Miami Dade political candidates and nuclear power ... by gimleteye

It is horrible what is unfolding in Japan, with news alternately hopeful and dismal. Tokyo Electric Power, that owns the nuclear reactors, is using the same shuck and jive that we are accustomed to from FPL. IE: permit now, worry later. For the most part the mainstream media has been silent on the question: do the candidates in Miami Dade for mayor and county commissioner support new nuclear at Turkey Point? Do they trust FPL? Are they prepared to pledge that they will volunteer as first responders inside the reactors if workers are needed to clean up the mess when cooling reactors at Turkey Point fail? Click 'read more', for the latest from the Washington Post:
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Radiation levels at Japan nuclear plant reach new highs as conditions worsen for workers

By Chico Harlan and Michael Chandler, Sunday, March 27, 9:49 AM

TOKYO — Workers were evacuated Sunday from one of the contaminated turbine buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after a massive spike in radioactivity measurements. But the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the facility, said hours later that the reading was a mistake.

A Tepco official said leaked water from the unit 2 reactor will be retested in an effort to determine the level of contamination. Tepco had initially detected levels of radioactive iodine-134 at 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor’s cooling system, and they didn’t recognize the error until hours later, officials said. A similar pool of standing water, measured from the turbine building in the No. 3 unit, shows contamination levels some 10,000 times higher than normal.

The latest setbacks in the operation to stave off a full-scale nuclear meltdown at the crippled facility have underscored the confusion and highlighted the immense challenges for the several hundred workers in a desperate battle to restart the critical cooling systems. Seventeen workers have been exposed to high levels of radiation, including three who were hospitalized last week, as technicians conducted highly nuanced electrical work in dark conditions that one nuclear industry expert termed “hellish.”

Japanese authorities say efforts to control Fukushima’s overheated reactors will take months and during that time radiation will continue to leak into the environment, extending a nuclear emergency that already ranks as the most serious in a quarter-century. Some 700 workers now shoulder the responsibility for limiting the crisis, amid potentially lethal radiation levels, and Saturday the chief of Japan’s nuclear agency called on Tepco to improve its worker safety.

A series of setbacks -- with evidence of rising contamination in and around the plant -- have tempered optimism from one week ago, when engineers began work to restore power to the first of the damaged reactor buildings. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said Sunday that a new measurement of seawater taken some 1,000 feet from the facility showed an iodine level 1850.5 times the legal limit, higher than a reading taken the previous day.

Tepco said it miscalculated the radioactivity measurement in the unit 2 turbine building because the data for iodine-134, which was announced earlier, was in reality the data of cobalt-56, which has a longer half-life. Despite the erroneous reading of the water, conditions remained dangerous in the turbine building, with airborne radioactivity measuring four times the occupational limit for workers.

The dangers in unit 2 merely add to the growing challenges. Radioactive water is pooling in four of Fukushima’s six turbine rooms and engineers have no quick way to clean it up, though they have begun efforts to do so in unit 1.

To stabilize the facility, workers are trying to repair the elaborate cooling system, necessary to keep the reactor cores and spent fuel pools from overheating. But for the moment, they are conducting this work in dark, steamy conditions. They must wear respirators, face masks and bulky suits. Nuclear safety experts say they must shift out of the most dangerous areas every 30 minutes to an hour, to prevent radiation overexposure. Meantime, they’re racing to repair motor pumps the size of automobiles. Their environment resembles a cavern of cables. Some of the equipment was damaged during the March 11, earthquake and tsunami. Other equipment has been corroded by saltwater, which was poured into the facility during earlier efforts to cool the reactors.

“To a layman, you’d be scared to death,” said Lake Barrett, a nuclear engineer who directed the cleanup of Three Mile Island. “You’re working with saltwater around your feet. This is not the way electricians usually work.”

Barrett added that cleanup of the radioactive water will eventually require Japanese authorities to use mineralizers or ion exchange columns, used in decontamination. Barrett said there could be 1 million gallons of radioactive water pooling in the Fukushima facility — the result of days of spraying thousands of tons of seawater.

“It will take them years, probably, to get rid of all that water,” Barrett said. “The science is known. But it is a Herculean task.”

The number of workers at the Fukushima plant fluctuates from day to day, ranging between 500 and 1,000. But Tepco employees account for only a part of the labor force. Last Tuesday, for instance, there were 700 people at the plant, a nuclear agency official said. The figure included 500 Tepco employees, 100 subcontracted workers, and 100 members of Japan’s Self Defense Forces or the Tokyo Fire Department.

Three workers from the electrical engineering firm Kandenko were injured Thursday while trying to lay an underground cable at the No. 3 unit. They stepped in radioactive water, and two of the employees who were hospitalized with “significant skin contamination,” according to a report from the International Atomic Energy Association.

The workers' legs were exposed to two to six sieverts of radioactivity, the IAEA said. Those exposed to more than one sievert often experience temporary sickness, including vomiting. Higher exposure levels can quickly become life-threatening, but the National Institute of Radiological Science said that the two employees will likely be released from the hospital Monday.

Tepco spokesperson Yoshimi Hitosugi said that the utility company did not know about the contaminated water in the No. 3 unit until the injuries occurred. "There was no water in No. 3 the day before when our staff checked same place," Hitosugi said. “So we thought it would not be problem on next day.”

One subcontracted worker who laid cables for new electrical lines March 19 described chaotic conditions and lax supervision that made him nervous. Masataka Hishida said neither he nor the workers around him were given a dosimeter, a device used to measure one’s exposure to radiation. He was surprised that workers were not given special shoes; rather, they were told to put plastic bags over their street shoes. When he was trying on the gas mask for the first time, he said the supervisor told him and other subcontractors, “Listen carefully, I’m only going to say this one time” while explaining how to use it.

When Hishida finished his work shift, an official scanned his whole body for radiation. He came up clean, except for the very tip of his beard. He was sent into a shower where he lathered up and scrubbed his beard. He was tested again and passed.

A few days later, still worried about the extent of his radiation exposure, he trimmed his beard.

harlanc@washpost.com

Staff writer David Nakamura and special correspondents Kyoko Tanaka, Akiko Yamamoto and Kato Tetsuya contributed to this report.


© 2011 The Washington Post Company