage for drinking."
The governor said, "Even if the produced leaves mark 1,000 becquerels, a tea beverage will register around 10 becquerels." He added that he will immediately order research on the route the tea in question was shipped.
(Mainichi Japan) June 19, 2011
mdn.mainichi.jp

How ironic that France should be the first European country to detect excessive radiation levels in food products from Japan!

@elaine - I think both are true, I think the GoJ has finally reached the point where they realise that what happened can no longer be glossed over or concealed. For them the real worry perhaps is that logically no nuclear plants in Japan should restart operation without substantial retrofitting, if then. So huge power shortages loom.

Tepso as in Dipco

Sorry for the levity
www.youtube.com

Could work as well as anything else... :(

Hi @angie - that should be interesting if they could get near enough to discover new stuff.

17 prefectures plan or mull boosting solar power aid after nuclear crisis

YOKOHAMA, June 19, Kyodo

Seventeen of Japan's 47 prefectures have already decided on or are considering the enhancement of programs to promote solar power in the wake of the country's worst nuclear plant crisis in Fukushima, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.

While the nuclear crisis has accelerated moves to shift energy policy at the local level, many prefectural governments called for further steps on the part of the central government, such as improving a program for power utilities to buy excess electricity generated by solar and other renewable energy sources.

The survey conducted from late May to early June, which received responses from all 47 prefectures, found that 36 of them already had their own programs for the promotion of solar power generation, such as subsidies for the installation of solar panels, before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant. english.kyodonews.jp

Radioactive reactor equipment may be exposed at Fukushima plant

TOKYO, June 19, Kyodo english.kyodonews.jp

TEPCO, Japan firms back out of bidding on Malaysian nuclear plant

SINGAPORE, June 19, Kyodo

Japanese firms including Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, have informed the governments of Malaysia and Japan of their intent not to bid on a feasibility study for Malaysia's first nuclear power plant, diplomatic sources said Sunday.

Since the type of reactor to be used will be decided based on the feasibility study, one Japanese administration official said that by dropping out of the bidding, Japan has almost no chance of being involved in construction of the power plant. The United States and Russia are showing willingness to enter the project.

Japan has positioned the export of its nuclear power infrastructure to Asia as a key element in the country's economic growth, but the growing antinuclear sentiment both at home and abroad threatens to deal a setback. english.kyodonews.jp

TEPCO soon to open doors to No.2 reactor building

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will soon begin to open the doors to the No. 2 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for ventilation, to lower humidity, and to start restoration work.

Extremely high humidity of nearly 100 percent, due to moisture apparently from the containment vessel and spent-fuel storage pool, has been hampering work inside the building.

TEPCO has been operating an air purification device for more than a week to reduce the radioactive concentration inside the building. The company now assesses that opening the doors will raise the level of background radiation around the plant by 0.0014 microsievert per hour, far below the permissible annual limit for ordinary people of one millisievert.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday morning, a TEPCO official stressed that the planned door-opening will have little impact on the nearby environment.

The company plans to begin opening the doors at 8 PM on Sunday and to fully open them at 4 AM on Monday if no problems arise.

TEPCO says the initial stage of the planned restoration work will include staff surveying radiation levels and adjusting gauges inside the building.

Sunday, June 19, 2011 12:35 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp

Tokyo to revise liquefaction hazard map

The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to revise a map showing areas possibly susceptible to soil liquefaction in the event a powerful earthquake hits the capital city.

Liquefaction caused heavy damage to buildings and infrastructure along Tokyo Bay when the earthquake hit northeastern Japan on March 11th.

The metropolitan government decided to review the existing liquefaction hazard map with the help of outside experts.

The map is designed to be used as construction guidelines on the need for ground fortification and quake resistance.

The current map was drawn up 15 years ago, and assumes an earthquake with a magnitude similar to that of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.

Tokyo says it plans to create a new projection map by incorporating fresh data obtained from detailed investigation of ground layers.

It says it will make public the new map by the spring of 2013.

Sunday, June 19, 2011 10:34 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp