Tepco is planning to spray a water-soluble resin around the Fukushima-Daiichi plant site to reduce the risk that radioactive dust and debris, ejected by the hydrogen explosions at unit 1 and 3 reactors, will be spread further afield, according to a report from Japanese news agency NHK reported by the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum.
A test application around reactors 4 and 6 was cancelled on Thursday because of bad weather. It plans to dilute 9000L of resin to make a 60,000-litre solution.
In other news, workers have removed about 150 tons of water from a tunnel flooded with contaminated water near unit one, lowering the water level by about 1 m, according to an NHK report.
Very high levels of radioactivity have been detected in seawater near the plant, NHK reports. Radiation 4,385 times higher than the legal standard (180 Bq/cc) has been detected in seawater at a location 330 meters south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It said that Wednesday’s sampling also revealed cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, at a level 527 times higher than the legal standard. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says no fishing is being carried out in waters within 20 kilometers of the plant, and the radiation is likely to be diluted significantly by the time it enters the human food chain.
NHK reports that the agency says it will monitor radiation levels in seawater at points 15 kilometers from the plant, in addition to surveys being carried out by the science ministry at 30-kilometer points.
Regular updates may be found on the website of our sister journal, Nuclear Engineering International, reachable on <www.neimagazine.com> or by clicking on the link in the navigation bar to the left of this page.
The following sites are also posting continuing updates:
<http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html>
<http://www.iaea.org/>
<http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/>
<http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/15/tepco-reactor-status/>
<http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/>
<http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/index-e.html>
