'Hot' water removal going slowly / Flooded steam condensers in reactors hamper workers' efforts
Steam condensers at the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are flooded, making it difficult for workers to remove highly radioactive water from inside the turbine buildings, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.
The turbine buildings house equipment indispensable to carrying out full-scale cooling of the troubled reactors.
Radioactive water has accumulated at the bottom of the buildings.
In the case of the No. 1 reactor, TEPCO could not ascertain when it would be able to completely pump out the water because of a huge quantity of water in the basement of the turbine building.
Referring to radiation of more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour that was detected on the surface of the radioactive water at the No. 2 reactor, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday the high level of radiation was caused by water overflowing after coming in contact with nuclear fuel rods that had temporarily melted.
Earlier in the day, TEPCO said the concentration of radioactive substances in the water at the No. 2 reactor's turbine building was about 100,000 times higher than normal in water inside a reactor.
The utility said Sunday morning that the concentration of radioactive iodine-134 detected in water taken the previous day from the basement of the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor was 2.9 billion becquerels per milliliter, or 10 million times the normal concentration.
Later that day, TEPCO corrected that analysis, saying it was highly possible that cobalt-56 was mistaken for iodine-134 when compiling the earlier data. Early Monday, the company again made a correction, saying it should have referred to cesium-134, not cobalt-56.
The concentration of radioactive substances detected at the same place in the No. 2 reactor was 20 million becquerels per milliliter or 100,000 times that of the water inside a reactor, TEPCO said.
There was some good news. TEPCO reported that the spent nuclear fuel rod temporary storage pools at the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors were confirmed to be filled to their capacity Monday.
Despite this, restoration work at the plant is expected to take a long time, observers said.
Referring to the radiation-contaminated water at the basement of Reactor No. 2's turbine building, Edano said the contamination was regrettable but restoration work would continue at the plant while ensuring there was no health risk.
With regard to the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors, where concentrations of radioactive substances are lower than at Reactor No. 2, he said radioactive water that became steam in the reactor containment vessel was condensed or diluted as a result of water spraying.
Reactor No. 1's condenser has a capacity of 1,600 tons while those of the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors are almost twice that at 3,000 tons.
Work to remove radioactive water from the basement of Reactor No. 1's turbine building has started. Additional pumps have been installed to remove the radioactive water, but it remains to be seen when the work can be finished because of the large volume of water.
The condensers at the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors cannot take additional radioactive water because they are already full. TEPCO is looking into the possibility of transferring contaminated water to tanks located at other places. But new pipes will be needed to connect them, TEPCO said.
The amount of radiation in the air in the basements of the turbine buildings amounted to 25 millisieverts per hour at the No. 1 reactor, more than 1,000 millisieverts at the No. 2 reactor and 400 millisieverts at the No. 3 reactor.
The high radiation records at the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors made it difficult to make progress in removing radioactive water.
To help ensure safety in the dark working environment, TEPCO is considering bringing temporary lighting equipment into the basements of the turbine buildings of the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors and dividing workers into several groups so they can work for short periods.
As for pouring freshwater into Reactor No. 2, TEPCO has installed electric-driven pumps inside the turbine building to connect them with a power supply. On Sunday afternoon, water-spraying into the reactor started using water drawn directly from a freshwater tank installed about one kilometer away.
Food safety inspections flawed / Critics say system inconsistent, inequitably applied, lacks oversight
Dissatisfaction with the system for food safety inspections is spreading among local governments and farmers in areas affected by radioactive emissions from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Under the current system, prefectural governments and municipalities with public health centers decide which crops are to be tested, as well as the sample size, and report the results of the tests to the central government.
However, there is great variation among different local governments' decisions on these points.
Experts have urged the central government to establish uniform standards.
There are also complaints that current radioactivity limits--which were set on a temporary basis in line with the Food Sanitation Law--are too strict for certain crops.
Fukushima Gov. Masaru Hashimoto expressed his frustration with the system Friday when he visited the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and other government offices. Local governments that are most thorough in their inspection processes are most likely to see restrictions placed on their crops.
"It's ridiculous if honesty doesn't pay," Hashimoto said to reporters.
According to the health ministry, a total of 531 tests for radioactivity in food were conducted in Tokyo and 12 prefectures by Sunday. The largest share was conducted in Fukushima Prefecture, with 185 tests, followed by Ibaraki Prefecture with 117.
Among the 531 cases, radioactive iodine or cesium above the temporary legal limit was discovered in 99 cases.
However, even if the legal limit is exceeded in food from a certain area, it does not necessarily mean distribution of the products in question will be restricted.
The current system allows only for imposition of shipping restrictions on entire prefectures--rather than just on the areas where dubious crops were grown.
For instance, in one prefecture samples of 38 products were tested, and in eight--including spinach--radioactive substances were detected at levels beyond the legal limit. However, as of Sunday no shipping restrictions had been placed on the products. Because the samples all came from one area, the central government was reluctant to apply restrictions to the entire prefecture.
"It's worrying to think consumers might consume products from an area where no inspections [for radioactive contamination] have been conducted," Hashimoto said.
On the other hand, the imposition of restrictions on farm products from all of Fukushima Prefecture means even a city like Aizu-Wakamatsu in the prefecture--which is about 100 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant--is included.
"I think it's too loose to impose an across-the-board limit for all of Fukushima Prefecture. Unless specific steps are taken according to the conditions in individual areas, all the farmers in the prefecture will go down," said Koki Yokoyama, a 53-year-old farmer in the prefecture who grows about 10 vegetable crops, including cherry tomatoes and kakina leafy greens.
The provisional safety limits set by the government for radioactivity in vegetables and other farm products have been criticized as too strict.
For instance, the provisional limit for vegetables, excluding tubers and root crops, is 2,000 becquerel (Bq) of radioactive iodine and 500 Bq of cesium per kilogram.
The case of parsley grown in Ibaraki Prefecture, distribution of which has been halted, is held up as an example of the system's failings.
The system does not allow for the fact that, relative to many other crops, parsley is light and has a large surface area, making it likely to have more radioactive material per kilogram than other crops. It also ignores that people usually consume parsley only in extremely small quantities.
"The current limits do not match reality," said an official of the the Fukushima prefectural government's agricultural policy and planning division.
"Currently, samples and tests vary from government to government, and this has resulted in unfairness. Local governments that are more careful about inspections of farm products are hit the ones being hit with restrictions," said Kazuaki Kato, professor emeritus at Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences.
"The central government must expedite efforts to establish uniform standards for tests and set appropriate limits for radioactivity levels to avoid further confusion," Kato said.
Delays plague distribution of overseas aid
Help and offers of help have poured in from around the world since a massive earthquake hit northeastern Japan on March 11, but in some cases supplies have not been what devastated areas need or Japanese authorities have not been ready to accept the support.
The Japanese government must respond in a more flexible manner, so that demonstrations of goodwill from abroad will not be wasted.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the government had received offers of support from 133 countries and territories, as well as 39 international organizations, as of 11 p.m. on Friday. They included the dispatch of personnel and aid supplies.
As of Friday, the government had accepted contributions of personnel, including rescue teams, from 21 nations, territories and international organizations. As of Sunday, it had accepted aid supplies from 26.
According to the government, supplies already distributed to disaster areas include 100,000 liters of water, 80 tons of food and 40 tons of clothes and blankets from U.S. forces in Japan. Two thousand blankets and 900 tents from China have also been distributed, as have about 2,500 blankets and 800 sweaters and other pieces of winter clothing from Mongolia.
Many governments indicated their support immediately after the earthquake. However, delays in arranging the shipments slowed the flow of goods in some cases.
The Singaporean government sent 60 tons of aid supplies to devastated areas, including 20,000 bottles of drinking water, 4,400 servings of emergency provisions, 4,350 blankets and 200 mattresses. The government announced it would send these goods on March 11, but they were actually dispatched eight days later on March 19.
"We couldn't send them until we got the green light from the Japanese government," the Singapore Red Cross Society said.
According to a Singaporean government official, that country asked the Japanese government if the supplies could be sent by military plane to transport them efficiently, but the offer was rejected by the Japanese government.
Eventually, they were transported by private plane to Narita Airport, and the Singaporean government hired trucks from a private Japanese delivery company to take the supplies to quake-hit areas.
The European Union also started to prepare aid supplies on March 11 but it did not receive a request of necessary items from the Japanese government until March 15. As it also took time to transport the items, it was not until March 26 that blankets and mattresses actually began to be distributed at disaster sites.
The Indonesian government sent 10,000 blankets. According to an official at the country's national disaster countermeasure bureau, the blankets it initially prepared were not accepted because they were too thin for the cold areas struck by the disaster. The government then prepared thicker blankets, the official said.
The Thai government began working to send 10,000 tons of Thai rice and 5,000 tons of glutinous rice for cooking together with Thai rice so that the rice would suit Japanese people's tastes. However, it has not been sent because "we were told [by the Japanese government] that Japan has enough rice," according to the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Worried about radiation leaks at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Ukraine, which experienced the catastrophe of a nuclear meltdown at its Chernobyl power plant, sent one ton of medical supplies, including iodine pills for Ukrainian people living in Japan.
It also sent about 2,000 blankets.
However, the medical supplies were returned to Ukraine by the Japanese government because "the medicine was not certified for use in Japan," according to an Ukraine government official.
Embassies need concrete info on aid supplies
Arranging for aid supplies from overseas takes a great deal of time, a senior Foreign Ministry official said recently in explanation of the confusion surrounding such provisions.
"We have to respond to requests from disaster sites and make preparations so aid supplies can be handled smoothly," the official said. "Furthermore, transportation is limited, so it takes a lot of time to make the necessary arrangements," he said.
The official also said there was sometimes no space to store foreign aid supplies, and evacuees tend to prefer Japanese food if they have a choice.
According to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, the central government declined the Thai government's offer to send rice because Japan has more than 3 million tons in stock. There also was not great demand for donated rice at disaster sites, the ministry said.
An official at a Latin American nation's embassy in Tokyo said the country offered food and water immediately after the earthquake, but the Japanese government requested financial aid instead.
The Japanese government said it would take time to make arrangements based on demands from disaster areas, the embassy official said.
Donated food and other items have already arrived at some foreign embassies in Tokyo, which may be at a loss as to what to do with the supplies.
One embassy official spoke for many foreign missions when saying: "If we received more concrete information from the Japanese government regarding what supplies are needed in specific areas, we could support them more efficiently."
TV, newspaper industry leader Ujiie dies
Seiichiro Ujiie, representative director and executive chairman of NTV and director and counselor of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, died Monday morning from multiple organ failure. He was 84.
Ujiie joined The Yomiuri Shimbun in 1951, and held positions including chief of the economic news department, managing director of advertising and chief officer of advertising.
Later, he moved to NTV, and became president of the commercial broadcaster in 1992. He became chairman and chief executive officer of NTV in 2001, and later also served as chairman of the NTV board.
For 10 consecutive years from 1994, NTV achieved the quadruple crown of annual ratings, beating its four competitor commercial networks in the Kanto region in the prime time, golden time, daylong and nonprime time slots.
Ujiie also served as chairman of the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan for four terms from 1996.
He served in a variety of other posts, including chairman of the Police Renewal Meeting, a government-appointed council for police reform, and as a member of an information technology strategy group that advised former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
He also was head of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
Ujiie, who was on close terms with former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, carried a lot of weight in political and business circles.
He worked hard to promote cultural exchange with France. In 2001, he was named Legion D'honneur Chevalier (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by France, and the Institut de France made him a member of its Academy of Fine Arts.
Last year, Ujiie was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in recognition of his contributions to developing the broadcasting industry and improving news reporting.
A wake and funeral to be held for Ujiie will be for family members only.
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