Technetium-99

What’s Inside The Suspect Nuclear Waste Tank At Hanford?

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Rendering of Hanford’s Double-Shell Tanks (DOE image)

– What’s Inside The Suspect Nuclear Waste Tank At Hanford? (Forbes, Aug 27, 2012):

When news broke last week that radioactive material had been found outside of the inner containment wall of a double-hulled tank at the nuclear waste cleanup site in Hanford, Wa, most reports characterized the contents of the tank as “radioactive waste.”But that’s more a category than a description.

The Energy Department has been eager to find out exactly what’s in the tank, which received wastes from leaky single-walled tanks and from more than a half dozen facilities at the Hanford site, including nuclear reactors, plutonium processing plants, a PUREX plant, and laboratories.

DOE funded many studies to analyze the chemical compounds in the tank, determine whether they could corrode the stainless-steel walls, and to anticipate the effects of a spill. Here’s some of what those studies found:

Read moreWhat’s Inside The Suspect Nuclear Waste Tank At Hanford?

Fukushima: Kurion’s Cesium Removal System Is Clogged – Areva’s Water Decontamination System Had Not 10 But 48 Leaks!

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– #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Kurion’s Cesium Removal System Is Clogged Somewhere (EX-SKF, June 12, 2011):

Part of the contaminated water treatment system being readied at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is the cesium absorption tower using the technology of Kurion, a US start-up with very little information on their corporate website.

TEPCO discovered that not enough water was flowing through one of the 4 subsystems, and suspects it’s clogged up somewhere.

And a bit of new information that the Kurion’s system removes not just cesium but technetium and iodine, according to the press conference handout from TEPCO which is found below.

By the way, the number of pipe leaks in the Areva’s system was not “over 10”. Well, it was “over ten” for sure, but it was actually 48.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (11:45AM JST 6/12/2011; diagram of Kurion’s system added):

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TEPCO announced on June 12 that the test run of the system to treat highly contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant would be delayed after June 13.

Read moreFukushima: Kurion’s Cesium Removal System Is Clogged – Areva’s Water Decontamination System Had Not 10 But 48 Leaks!

Fukushima: Technetium (Half Life Of 210,000 Years!) Detected, Plutonium MOX Fuel In No.3 Reactor May Have Burned Through The Pressure Vessel

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Related info:

– Nuclear Physicist: Most Of The Fallout From Dirty Plutonium MOX Fuel Will Drop On The US, Unless Very Strong Winds Take It Somewhere Else

– IAEA Scientists Interested In Fukushima Technetium-99 (Half Life Of 210,000 Years!) And Iodine-129 (Half Life Of 14 Million Years!) Releases

– Prof. Chris Busby On RT: ‘Situation At Fukushima Out Of Control’ – ‘There Have Been Nuclear Explosions’ – ‘Ongoing Nuclear Reaction Taking Place NOW’”

– Meltdowns also likely occurred at No. 2, No. 3 reactors of Fukushima plant (Asahi, May 18, 2011):

Data shows meltdowns occurred at the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, creating huge problems for the plant operator that had presented a more optimistic scenario.

And like the No. 1 reactor, the melted fuel appears to have created holes in the pressure vessel of the No. 3 reactor, according to the data of Tokyo Electric Power Co. released May 16.

Read moreFukushima: Technetium (Half Life Of 210,000 Years!) Detected, Plutonium MOX Fuel In No.3 Reactor May Have Burned Through The Pressure Vessel

IAEA Scientists Interested In Fukushima Technetium-99 (Half Life Of 210,000 Years!) And Iodine-129 (Half Life Of 14 Million Years!) Releases

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From the article:

“Scientists from the International Atomic Energy Agency are also interested in learning more about releases of Technetium-99, which has a half life of 210,000 years, and Iodine-129, which has a half life of 14 million years. The Japanese have released no information about those isotopes.”

• Radioactive Isotopes Expected to Reach U.S. Coast In One To Two Years

• Woods Hole Institute To Send Research Vessel To Japan

– Scientists Will Track Fukushima Radiation To Study Ocean Currents (Forbes):

May 17 — Oceanographers know that the Kuroshio current sweeps west from Japan to the Central Pacific and then toward the U.S. West Coast, but they’re less certain how it behaves after it branches toward Alaska and California.

Radiation still leaking into the sea from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant will help them document the ocean’s circulatory system.

“By the time that current reaches the Central Pacific, there are branches heading more towards Alaska and the South—that gets harder to predict,” said Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Read moreIAEA Scientists Interested In Fukushima Technetium-99 (Half Life Of 210,000 Years!) And Iodine-129 (Half Life Of 14 Million Years!) Releases