Japan Earthquake | Page 2293
@Edano The German thorium plant would make an interesting story. The only English based information I found on it back when I looked into it was Wikipedia. It didn't mention any details other than the cracked fuel and unsuccessful run.by lillymunster 9/2/2011 12:08:16 PM
@lillymunster translate.google.de ? :)by Edano 9/2/2011 12:13:21 PM- "each fuel element contained about 1 g of uranium-235 and 10 g of thorium-232 "by Edano 9/2/2011 12:14:36 PM
english.kyodonews.jp
Kan leaves office
Japan's outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan receives flowers on Sept. 2, 2011, as he leaves the prime minister's office in Tokyo. Yoshihiko Noda, who served as finance minister under Kan, will succeed him. (Kyodo) english.kyodonews.jpby Edano via English.kyodonews.jp 9/2/2011 12:21:15 PM- @lillymunster btw the old kyodo article dean posted is not accessible anymore. june is the latest (3 months).by Edano 9/2/2011 12:22:27 PM
english.kyodonews.jp
Anti-dolphin hunt rally in U.S.
About 30 demonstrators protest dolphin hunting in Japan in front of the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Aug. 1, 2011. The season's fishing of dolphins has begun in Taiji, western Japan. (Kyodo) english.kyodonews.jpby Edano via English.kyodonews.jp 9/2/2011 12:24:26 PM
english.kyodonews.jp
new penguins in the zooby Edano via English.kyodonews.jp 9/2/2011 12:25:16 PM- Business leaders express hope for new Cabinet
Leaders of Japan's major business organizations have responded favorably to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's new cabinet.
The chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, Yasuchika Hasegawa, welcomed the lineup, saying it was created out of consideration for unity within the ruling Democratic Party and steady implementation of policies.
Hasegawa said he awaits the outcomes with hope.
The head of the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, Hiromasa Yonekura, described the new Cabinet as a solid one that places policy experts in key posts.
Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman, Tadashi Okamura, said he hopes Noda and the Cabinet will steadily advance the reconstruction of disaster-hit areas, and Japan's economic recovery.
Okamura added the Cabinet should build cooperation with opposition parties to implement policies promptly and smoothly. He hopes this will help dispel concerns of both the Japanese people and industry about their future.
The business leaders indicated they are ready to help the Noda Cabinet implement key policies, such as post-disaster reconstruction and measures against the sharp rise of the yen.
Ties between Japan's business organizations and the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Naoto Kan became strained at the time the government made an about-face on nuclear energy policy after the March disaster.
Friday, September 02, 2011 20:19 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jpby Edano 9/2/2011 12:27:12 PM - reading between the lines...by Edano 9/2/2011 12:27:22 PM
Ohayo minnasan! Good morning everyone! Yesterday I tried to find the journal paper on research that showed "cleaning" of contaminated soil. But I don't think it's been released yet. Anyone have a source of that claim again? I'll continue to look. It might come out today.by Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:00:48 PM- Kansai electric fails to declare 4.5 bil in income. jen.jiji.comby lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:00:50 PM
- @Cryptococcus do you remember the process they were using? Was it plants or chemicals?by lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:01:19 PM
- I think it was nitric acid...I was like...um???by Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:01:58 PM
- Oh, I saw the news article, didn't find a paper. Do you want the news article?by lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:04:20 PM
- Hoikkado Electric admits influencing public meeting on nuclear plant. jen.jiji.comby lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:04:59 PM
- NHK broadcasting about rebuilding plans and Noda etc. right nowby lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:05:42 PM
- @lillymunster Yes please. It's a start anyway. I forgot to tag it for myself once I couldn't find the paper.by Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:07:03 PM
- @Cryptococcus will go look now.by lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:12:17 PM
- Do we have this map yet? mdn.mainichi.jpby lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:12:24 PM
- btw I watched the Best Chernobyl video. I think it's 1.5 hrs long. It's excellent. I learned stuff I had never heard, like the miners digging under and pumping in concrete. Good stuff.by Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:13:45 PM
- Would You Go to Work for Tepco? But it would take a new college graduate with a very particular character to think about starting a career in management at a company battling with Japan’s worst-ever nuclear accident, soaring compensation costs and a plummeting share price.
But while the president of the much-troubled utility admits to doubts about whether students will be interested in joining the company, he says he’s determined to continue attracting new managerial talent to the company, despite the multitude of hurdles it faces. blogs.wsj.comby Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:14:33 PM - This should be the nitric acid decontamination story mdn.mainichi.jpby lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:15:14 PM
- yep thanks!by Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:21:39 PM
- This is just a bit more info. Still looking for original source. AIST Develops Method to Remove Cesium Almost Entirely from Soil. Tokyo, Aug. 31 (Jiji Press)--Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology said Wednesday it has developed a method to almost completely remove from soil radioactive cesium discharged from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The chemical reaction-based method can sharply reduce the amount of radioactive waste to be generated in decontamination work compared with the means to peel off the surface soil in tainted areas, the institute, better known as AIST, said.
AIST researchers were able to extract 88 pct of cesium deposits on soil after mixing the polluted soil with the water solution of low-concentrated diluted sulfuric acid and heated the mixed water at 95 degrees Celsius. When the water temperature was raised to 200 degrees in the high-pressure environment, the extraction rate improved to almost 100 pct.
The extracted cesium was recovered almost entirely from the water with addition of a pigment called Prussian blue, which traps the radioactive material, AIST said.
Because the acid has very low concentration, it does not harm the soil. The water solution can be used repeatedly, it noted.
(2011/09/01-02:02)
jen.jiji.comby Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:25:03 PM 
back and reporting to lilly for next assignmentby dean 9/2/2011 1:27:22 PM- @dean Morning Dean!by lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:38:12 PM
- hey Lilly, GMby dean 9/2/2011 1:38:51 PM
- @you Do you know anything about the idea being tossed around by some politicians about privatizing nuclear storage? I have heard it brought up, is this even a real plan or just politicians dreaming things up?by lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:39:42 PM
- Hm. Apparently this low acid method has been looked at before. Here's another paper. Decontamination of radioactive concrete using electrokinetic technology. The experimental results of the electrokinetic decontamination with 0.01 M of nitric acid were that the cesium ions were removed by up to 52% from the concrete after 15 days, also the cobalt ions were only removed by up to 0.7%. The concrete should be washed with H2SO4 as a pretreatment before electrokintic decontamination to lower its pH below 4.0. The removal efficiencies of 60Co and 137Cs by nitric acid were increased by 3.1 and 2.5% more than those by acetic acid. The larger the particle size of the concrete, the more the removal efficiencies of 60Co and 137Cs were increased. Also, the removal efficiencies of 60Co and 137Cs by the application of an electric current of 20 mA/cm2 were increased by 1.6 and 3.9% more than those by the application of 10 mA/cm2. The removal efficiencies of 60Co and 137Cs from the radioactive concrete of 1,940 Bq/kg were 99.8 and 92.3% by electrokinetic decontamination after pretreatment by the application of an electric current of 20 mA/cm2 for 25 days. www.springerlink.comby Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:40:59 PM
- This needs to be vetted a bit. What do you all think? Note, it's not the venus fly trap. (please don't get confused) It's the analogy of the trap. Venus Flytrap for Nuclear Waste: New Material Finds ‘Needle in a Haystack,’ Shows Promise for Clean-Up. thewere42.wordpress.comby Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 1:44:36 PM
- @ lilly, I know that there is a blue ribbon committee appointed by congress to look into storage and come back with the best idea, NRC is also investigating the use of YUKA mountain again in spite of the fact that the Obama administration quickly closed options to use it as a storage facility. I also know that some efforts are being made to negotiate common international storage for spent fuel with a foreign countryby dean 9/2/2011 1:44:41 PM
- @dean the idea of private sector nuclear storage facilities was pretty shocking.by lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:46:20 PM
- @ lilly, there are private companies around the country that handles hazardous and radioactive waste so there has been some merit there, storage of spent nuclear fuel is not something that is a new technology but it is a political in the sense of lobbyist and congressmen wanting it in their state for jobs and as YUKA all tied up in the protests etc what brought the whole project to a grind stillby dean 9/2/2011 1:51:28 PM
- This is a good read about the risk factors for quakes at US NPPs www.wtop.comby lillymunster 9/2/2011 1:52:46 PM
- will safe it @ lillyby dean 9/2/2011 1:53:11 PM
- www.cfo.doe.gov one article witch points out the many types of waste and past projects... environmental waste storage is a huge deal and radioactive waste is a whole complex issue, dealing with research facilities, hospitals, DOE facilities Department of Defense, NASA etc.by dean 9/2/2011 1:55:38 PM
- @ lilly, one point of interest I've seen over my career, one of the most challenging and severe accident challenges comes with the seismic issue. The whole approach to seismically qualified systems, which systems need to meet seismic requirements beginning with the safety shutdown equipmet etc has come under attack for the need to be more and more robust as time has progressed. These demanding requirements branch out to systems and sub systems that in the past has not had to meet rigorous requirements. The industry has used buzz words to define safety systems and systems important to safety all the way down to systems which pose no safety issues. I call it the SEISMIC boundary in the facility ie: to what depth do the safety systems need to meed seismic requirements... THAT is why so many plants are faced with updgrades to make an auxilliary system like DG secondary cooling DIESEL GENERATORS cooled seismic level 1by dean 9/2/2011 2:02:50 PM
- Better article on cesium removal method (Sept 1) tvnz.co.nzby Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 2:03:09 PM
- the natural response of the UTILITY companies is that their facilities MEET the requirements or.. MEET THE INTENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS WITH EXCEPTION... so, it all gets caught up in some word play and of course final approval of NRC. Lately some focus has been to lower the probabilities of certain accidents at commercial power plants and not all of it can be done by pencil whipping a report, MODIFICATIONS, UPGRADES ETC are neededby dean 9/2/2011 2:05:30 PM
- @dean The NRC document on N. Anna talked about seismic requirements on piping in great detail but no review of the reactor itself or the whole plant vs. seismic incidents. It sounds like the NRC is at least reviewing this now.by lillymunster 9/2/2011 2:06:25 PM
- @dean I hope the NRC is able to force some of this to be done. The whole rubber stamping extended licenses on some of these plants is just scary.by lillymunster 9/2/2011 2:07:32 PM
- @ lilly, correct.. yesterday I wrote a lengthy letter to my Senator concerning this very topic and in addition a request to call a hearing with the utility owners of those plants more recently affected by flooding or seismic along with the NRC and begin to develop revised procedures for license extensions on a shorter time frame. In addition, a more rigorous inspection at nuclear plants by DOE, NRC and private companies to look at vulnerablities to natural phenomena. Right now NRC has dispatched inspectors at the North Anna facilitiy which some say is only done when the risks of fuel damage have increased significantly... I say they perform those same inspections now starting at the higher risk facilities and have a criteria for shutdown if unreviewed safety questions arise
by dean 9/2/2011 2:13:36 PM - @ illly. unfortunately it seems the NRC walks a tight rope and seems to have less enforcement power other than fines probably due to such huge pressure put on by the need for power and the UTILITY owners (which continue to put profits above safety "in my opinion"by dean 9/2/2011 2:15:04 PM
- Sept 2 Gov't releases most detailed maps yet of radiation around Fukushima plant. mdn.mainichi.jpby Cryptococcus 9/2/2011 2:16:18 PM
- it all reminds me of the FREE ENTERPRISE concept with lower federal regulations and higher incentives like tax breaks for big corporations (like the republicans want) as opposed to more regulations and spending to feed growth and employment (like the dem's want)by dean 9/2/2011 2:17:21 PM
Japan Earthquake | Page 2293
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