|
Apr 14, 2015, 7:08 AM ET
By KARSON YIU Karson Yiu More from Karson A robot probe sent into the crippled reactor at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant stopped working three hours into its 10-hour mission, but not before
sending back the first pictures from inside.
The haunting grainy footage released by the Tokyo Electric Power Company
(TEPCO) shows the robot moving through debris along a grated platform inside
Fukushima’s No. 1 reactor. Steam is clearly shown rising from below where
TEPCO believes the melted nuclear fuel rods are located.
One of the main objectives was to collect data on radiation levels inside
the reactor. On the video’s onscreen display, the radiation levels ticked up as
high as 9.7 sieverts per hour, which is high enough to kill a human within an hour.
Three hours into the operation, TEPCO said the robot became stuck and stopped
operating. The robot developed by Hitachi was made to withstand high levels of
radiation but it remains unclear why it stopped working. After attempts to retrieve
the probe, TEPCO said it decided to cut off the cable connected to the device and
abandon the robot inside.
A second robot mission scheduled for this week has been postponed as engineers
investigate the cause of the malfunction.
TEPCO representative Teruaki Kobayashi said the silver lining of the operation was
that officials found no major obstacles around an opening that leads to
the underground part of the reactor. This will allow future robotic missions to
possibly access the molten fuel rods for extraction.
The No. 1 reactor is one of three reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant that
experienced a meltdown during and in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake
-triggered tsunami.
|
abcNEWS
[ リスト | 詳細 ]
|
Apr 14, 2015, 7:08 AM ET
By KARSON YIU Karson Yiu More from Karson A robot probe sent into the crippled reactor at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant stopped working three hours into its 10-hour mission, but not before
sending back the first pictures from inside.
The haunting grainy footage released by the Tokyo Electric Power Company
(TEPCO) shows the robot moving through debris along a grated platform inside
Fukushima’s No. 1 reactor. Steam is clearly shown rising from below where
TEPCO believes the melted nuclear fuel rods are located.
One of the main objectives was to collect data on radiation levels inside
the reactor. On the video’s onscreen display, the radiation levels ticked up as
high as 9.7 sieverts per hour, which is high enough to kill a human within an hour.
Three hours into the operation, TEPCO said the robot became stuck and stopped
operating. The robot developed by Hitachi was made to withstand high levels of
radiation but it remains unclear why it stopped working. After attempts to retrieve
the probe, TEPCO said it decided to cut off the cable connected to the device and
abandon the robot inside.
A second robot mission scheduled for this week has been postponed as engineers
investigate the cause of the malfunction.
TEPCO representative Teruaki Kobayashi said the silver lining of the operation was
that officials found no major obstacles around an opening that leads to
the underground part of the reactor. This will allow future robotic missions to
possibly access the molten fuel rods for extraction.
The No. 1 reactor is one of three reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant that
experienced a meltdown during and in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake
-triggered tsunami.
|
|
A journalist finds his nose doesn't stop bleeding after visiting the meltdown-
stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. He also learns others suffer similar
symptoms.
The scene from popular manga comic "Oishinbo," published last month, has
set off a hot public debate in Japan — a nation still traumatized by the world's
worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Local governments immediately protested the comic, saying it fosters
unfounded fears of radiation.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe chimed in over the weekend, reassuring the public
there was no proof of a link between radiation and such illnesses.
"The government will make the best effort to take action against baseless
rumors," he said.
Undeterred by the ruckus, Tokyo-based publisher Shogakukan added a special
10-page segment to weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine, published Monday,
featuring criticism it had received as well as opinion from radiation experts.
Editor Hiroshi Murayama acknowledged he had been unsure about publishing
the manga, subtitled "The Truth of Fukushima," because he anticipated people
would be offended. But he had decided that voice needed to be heard, he said.
"We hope the various views on the latest 'Oishinbo' will lead to a constructive
debate into assessing our future," he said in the special segment.
"Oishinbo," a hit series usually about gourmet food, which began in the 1980s,
will be discontinued temporarily in the magazine. But the publisher said that
had been the plan even before the controversy. It is not clear when it will run
again.
So far, there has been no confirmed illnesses related to radiation among
nuclear plant workers or residents of Fukushima. The nuclear disaster began
three years ago in March 2011, when a giant tsunami disabled backup
generators at three reactors. Entire towns around the Fukushima plant remain
no-go zones.
The Fukushima prefectural government issued a protest against "Oishinbo,"
slamming it as misleading and fanning the fears about the safety of the area's
fish and agricultural products.
Although nosebleeds may be related to radiation, people outside the
evacuation zone in Fukushima are not being exposed to such high levels of
radiation, it said in a statement, also included in the magazine.
Also featured was Ikuro Anzai, honorary professor at Ritsumeikan University
and radiation expert, who said he was aware of talk in Fukushima about
nosebleeds but stressed there was no scientific data to draw conclusions.
And discrimination against Fukushima was causing far more real suffering, not
radiation.
"People know it is best not to get radiated and so whatever happens, people
are going to blame Fukushima," he said.
Scientists say there is no exact safe limit to low dose radiation. A causal link
to any individual's disease is hard to prove, given the varieties of carcinogens
and other risks in the environment.
Fukushima is monitoring the health of its residents, and carrying out thyroid
checks on those ages 18 and under.
Seventy-five confirmed and suspected cases of thyroid cancer have been
found in those tests, but it is unclear whether they are linked to radiation. |
Japan Fukushima Nuclear Worker Dies in MudslideA worker died Friday at the Japanese nuclear plant devastated by the
2011 tsunami after getting buried in a mudslide, in the first death from
an accident during efforts to control and decommission the facility.
The man, who had been working near a storage area at the Fukushima
Dai-ichi plant, was dug out and rushed to a hospital, but he was
unconscious and his heart had stopped beating.
Three hours after the mudslide swallowed him, the man, who was in his
50s, was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to Tokyo Electric
Power Co., the utility that operates the plant.
"Some danger is always involved," company spokesman Masayuki Ono
told reporters. "We are deeply sorry."
Three reactors went into meltdown and exploded after the March 11,
2011, tsunami damaged the plant's cooling system.
Thousands of workers, wearing masks and suits to guard against
radiation, are working on the cleanup and decommissioning, which is
expected to take decades.
Workers have collapsed from heat and ailments, but this was the first
fatal accident involving a plant employee since two workers went
missing after the tsunami hit the plant.
Those workers were later found dead.
The worker who died Friday had been carrying out what is similar to
regular construction work in a hole in the ground when mud and pieces
of concrete collapsed on him, TEPCO said.
The specific cause of death was still under investigation, and the
man's name was not disclosed, it said.
The worker was employed at one of the layers of subcontractor
companies that supply labor to TEPCO. Workers' exposure to radiation
is monitored, and they must quit when they reach the annual limit.
TEPCO said the worker was the seventh to die over the last three
years. It said three died from heart attacks and one from leukemia,
but that none of the deaths has been related to radiation exposure.
|
Fukushima Nuke Worker Life Gets Recorded as MangaFirst off, no one who works at Japan's wrecked nuclear power plant
calls it Fukushima Dai-ichi, comic-book artist Kazuto Tatsuta says in
his book about his time on the job. It's ichi efu, or 1F.
It's not "hell on earth," but a life filled with a careful routine to
protect against radiation. A good part of the day is spent putting on
and taking off protective layer after layer: hazmat suits, gloves, boots
and filtered masks. Even bus and van interiors are covered in plastic.
Workers say they will lose their jobs if they talk to reporters and their
bosses find out. That makes Tatsuta's manga, "1F: The Labor Diary Of
Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant," a rare look at the nuclear
plant that suffered three meltdowns after the 2011 tsunami, and will
take decades to decommission.
Tatsuta worked at the plant from June to December 2012 in part
because he was struggling as a manga artist, but "1F" is his biggest
success yet.
The opening episode won a newcomer award and was published last
year in Morning, a weekly manga magazine with a circulation of
300,000. The first several episodes are coming out as a book next
month, and publisher Kodansha Ltd. plans on turning "1F" into a series.
Tatsuta said "1F" is not about taking sides on the debate over
nuclear power, but simply a story of what it's like to work there.
"I just want to keep a record for history. I want to record what life
was like, what I experienced," he told The Associated Press in his
studio outside Tokyo this week.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, the utility that runs Fukushima Dai-ichi,
rarely provides media access to the inner workings of the plant,
except for orchestrated press tours.
Tatsuta is a pen name. The 49-year-old artist asked that his real
name not be used for fear of being barred from working at the plant in
the future.
He said the job is surprisingly similar to other construction work,
which also carries its risks, such as flying sparks and crashing walls.
"I never felt I was in physical danger. You can't see radiation," he said.
Tatsuta's story, complete with drawings of shattered reactor buildings,
brings to life everyday details — how gloves get drenched with sweat,
or how annoyingly itchy a nose can get behind the mask.
Laughter and camaraderie fill the rest area, where drinks and food are
plentiful but there are no flushing toilets. In one telling scene,
an elderly worker says: "This is like going to war." Drawings show the
daily routine, different kinds of masks, the layout of the grounds.
After Tatsuta had to quit when his radiation exposure neared the
annual legal limit of 20 millisieverts, he decided to put down what he
had undergone in manga. Almost every profession — baseball player,
"salaryman," samurai, chef — has been depicted in manga, exemplified
in acclaimed works such as Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" and Oscar-
winning Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away." But no manga had ever
depicted the life of the nuclear worker.
Tatsuta stressed he doesn't want to glorify them but insisted they
deserve to get paid more. The work starts at about 8,000 yen ($80)
a day, although it goes up to 20,000 ($200) a day for the most
dangerous tasks.
TEPCO declined to comment on the book.
"It's just manga," says spokesman Koichiro Shiraki, who has read the
work.
|
