The operator of the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday
that it dumped more than 1,000 tons of polluted water into the sea after
a typhoon raked the facility.
By
afp
Source
AFP
The operator of the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday
that it dumped more than 1,000 tons of polluted water into the sea
after a typhoon raked the facility.
Typhoon Man-yi smashed
into Japan on Monday, bringing with it heavy rain that caused flooding
in some parts of the country, including the ancient city of Kyoto.
The
rain also lashed near the broken plant run by Tokyo Electric Power
(TEPCO), swamping enclosure walls around clusters of water tanks
containing toxic water that was used to cool broken reactors.
Some of the tanks were earlier found to be leaking contaminated water.
" Workers
measured the radioactive levels of the water collected in the enclosure
walls, pumping it back into tanks when the levels were high," said a
TEPCO official.
" Once finding it was mostly rain water they
released it from the enclosure, because there is a limit on how much
water we can store."
The utility said about 1,130 tons of
water with low levels of radiation -- below the 30 becquerels of
strontium per litre safety limit imposed by Japanese authorities -- were
released into the ground.
But the company also said at one
site where water was found contaminated beyond the safety limit workers
could not start the water pump quick enough in the torrential rain, and
toxic water had leaked from the enclosure for several minutes.
Strontium is a potentially cancer-causing substance that accumulates in bones if consumed.
Thousands
of tonnes of water that was poured on the reactors to tame meltdowns is
being stored in temporary tanks at the plant, and TEPCO has so far
revealed no clear plan for it.
The problem has been worsened
by leaks in some of those tanks that are believed to have seeped into
groundwater and run out to sea.
Separately, around 300 tonnes
of mildly contaminated groundwater is entering the ocean every day
having passed under the reactors, TEPCO says.
DFAT is now advising Australians in the worst affected areas of
Japan to leave amid reports from the US that the radiation risk from
reactor 4 at the Fukushima nuclear plant is 'extremely high'.
DFAT is now advising Australians in the worst affected areas of
Japan to leave amid reports from the US that the radiation risk from
reactor 4 at the Fukushima nuclear plant is 'extremely high'.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said DFAT was advising Australians in the
worst affected areas of Japan to leave because of the breakdown of
infrastructure in those areas.
" The infrastructure in that part of Japan now is severely under
pressure in terms of electricity, power supply as well as a whole range
of other things," he said.
" Because of these pressures on public infrastructure we're
recommending that Australians should consider departing from Tokyo and
those eight affected prefectures."
US warns of 'extremely high radiation levels'
There is no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4 at Japan's
Fukushima nuclear plant, resulting in " extremely high" radiation
levels, the chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission warns.
" In addition to the three reactors that were operating at the time of
the incident, a fourth reactor is also right now under concern. This
reactor was shut down at the time of the earthquake," said NRC chairman
Gregory Jaczko.
" What we believe at this time is there has been a hydrogen explosion
in this unit due to an uncovering of the fuel in the spent fuel pool,"
he said, noting the explosion happened several days ago but its effects
were cause for concern.
" We believe that secondary containment has been destroyed and there
is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels
are extremely high which could possibly impact the ability to take
corrective measures."
Jaczko briefed lawmakers about the latest developments as part of a
House of Representatives hearing on the US energy budget, after meeting
with President Barack Obama at the White House.
Calls for Americans to leave nuclear area
He said that if the United States were facing a similar situation, it
would order a much larger evacuation zone than Japan has (12 miles, 20
kilometers), and so the US has called on Americans within 50 miles (80
kilometers) of the Japan nuclear plant area to leave.
" Recently the NRC made a recommendation that based on the available
information that we have that for a comparable situation in the United
States we would recommend an evacuation for a much larger radius than
has currently been provided in Japan," he said.
" As a result of this recommendation the ambassador in Japan has
issued a statement to American citizens that we believe it is
appropriate to evacuate to a larger distance, up to approximately 50
miles."
No. 4 rod pool 'major concern': France
France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) earlier Wednesday described the No. 4 rod pool as " the major concern" in the crisis.
" The next 48 hours will be decisive," said Thierry Charles, director
for factory, laboratory, transport and waste safety at the French
Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).
In an assessment issued at 0800 GMT on Wednesday 16th March, the IRSN said the water in the No. 4 pool was " boiling."
" Without water replenishment, the fuel-rod assemblies will start to
be exposed in a few days. If the pool runs dry, this would eventually
lead to the meltdown of the fuel.
" In such an event, the corresponding releases of radioactivity would be far higher than those that have occurred up till now."
The IRSN said that at around 2100 GMT on Tuesday 15th March,
" responders were unable to approach the pool because of an excessive
ambient dose" of radiation " of around 400 millisieverts per hour."
A single dose of 100 millisieverts is considered by some experts to increase the risk of several types of cancer.
Two and a half years ago, the Fukushima Daiichi power facility was knocked out by a tsunami and earthquake. Myriadtroublesensued. Then this week it was hit by a typhoon, flooding, and another earthquake. Can?t a nuclear plant catch a break?
On Monday, Typhoon Man-yi smacked into Japan, causing flooding in some parts of the country, and new troubles at Fukushima. From Agence France-Presse:
The operator of the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant said
Tuesday that it dumped more than 1,000 tons of polluted water into the
sea after a typhoon raked the facility. ?
The rain ? lashed near the broken plant
run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), swamping enclosure walls around
clusters of water tanks containing toxic water that was used to cool
broken reactors.
Then, early Friday morning, the Fukushima Prefecture was rocked by a
5.3 magnitude earthquake. Fortunately, it doesn?t seem to have done any
additional damage to the already crippled plant. From the AP:
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck early
Friday at a depth of about 13 miles under Fukushima Prefecture and about
110 miles northeast of Tokyo. ?
The Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported that the plant?s
operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., observed no abnormality in radiation
or equipment after the quake.
Even before this latest earthquake, Japan?s government was clearly
fed up with the perpetually beleaguered nuclear facility. ?Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday ordered TEPCO to scrap all six
reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and concentrate on tackling
pressing issues like leaks of radioactive water,? the AP reports.
Fed need not rush to taper while inflation is low: Bullard
(Reuters Fri.20/9/13) - Low readings on inflation allow the U.S. Federal Reserve to be patient in deciding when to scale back its pace of asset purchases, a senior Fed official said on Friday, cautioning that he would not back action until price pressures picked up.
" While I expect inflation to rise during the coming quarters, I want to see evidence of such an increase before endorsing less accommodative policy action by the FOMC," James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, said.
Bullard said earlier on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg television that the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee could still scale back its massive bond-buying campaign at its next meeting, in late October, if the data was strong enough. The FOMC on Wednesday voted to continue to buy bonds at a monthly pace of $85 billion.
Bullard said the prospects for tapering would harden if U.S. payroll and unemployment data showed further recovery. " To the extent that these two important labor market indicators continue to show improvement, the likelihood of tapering policy action will continue to rise," Bullard said in remarks to the New York Association for Business Economics. Bullard, a committee voter this year, supported the decision on Wednesday not to alter the current pace of bond purchases. The move stunned financial markets, which had expected a modest adjustment that would have signaled the beginning of the end to a phase of ultra-easy U.S. monetary policy that has already lasted five years.
Defending their action, Bullard noted that policymakers were forced to curb 2013 and 2014 growth forecasts, as well as expectations for inflation, which has challenged the confidence they felt in June that the second half would be stronger. " Normally, the committee would not want to reduce policy accommodation in this situation," he said.
He rejected the notion that the Fed, by disappointing markets, had compromised its policy credibility. " I think it enhanced our credibility in the sense that it showed we really are paying attention to data and not on some automated program to cut QE to zero," he told reporters following his speech.
Kansas City Fed President Esther George, who was the lone dissenter against the decision, said on Friday the Fed had damaged its credibility by deciding not to act.
Bullard stressed that all Fed officials pay careful attention to asset prices, but said he did not see any sign of a bubble akin to those of recent years in housing and in technology stocks. " The bubbles we had in the past were gigantic and obvious. I don't see anything like that going on right now," he said.
JUST LIKE CONVENTIONAL POLICY
The sharp market reactions in both June and September as investors recalibrated expectations for future Fed bond buying also showed that this unconventional tool was just as powerful as changes in Fed interest rates. " The empirical evidence from these two episodes provides striking confirmation that changes in the expected pace of purchases act just like conventional monetary policy," Bullard said. Bullard is usually seen as a policy centrist, but has become one of the central bank's most vocal doves due to concern that inflation remains too far beneath the Fed's goal of 2 percent, which he worries could lead to damaging deflation. " The main macroeconomic surprise in the U.S. since September 2012 has been a lower rate of inflation," said Bullard, who dissented in June because he wanted a firmer commitment from the Fed to defend against price pressures slackening too far.
A recent Reuters poll of dealers found most now expect the Fed to begin scaling back bond purchases in December, though Bullard said that outlook is likely because Chairman Ben Bernanke has scheduled a news conference after the December meeting.
But Bullard said the Fed could call a news conference in October if it deemed it necessary. Eventually, he said, the Fed's policy-setting committee would probably have to hold a press conference after every meeting. " The ECB has long done this, and I think it provides the chairman an opportunity to communicate with markets on a regular basis," he said. " Even if he has nothing to say, that's very reassuring.
North and South American markets finished broadly lower today with shares in Brazil leading the region. The Bovespa is down 1.79% while Mexico's IPC is off 1.26% and U.S.'s S& P 500 is lower by 0.72%.
Asian markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng gained 1.67% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.29%. The Nikkei 225 lost 0.16%.
Wait a minute. Ah Ben said QE3?, later then see how...Stk Huat Arhh.
teeth53 ( Date: 20-Sep-2013 08:44) Posted:
Mkt surge as Fed retains stimulus plan shr sending investors n shares across the world yesterday.
Singapore shares jumped 1.8% to the highest in more than a month.
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