/Corr. ITAR-TASS Yaroslav Makarov/.
JAPAN-FUKUSHIMA-CONSEQUENCES

Without exaggeration, the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant can be called the largest man-made disaster in the history of Japan, after which this country will never be the same. Five months after the March events, which the whole world watched with bated breath, one can only roughly estimate the impact they had on the future of Japan.

The economic damage from the Fukushima-1 accident, according to the most preliminary estimates, exceeds 11 trillion yen (over 142 billion dollars). This is about a third of the total damage that Japan suffered from the powerful earthquake and tsunami wave on March 11. And yet, the wounds inflicted by the elements will heal much faster than those caused by the nuclear crisis. Many years will be spent on emergency work at the station itself: in all three emergency power units, a meltdown of nuclear fuel has been confirmed, the extraction of which will begin no earlier than 2020. The labor-intensive process of decontaminating vast areas of radioactive contamination will take even longer, and this will inevitably change the appearance of the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan.

Traditionally important areas for this part of the country are under threat - Agriculture and fishing. Farmers from Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures are suffering huge losses after numerous cases of radioactive substances being detected in vegetables, milk and meat. In July, radioactive cesium was discovered in Fukushima beef, which was distributed to store shelves throughout almost all of Japan. Subsequently, excess radiation standards were detected in meat from other neighboring prefectures, and the government introduced a temporary ban on the export of meat products outside their borders.

There have not yet been any cases of excess background radiation in fish products, but their sales have already dropped noticeably. After the incident, consumer confidence in the products offered predictably fell. The situation should not be expected to improve in the near future, because the “ghost” of radioactive contamination will haunt Tohoku for many years to come. On this moment The only thing that remains for farmers and fishermen is to demand compensation from the operator of the emergency nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO). It is obvious that these compensations alone will not make up for the losses in the agricultural and fishing sectors, and the government of the country will have to actively support them. This, in particular, may suspend Japan's integration into some international organizations, which, as a rule, require the abandonment of benefits for national producers.

The social damage from the nuclear power plant accident was no less widespread. The government of the country completely evacuated the population of the zone within a radius of 20 kilometers around the plant and recommended residents of areas 30 kilometers from Fukushima-1 to leave their homes. Subsequently, some other settlements located further than 20 kilometers from the station were added to the mandatory evacuation zone due to an increase in background radiation, in particular the village of Iitate is located 40 kilometers to the northwest. As a result, more than 80 thousand people were evacuated from dangerous areas. After some time, the authorities allowed refugees to make short trips home. Nevertheless, all these people still do not know when they will be able to return to their homes and whether they will be able to do so at all. The country's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that this issue could only be considered no earlier than the beginning of 2012.

Meanwhile, residents of the evacuation zone have to get used to the fact that they are not just refugees, but those who fled from “radioactive Fukushima.” There have been repeated reports of blatant cases of discrimination against Fukushima residents. Thus, in schools in Chiba and Gunma prefectures, students transferred from Fukushima were teased as “radioactive” and “contagious”, and pressure was exerted on them not only by classmates, but also by teachers. There have also been cases where cars with license plates registered in Fukushima Prefecture were refused service at some gas stations. Justice Minister Satsuki Eda called these incidents a “violation of human rights” and initiated an investigation into them, but the possibility of discrimination in traditional Japanese society cannot be completely ruled out. Unfortunately, refugees from Fukushima in many ways repeat the fate of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who also, despite all they experienced, often faced discrimination.

And yet, one cannot help but say that the Japanese public for the most part warmly supports its fellow citizens who survived the tragedy. Suffice it to say that several songs in support of the residents of Fukushima, which were recorded by both popular pop and rock groups and amateur musicians, became hits on the Japanese Internet. The authorities of Fukushima itself are also trying to ease the burden on their own residents, who, of course, are also concerned about the image of their prefecture. Thus, a special 30-year program was adopted to study the consequences of the nuclear power plant accident and their impact on the health of residents of the region. This study will be the largest ever conducted in the world. In addition, the authorities began distributing personal dosimeters to all children under 14 years of age and pregnant women living in the prefecture. In total, it is planned to issue 300 thousand devices. Ten stationary dosimeters are planned to be installed on the territory of each of the 500 schools in the prefecture. Plans are being drawn up to clean up the soil from radioactive materials deposited on it. In particular, in the capital of the prefecture it is planned to completely remove the top layer of soil and clean all buildings using water cannons. Fukushima authorities are also negotiating with the central government about removing waste, including radioactive waste, outside the prefecture. Undoubtedly, the nuclear crisis at the same time became a stimulus for the development of the region, as was the case with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Finally, the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant had a strong impact on the energy strategy of Japan, which, after the March events, realized its excessive dependence on nuclear energy. The surge in anti-nuclear sentiment in Japanese society was supported by the authorities. Prime Minister Kan said the incident would require a complete overhaul of energy policy. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is already developing a new energy development program, which is designed for 30 years. Its main objectives are to reduce the role of peaceful nuclear energy, increase the level of use of renewable energy sources and introduce new technologies in this area. In addition, structural changes have taken place in the government apparatus, which reflect the attitude of the new Japan towards nuclear energy. The National Agency for Nuclear and Industrial Safety has been removed from the subordination of the Ministry of Economy and is expected to be transferred under the control of the ministry after some time environment.

The transition to a new energy policy will not be easy. The gradual abandonment of nuclear power plants will inevitably lead to greater load on thermal power plants and will increase Japan's fuel needs for them, while this country is already one of the largest fuel importers in the world and, in particular, the largest purchaser of liquefied natural gas (LNG). An additional complication is the expected resistance from business circles, which form a kind of nuclear lobby in Japan. Most likely, the formation of a new national energy sector will become one of the main tasks of several future governments of the country.

Many experts are inclined to believe that the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant was caused not only by an earthquake as the only cause; the facts show that the station itself withstood seismic tremors quite successfully. However, the problem was that there was an overlap of two natural Disasters, which led to such a large-scale disaster. Although the official investigation into the cause of the accident has not yet been completed - its findings will not be ready until the end of the year - preliminary findings indicate that the earthquake was responsible for the loss of external power supply. After this, as expected, the diesel generators were started, but their work was disrupted by the arriving tsunami.

Causes of the accident

Thus, the overlap of two catastrophic events further aggravated the already difficult situation at a nuclear power plant. The station did not withstand the elements due to the fact that it was built back in 1970. Her design was, from a modern point of view, already outdated, and she had no means of managing accidents outside the scope of the design. The result of the station's unavailability was that the consequence of the overlap of two emergency situations– loss of external supply and failure of diesel generators, there was a meltdown of the reactor core. This generated radioactive steam, which personnel were forced to release into the atmosphere. And the explosion of hydrogen released showed that the station did not have means of controlling and suppressing it, or there were not enough of them.

All three power units operating before the accident were left without sufficient cooling, which resulted in a decrease in the coolant level, and the pressure created by the resulting steam began to increase sharply. The catastrophic development of events began to develop from power unit No. 1. Personnel, in order to avoid damage to the reactor high pressure, began to dump steam first into the containment, and this led to the pressure in it more than doubling. Now, in order to preserve the containment, steam began to be released into the atmosphere, while the responsible organizations stated that radionuclides would be filtered out of the released steam. Thus, it was possible to relieve the pressure in the containment. But at the same time, hydrogen, formed due to the exposure of fuel and oxidation of the shell of fuel elements made of zirconium, penetrated into the reactor compartment. Heat and the concentration of steam led to a subsequent hydrogen explosion in the first power unit of the nuclear power plant. This event occurred the day after the earthquake, March 12 in the morning at 6:36 UTC. The consequence of the explosion was the destruction of part of the concrete structures, while the reactor vessel was not damaged, only the outer reinforced concrete shell was damaged.

Developments

Immediately after the explosion, there was a strong increase in radiation levels, reaching more than 1000 μSv/hour, but a few hours later, the radiation level dropped to 70.5 μSv/hour. Mobile laboratories that took samples on the territory of the nuclear power plant showed the presence of cesium, which could indicate a violation of the tightness of the shells of the fuel elements. The Japanese government confirmed at noon on the same day that there had indeed been a radiation leak, but the scale was not reported. Subsequently, officials from both the government and TEPCO, which operates the plant, said that seawater mixed with boric acid would be pumped into the reactor's containment to cool it, and according to some reports, water would also be pumped into the reactor's containment. into the reactor itself. By official version, hydrogen leaked into the space between the steel shell and the concrete wall, where it mixed with air and exploded.

The next day, at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, problems began with unit No. 3. It turned out to have a damaged emergency cooling system, which was supposed to be connected when the coolant level dropped below a predetermined level. Also, preliminary data indicated that the fuel elements were partially exposed, so again there was a threat of a hydrogen explosion. A controlled release of steam from the containment began to reduce pressure. Since it was not possible to cool the reactor of block No. 3, they also began pumping sea water into it.

However, Taken measures, did not help avoid an explosion at the third power unit. On the morning of March 14, an explosion similar to the explosion at the first power unit occurred at this unit. In this case, both the reactor vessel and the containment were not damaged. Personnel began to restore emergency power supply to units 1 and 2, and sea water was pumped to units 1 and 3. Subsequently, on that day, the emergency cooling system also failed at the second power unit. TEPCO said the same measures are being taken at this unit as at Units 1 and 3. While pumping seawater into block 2, the safety valve for releasing steam failed, the pressure increased, and pumping water became impossible. Due to the temporary complete exposure of the core, some of the fuel elements were damaged, but subsequently it was possible to restore the function of the valve and resume the supply of sea water.

The troubles of the nuclear power plant did not end there. The next morning, an explosion occurred at the second power unit, which resulted in the failure of the unit for condensing steam coming out of the reactor during accidents. The containment may also have been damaged. At the same time, an explosion occurred in the spent nuclear fuel storage facility at unit No. 4, but the fire was extinguished in 2 hours. The personnel from the station, due to the increased level of radiation, had to be evacuated, leaving only 50 engineers.

On the morning of March 17, the release of sea water from helicopters into the pools of power units 3 and 4 began to eliminate possible damage to spent fuel. Two helicopters made 4 flights each and tried to fill the pools with water. In the future, due to the scale of damage and the wide scope of work, the emergency response headquarters faces the difficult task of choosing priority work. Sea water needs to be pumped into the first four power units, while basic personnel are needed at units 5 and 6 to maintain them in normal condition. All this was very complicated high level radiation, especially during a steam release, during which people must take shelter. Therefore, it was decided to increase the number of personnel at the industrial site to 130 people, including soldiers. It was possible to restore the diesel power plant of unit 6, and it began to be used to supply water to power unit 5 as well.

On the eighth day, after the devastating earthquake, a special fire unit was deployed at the nuclear power plant, which had powerful vehicles in its arsenal. With their help, water is poured into the spent fuel pool of power unit 3. At the same time, small holes were drilled on the roofs of blocks 5 and 6 to prevent hydrogen accumulation. The next day, March 20, according to plan, it was planned to restore power supply to Unit 2 of the nuclear power plant.

Liquidation

At the end of March, it became necessary to pump water out of the flooded turbine rooms of blocks 1, 2 and 3. If this is not done, then restoring power supply will be impossible, and standard systems will not be able to function. Considering the size of the flooded premises, the liquidators found it difficult to talk about the timing of this work; at the same time, the turbine condensers where it was planned to pump this water were full, which means that the water had to be pumped out somewhere first. Water activity in the turbine compartments indicated that the containments of the first three blocks were leaking radioactive water. There is a high level of radiation in the turbine rooms, which significantly slows down emergency work.

The condition of all reactors remains relatively stable; fresh water is supplied to them using an electric pump. The pressure in the containment shells of blocks 1, 2 and 3 is gradually returning to normal. TEPCO decided to build a sewage treatment plant next to the emergency units to solve the problem of flooded premises. Underway preparatory work in order to pump water from condensers into special tanks for storing condensate, and from them into other containers.

The beginning of April was marked by the fact that liquidators discovered highly active water in a concrete channel for laying electrical cables, located at a depth of 2 meters. In addition, a 20 cm wide crack was found in the wall of the cable channel. Several attempts to fill the crack with concrete were unsuccessful, since the water did not allow the concrete to harden. After this, they tried to seal the crack with a special polymer composition, but this attempt also turned out to be unsuccessful. In order not to waste time on this work, the employees decided to make sure that it was through this crack that radioactive water entered the sea, but the study refuted this assumption. Attempts to seal the crack continued anyway, and if they failed, it was decided to strengthen the ground in the area of ​​the leak with chemicals.

On April 2, temporary electric pumps supplying water to the containment shells of the first three blocks were switched from mobile installations for external power supply. From the condenser of block 2, water began to be pumped into storage tanks, for subsequent pumping of water into the condenser from the basement of the power unit. TEPCO stated that it was forced to dump 10 thousand tons of low-level radioactive water into the sea in order to free up the standard storage facility for pumping high-level radioactive water from blocks 1, 2 and 3. The Japanese government allowed such measures to be taken, especially since, as reported, this discharge does not threaten the health of people living near the nuclear power plant.

We managed to seal the leak from the electrical cable duct. Nitrogen was pumped into the containment of the first block to displace hydrogen, in order to avoid the occurrence of an explosive concentration. As before, the issue of pumping water into storage facilities is acute; their volumes are clearly not enough, therefore, at the request of TEPCO, a technical “island” “Mega-Float”, which is designed for 10,000 tons of water, was sent to the accident area. Upon arrival at its destination, it was converted to accommodate radioactive water storage. In addition, the company plans to build temporary storage facilities for radioactive water in the area of ​​the station.

In mid-April, powerful aftershocks and a magnitude 7 earthquake did not interfere with the progress of emergency work, however, some operations had to be postponed. Pumping of water began from the structures of block 2. The temperature in the cooling pool of block 4 rose, and it was decided to pump 195 tons of water into it to cool it. The level of contamination of seawater with iodine-131 has decreased, but within a radius of 30 km from the station, the level of radiation in seawater is still significantly higher than permissible and the closer to the station, the higher it is. TEPCO, to prevent repeated water leakage, decided to build steel slabs that completely fenced off the process water intakes from the sea.

In mid-April, TEPCO announced that a new response plan had been approved. According to this plan, the company intends to build a closed system consisting of pumps to pump water out of the premises, followed by its filtration and purification, and its further cooling. Subsequently, the purified water can be used to cool the reactors. Thanks to this, there will be no need to discharge water into storage facilities, and its volume will not increase. The installation of this system will take about 3 months, and within six months the liquidation of the accident should be completed.

In parallel with these works, the station area is being cleaned using remotely controlled equipment. On April 20, full-scale spraying of chemicals began over the industrial site to settle dust. These reagents bind dust into larger particles, and it settles near the accident site without being carried away by the wind. At the end of April, TEPCO began preparations for a new phase of reactor cooling.

Consequences of the accident

As a result of all these incidents, a radiation leak occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, both through air and water, so the authorities had to evacuate the population from an area with a radius of 20 km from the plant. In addition, people were prohibited from staying in the exclusion zone, and people living within a 30 km radius from the station were strongly recommended to agree to evacuate. A little later, information appeared that radioactive elements of cesium and iodine isotopes had been discovered in some areas of Japan. Two weeks after the accident in drinking water In some prefectures, radioactive iodine was detected - 130, but its concentration was below the permissible level. During the same period, radioactive iodine - 131 and cesium - 137 were discovered in milk and some products, and although their concentrations were not hazardous to health, their use was temporarily banned.

During the same period, in samples of sea water taken within the 30-kilometer zone of the station, an increased content of iodine was found - 131, and a slight presence of cesium - 137. However, later, due to leakage from radioactive water reactors, the concentration of these substances V sea ​​water increased greatly and at times reached concentrations several thousand times higher than the permissible limit. In addition, at the end of March, an insignificant concentration of plutonium was found in soil samples taken at the industrial site. At the same time, in many regions of the planet, including Western Europe and the USA, the presence of radioactive substances unusual for these areas was noted. Many countries have temporarily banned the import of products from certain prefectures in Japan.

In financial terms, the accident at Fukushima-1 also has dire consequences, especially for Japan and, in particular, for the owner of the nuclear power plant, TEPCO. The nuclear industry also suffered significant damage, for example, after the accident, quotes of uranium mining companies sharply decreased and spot prices for raw materials for nuclear power plants fell. According to experts, the construction of new nuclear power plants, after the accident in Japan, will increase by 20–30%. TEPCO, at the request of the Japanese government, is obliged to pay compensation for 80 thousand people affected by the consequences of the accident, the amount of payments could reach $130 billion. The company itself, the owner of the nuclear power plant, lost $32 billion of its market value due to a decrease in the price of its shares. And although the nuclear power plant was insured for several million dollars, this case, according to the contract, does not fall under the “insurance” category.

State of the problem today

The latest information on the state of the reactor of the first power unit, published by TEPCO, shows that, most likely, a significant part of the core melted and, having fallen to the bottom of the reactor, burned through it, then fell into the pressurized shell, damaging it, and therefore a leak occurred into the underground structures of the unit . Work is currently underway to find the location of the leak in the containment. Today, the construction of a protective shelter for the first power unit is underway to eliminate further radiation from entering the atmosphere. The area near the block has been cleared, making it possible to install a large crane there. The entire block, according to the plan, will be covered with a steel frame structure covered with polyester fabric.

On May 24, TEPCO said it accepted the meltdown of reactor cores 2 and 3, which occurred in the early days of the accident, and that it was necessary. So, according to the company, the efforts that were made in the first days, in all likelihood, were not enough to cool the reactor. Since the water flow was very large and, as a result, the active zone remained completely open. Therefore, most of the fuel elements of block 3, and a little earlier, block 2 melted and accumulated on the bottom of the reactors. But the company hopes that a significant portion of the fuel cells has survived, as instruments show that water levels are now sufficient to prevent a complete meltdown of the core. Today, the condition of blocks 2 and 3 is stable and does not pose any danger.

On May 26, the company announced that wastewater treatment plants Block 3 detected a leak of radioactive water, so pumping water from blocks 2 and 3 was temporarily suspended. At the same time, work is being carried out on power supply lines. Although the company says the water will stop leaking soon, it will have to take steps to fix the problem, which is made difficult by the high levels of radiation emanating from the contaminated water. On the last day of May, an explosion occurred at power unit 4. It is believed that a gas cylinder exploded in a pile of dismantled rubble, which was hit by remotely controlled equipment.

Although TEPCO said in a statement in mid-April that it would be able to clean up the accident by the end of the year, it is now clear that this deadline will not be met. Both experts and representatives of the company themselves talk about this. The schedule will not be able to be met due to the apparent meltdown of fuel in the first three reactors of the nuclear power plant. Therefore, the problem of fuel melting will have to be solved first, and this will negatively affect the entire work schedule, which will be far behind the planned one. Company representatives did not provide any new deadlines for completing the work.

The Tokyo District Court has ruled that Fukushima nuclear power plant operator TEPCO must pay 1.1 billion yen (approximately $10.1 million). The funds will be transferred as damages to 321 plaintiffs. This was reported by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi.

These people lived before the accident in the city of Minamisoma, which turned out to be in a 20-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant, subject to resettlement after the accident.

Initially, the plaintiffs demanded 11 billion yen from TEPCO, but the court reduced the amount tenfold.

Interestingly, the plaintiffs are demanding compensation for psychological damage from the accident at the nuclear power plant. Material damage was compensated earlier, when most of the internally displaced persons received new houses in populated areas not affected by radiation emissions from the station, as well as “lift” money.

It is unlikely that this lawsuit against TEPCO will be the last. Most likely, other residents of resettled areas will also try to receive compensation for psychological damage. But how are things going in Fukushima Prefecture in reality? It turned out that this prefecture became known outside Japan mainly due to the accident at the nuclear power plant. In this regard, I remember the story of a Japanese diplomat I know. “Can you imagine,” he wondered, “I came to Moscow from Tokyo in the fall of 2011, and I had not been to Fukushima. But all the same, Russian acquaintances did not want to meet with me, they said, they say, you have a lot of radiation there, well, that’s it.” .

Six years have passed, but many in Russia still believe that Fukushima is something like Chernobyl.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry invited a group of five journalists to Fukushima Prefecture to show how things are going there. Journalists came from Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Russia. I must say that what we saw there was quite different from what we had imagined in advance.

Rice balls

The German journalist Soren Kittel, the most prudent of our group, brought with him a Geiger counter. We used it to measure everything - water, fruit, fish, rice, sake, Japanese. Of course, Satori Toyomoto, Director of International Relations of the Nuclear Incident Response Office of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan, told us on the first day that people were walking around without protective masks, even in most of the territory of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, since the background radiation is normal. Well, with the exception of two reactor halls and some other rooms. And near the station, according to METI, the background radiation is 0.02 millisieverts - this is approximately the same as an X-ray of a tooth, while the maximum permissible safe dose is considered to be 150 millisieverts.

But these were all words, and we wanted to see for ourselves, so for the first days Soren did not part with the Geiger counter. The Japanese looked at us with surprise - they themselves do not measure anything, leaving this to the authorities and the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

We visited the so-called "antenna shop" - a store on Nihonbashi Street in downtown Tokyo. The store specializes in products from Fukushima Prefecture. In a prominent place are fruits, for which the affected region was famous before the accident. One apple costs about 70 rubles in Russian money, a piece of persimmon costs about 50 rubles. This is expensive even for Tokyo, especially considering Fukushima's reputation.

However, as store owner Juniya Tomita explained, the Japanese are very curious about everything unusual, so there is no shortage of buyers - about 1 thousand people on weekdays, about 1200 on weekends. The usual purchase amount is from 500 to 3000 yen (240 - 1700 rubles). Sake from Fukushima is especially popular. It has a very delicate taste and is considered the best in Japan.

“Are people afraid to buy food from you,” we asked Tomita-san. The fact is that a little earlier, several residents of Tokyo who have no connection with Fukushima answered us in approximately the same way, that if there is a choice between products from Fukushima and from other prefectures, they will choose the others. “Who knows what’s there,” said one housewife. “They say there’s no radiation, but go figure.”

When asked about customers’ concerns, the store owner replied that Fukushima rice really “has a negative reputation,” although in fact it is considered the best in Japan - it has a particularly pure taste and the stickiness is exactly what is needed for making sushi and onigiri rice balls. . Even the Imperial House of Japan buys rice from there.

“Show us this rice,” we demanded. Soren took out his counter. It showed the usual 0.2 microsieverts - that is, nothing, a natural background.

By the way, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture conducted a survey among the population - 70 percent of respondents would like to continue making buns from Fukushima rice.

Several decades before stabilization

“It’s okay,” we thought. “We’ll definitely find something in Fukushima Prefecture.”

The Prefectural Agricultural Technology Center is where the rest of the testing centers scattered throughout the prefecture are controlled. There are more than five hundred such centers in total. Above the boss's desk, the clock rose at 14.46 - at this time, on March 11, 2011, the main earthquake occurred. It is unlikely, of course, that he was the one who stopped the clock, but as a symbol and reminder such a sign works well.

“We have been checking every bag of rice since 2015,” said Kenji Kusano, deputy director of agricultural safety at the center. Approximately 10 million 30 kg bags per year.

“So, really, no radiation was found during all this time”?

“There were, of course, somewhere before the end of 2015 something was encountered, although very little. And since then - nothing at all,” answered Kusano-san.

More dangerous, he said, were mushrooms, game and seafood, especially in the first years after the disaster. In 2013-14, more than 11 percent of wild mushrooms, nearly 40 percent of game and 7 percent of seafood exceeded radiation standards. In 2016-17, 1.43 percent of mushrooms exceeding the limit for cesium-137 content were identified, and 0.5 percent of seafood were detected. With game, however, it is more difficult - more than 22 percent of wild animals killed by hunters managed to run through “dirty” places.

But we must also take into account the rigidity of Japanese regulations. If international CODEX standards allow 1000 Becquerels per kilogram (and in the USA even 1200), then in Japan - no more than 100 Becquerels per kilogram. At the same time, in reality, according to Kusano-san, they try to underestimate the level of radioactivity as much as possible. So, even if the content of radionuclides in a product is 50 Becquerels per kilogram, it is sent to quarantine.

In fact, experts have already found out in what places we can expect the appearance of radionuclides in products. In the first days after the accident, the wind blew to the northwest, and the radioactive trace in the diagrams looks like a tongue of flame stretched in the same direction. The length of the tongue is slightly more than 30 kilometers. On the spring 2012 summary maps it is red because the radioactive radiation at a height of 1 meter from the ground was 19 millisieverts. Six years later, the tongue shrank by several kilometers and turned yellow to 3.8 - 15 millisieverts.

According to METI's Satori Toyomoto, "final stabilization" will take 30-40 years.

The sand fish will warn

Of course, we were interested in fish and seafood - one of the main elements of Japanese cuisine. The catch off the northeastern coast of Honshu has always been particularly rich. Found here warm current Kuroshio and cold - Oyashio. The temperature difference attracts sea ​​creatures, therefore this region is one of the three main fishing zones in the entire World Ocean. More precisely, it was like this before the accident at the nuclear power plant.

Now the fishing port of the city of Soma in the north of Fukushima Prefecture, located about a hundred kilometers north of the station, is practically empty, with one or two auctions a week, although among the buyers are representatives of 20 prefectures, as well as the metropolises of Tokyo and Osaka. But there were times - the ports of Fukushima Prefecture sold fish worth 6.6 billion yen per year, which is about 56 million dollars. The fish was also exported. The catch is now 8-10 percent compared to pre-tsunami times.

“We used to hold auctions every day, but after the accident a fishing ban was imposed,” says Tsuneo Fujita, director of the local fishing experimental station.

According to him, the largest release of radioactive water from a nuclear power plant into the sea occurred on April 1-6, 2011, when cesium -137 per 940 trillion Becquerels entered the ocean. But the radioactive elements were carried away by the current, and already in May 2011 the background dropped to 1 - 20 trillion Becquerels. This content remained for about 800 days. Currently, radioactivity in local waters is 0.01 Becquerel per liter. For comparison, before the accident it was 0.001 Becquerel.

There is a poster on the wall in the room with a schematic depiction of a fish with painted signs. chemical elements and explanations. The same cesium-137 leaves the body, it turns out, in excrement.

According to Fujita-san, it is more likely to find radioactivity in large fish - they live longer. Also, the accumulation of isotopes depends on the type of marine life. For example, for some reason stingrays have more of them than squids or octopuses.

The fishing of ten species of fish is still prohibited. Perhaps permission for their control fishing will be obtained in the near future.

We just got to the fish auction in Soma. The entire pier was filled with basins of freshly caught fish. Red, green, yellow, silver, black - you name it. The auction hosts sang the name of the next lot. One or two seconds - and the catch is sold.

“When are they tested for radioactivity?” - we asked the organizers.

“Everything has already been checked,” they replied.

We also asked whether they were afraid of new discharges of contaminated water from nuclear power plants into the sea. “We don’t know anything about this, and we believe that this should not happen,” the fishermen answered. “But if something happens, we will immediately know about it from the small translucent sand fish.” These fish, about five centimeters long, are found in shallow water and are considered one of the best snacks for beer. They do not withstand radiation well and immediately die in contaminated water.

March 14th, 2015

Here is another news from Fukushima:

The operator of the damaged Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant discovered relatively high radioactivity in water taken from a trench at the top of the diversion channel on the site of the plant. Tokyo Denryoku Electricity Utility said workers determined that water taken Tuesday contained 1,900 becquerels per liter of beta-emitting substances. Official representatives the companies believe that water from this trench entered the sea through a diversion channel. This trench is located near a tank in which highly radioactive water is stored.

That is, it is clear that we will probably never know the truth about how much this accident polluted and is still polluting our planet.

But what is happening now at the scene of the accident...

March 11, 2011 at nuclear power plant In Fukushima, as a result of the tsunami, a serious accident occurred, the consequences of which have not yet been eliminated. 100 thousand people were forced to leave their homes. Billions of dollars have gone toward programs to help and clean up the radiation-contaminated area. Let's see what Fukushima looks like 4 years after the disaster.

A fishing boat washed ashore during a tsunami. This is what the outskirts of Fukushima look like 4 years after the earthquake that led to the terrible environmental disaster in Japan. (Photo: Toru Hanai/Newscom/Reuters)

Every day the Japanese learn about new problems at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. March 11, 2015 was no exception.

The operator, TERCO, reported a leak of approximately 750 tons of rainwater saturated with radionuclides. The leak was discovered in area H4, located on a hillside in the area of ​​the 4th power unit: rainwater overflowed the fence installed around 58 water tanks.

According to the TEPSO press service, the water accumulated inside the fence contains up to 8,300 Bq/l of beta-emitting substances. On Monday, the depth of water accumulations was 15 cm, and on Tuesday it dropped to 8 cm.

Last week, workers shut off access to storm drains after elevated radiation was detected in the water. TEPCO states that by now all water that has leaked over the fence has been collected, and it is unlikely that it could have entered the sea through an underground drainage.

Workers in protective overalls and masks collect radioactive soil and leaves in the small town of Tomioka, near the Fukushima power plant. February 24, 2015.

The problems that emerged at the time of the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011 were clear long before it. This was stated in an interview with RIA Novosti, dedicated to the fourth anniversary of the accident, by the director of the Institute for the Safe Development of Nuclear Energy (IBRAE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member Russian Academy Sciences Leonid Bolshov.

Let us recall that as a result of an earthquake of magnitude 9 off the coast of the Japanese island of Honshu on March 11, 2011, a 15-meter tsunami wave arose, which led to the de-energization of the cooling system of three reactors at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant and the melting of their cores. The accident received an INES (International Nuclear Event Scale) rating of seven due to the large volume of radioactive substances released from days four to six. The Japanese authorities have decided to evacuate more than one hundred thousand people from areas near the nuclear power plant; the process of returning the displaced population is still being postponed.

Radioactive bamboo forest in the town of Tomioka. A man collects radiation-contaminated leaves and soil from a plastic bags, which will then be taken to a special place intended for storing radioactive waste.

“Various missions from the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and the IAEA to Fukushima-1 pointed out the shortcomings of this American first-generation plant design, developed by General Electric. But in the USA, similar units were modernized, and possible risks were reduced. And the Japanese decided: the station has one or two years left until the end of its operation, whether its service life will be extended or not is unknown, it’s better to save money,” the scientist explained.

According to him, in the first days after the accident, domestic specialists from Rosenergoatom and IBRAE were sent to Tokyo with all the calculations made by that time, predicting the development of the situation at the power units and possible radioactive contamination. “These calculations could help a lot, but this multi-level decision-making system that exists in Japan, the fear of small officials on the lower floors to take responsibility, did not allow us to fully use our proposals. And when it came down to it, time was already lost,” Bolshov said.

Every day, workers wash roads with a strong jet of water, sand the walls of buildings, trim tree branches and collect contaminated soil.

Chris Kosaka
A month before the anniversary of the triple disaster on March 11, 2011, I happened to travel from Kamaishi City in Iwate Prefecture to Rikuzentakata and then back to Tokyo via Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture. As I drove south through the town of Natori, on the Miyagi coast, and near the restricted area surrounding the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, endless mountains of black garbage bags floated past, each one seeming to beg me to answer his question. unresolved issue.

In the coastal towns of Iwate Prefecture, mounds of churned mud and completely devastated fields mark what was once ruin and chaos. In Fukushima, ubiquitous bags of contaminated soil are interspersed with signs reporting current radiation readings.

This is a temporary storage site for irradiated waste that has been collected from contaminated areas.

Communities in Fukushima Prefecture have protested against the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for failing to report a number of leaks of radioactive water into the sea. The document requires management to disclose information in a timely manner and increase the responsibility of employees.

Yukey Matsumoto, the mayor of Naraha, who presented a letter of protest to TEPCO President Naomi Hirose, represents the interests of four other municipalities located in the area of ​​the Fukushima-1 and Fukushima-2 nuclear plants. He said that the news of concealing information from the population undermined the townspeople's trust in the company.

Hirose apologized to local residents for the problems that TEPCO's activities are causing them. He assured the townspeople that he would take all measures to prevent similar situations in future.

Electric power company TEPCO is facing severe criticism for its actions in connection with leaks of radioactively contaminated water that accumulated on the roof of the No. 2 reactor building at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. The company knew for almost a year that the level of radioactive elements in the drainage channel increased every time it rained. However, she did not make this information public until last month.

Abandoned rice fields and car parks became temporary radioactive waste dumps.

71% of residents of Fukushima Prefecture are dissatisfied with the work of the government and TEPCO in eliminating the consequences nuclear accident 2011 This is the result of a population survey conducted in 2014. A total of 1,028 people were surveyed, of which only 14% expressed their approval.

Since the nuclear disaster, such surveys have been conducted in Fukushima every year. The number of people dissatisfied with the work to eliminate the accident has remained approximately the same all these years - between 70 and 80 percent.

In practice, the dissatisfaction of the population is confirmed by the fact that even after the lifting of evacuation orders, thousands of evacuees refuse to return to the abandoned houses that are located near the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. People are alarmed by frequent incidents at the emergency nuclear power plant: leaks of radioactive water, equipment malfunctions, personnel errors and failure to fulfill planned plans. In addition, the public recently learned that the TERCO company concealed the leakage of contaminated water from the station into the Pacific Ocean for 10 months.

Police in the Japanese prefecture of Fukushima, which suffered from the accident at the nuclear power plant of the same name in 2011, detained two participants in decontamination work for throwing out radioactive waste in an area near a residential building. Prefectural law enforcement agencies reported this on Tuesday.

According to police, employees construction company, taking part in the work as a contractor, in September 2013, dumped about 515 kg of soil contaminated with radioactive substances in a residential yard in the city of Tamura. Their exact content in discarded garbage is not reported. Upon completion of the investigation into the incident, it was decided to detain the president of the company and one of its employees. Both denied their guilt during the first interrogation.

The Fukushima police noted that this is the first case of arrest for illegal disposal of radioactive waste after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, TASS reports. “We will take measures to ensure that such incidents do not happen again,” the Tamura city administration said in an official statement.

However, The Asahi Shimbun has already reported on other cases of unscrupulous waste management after decontamination in the settlements of Tamura, Naraha, Iitate, when workers simply threw out radioactive waste and poured out the water that had previously been used to wash residential buildings from radioactive contamination, instead of storing waste in bags and other containers, and removed from populated areas for disposal. In conversations with Asahi reporters, workers admitted that, with the approval or orders of their superiors, they threw away large radioactive waste, such as tree branches, if the waste did not fit into standard bags.

Norio Kimura, a 49-year-old man whose entire family died in the tsunami. This is where his house stood before it was simply washed away. The village of Okuma, where Norio and his family lived, is located near the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant said high levels of radiation were detected in a drainage channel at the plant on Sunday. Tokyo Denryoku Company is investigating the situation.

The company reported that at approximately 10 a.m. local time, an alarm went off at the nuclear power plant. Measurements showed that the level of substances emitting beta particles, the content of which is minimal under normal conditions, increased to 7,230 becquerels per liter, which is 10 times higher than what happens during rains.

Tokyo Denryoku suspects that radiation-contaminated water could have entered the port area through a drain. The company suspended all pumping operations of contaminated water and closed the gates of the canal leading to the port.

One of the reactors at the emergency Japanese nuclear power plant has leaked, molten fuel comes into contact with groundwater.

The Japan Times recently published stunning news: “Radiation levels in the containment shell of reactor No. 2 at the damaged Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant have reached a maximum of 530 sieverts per hour - the highest level since the accident in March 2011.” The newspaper refers to the official report management company Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. (Tepco). Japanese officials call this level "exorbitant" and "unimaginable." And it is not surprising - this figure is several hundred times higher than the lethal dose for humans. However, this devastating information attracted almost no interest in the world media, politicians and society.

However, first - summary previous “series”: on March 11, 2011, due to a powerful earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, the power supply and backup diesel generators were disabled, which resulted in a meltdown of the reactor core at power units No. 1, 2 and 3. Explosions occurred in these units over the course of several days, and in the fourth unit there was a fire in the spent nuclear fuel storage facility with the release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere.

Active actions by the Japanese to stabilize the situation at the nuclear power plant continued until the end of 2011 - three reactors were brought into a state of so-called cold shutdown. In December 2013, the nuclear power plant was closed.

I note that the nuclear disaster at Fukushima-1 was assigned the highest level - seventh - on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Just like the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 116 thousand people were resettled from the 30-kilometer (still closed) zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to “clean places.” From the Japanese radioactive disaster zone there is almost a third more - 160 thousand.

As The Japan Times notes, the previous maximum radiation recorded at the destroyed reactor was 73 sieverts per hour, and it is also fatal to humans. Tepco said that recently “high levels of radioactive emissions were detected near the reactor core vessel, which was previously thought to contain radioactive fuel. Such a high level of radiation suggests that some of the fuel has leaked."

Experts inevitably have a question: how are the Japanese going to investigate the situation and finally dismantle the three destroyed reactors at such unimaginable levels of radiation - a person can die even from a short-term exposure to these 530 sieverts per hour? According to employees of the Japanese National Institute of Radiological Sciences, doctors have never before dealt with such high levels of radiation. According to the institute, just four sieverts of radiation can kill a person. Japanese experts say that even one sievert (1,000 millisieverts, mSv) can lead to infertility, hair loss and cataracts, and exposure to doses above just 100 mSv increases the risk of cancer.

A small educational program for those who, since the times Chernobyl disaster I’m used to assessing nuclear troubles in X-rays. One sievert is equal to 100 roentgens. A dose of three to five sieverts - diagnosis of “acute radiation sickness” (ARS), bone marrow damage, death within 30-60 days. At 10-15 sieverts, death occurs in two to three weeks. This is what happened to Soviet firefighters (they received, of course, much larger doses) when extinguishing the reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April-May 1986. Instant death or death delayed for several days occurs when the body is damaged by more than 15 sieverts per hour. For comparison, there are currently 530 at the Japanese reactor, which is about to be dismantled.

The newly emerging situation has further complicated the task of Japanese nuclear scientists to decommission the destroyed reactors. The key question is: how do you remove fuel at these levels of irradiation? (It is known that the government and the company planned to do this in 2021, waiting for the infernal machines to cool down and radiation levels to fall.) In the coming weeks, there were plans to roll out work with remote control, that is, the use of robots to check what is happening inside the reactor containment, but the company will likely have to change its plan.

If no one thinks about using people (it was only in the Soviet Union that people went to great lengths, with bare hands throwing graphite from the roof of the Chernobyl reactor, and in Japan there are no takers), then relying on robots under newly discovered circumstances no longer causes much optimism among local specialists. Firstly, even for robots the route will have to be reconsidered. In addition, given the extra level of radiation, they will be able to work for less than two hours, Japanese nuclear scientists say. The thing is that even robots can withstand radiation no higher than 1000 sieverts per hour - they are designed with such technical capabilities. And if, based on a calculation of 73 sieverts, the controlled “assistant” would work (theoretically) for more than ten hours, then with the current 530 units it would “die” in less than two hours.

However, technical problems- these are just flowers. The “berries” of the Fukushima disaster are an environmental disaster for the World Ocean and its inhabitants, about which everyone has been stubbornly silent for almost six years.

According to The Japan Times, “a black mass was found on the grate directly below the reactor. The image taken by a remotely monitored camera shows that part of the grid has been lost, leaving a two-meter hole under the reactor's primary thermal envelope." That is, the molten fuel has already come out. Its real condition remains unknown as the radiation is too high for humans to check. As the head of the decommissioning of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, Naohiro Masuda, told the ABC broadcaster last year, the location of the uranium melt in the affected reactors has not yet been established. “In reactor No. 1, the fuel melted through the bottom of the reactor vessel and completely leaked out. In the 2nd and 3rd reactors, 30 to 50% of the fuel remained, the rest melted. Unfortunately, we don’t know where this fuel is located.” Looks like they finally found out.

Neither the newspaper nor the electric company Tepco itself goes into detail about what this means for the environment - the leakage of molten uranium fuel - and what it threatens. Meanwhile, even to a non-specialist it is clear that another catastrophe has occurred: the destroyed reactor No. 2 of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant is in contact with the Pacific Ocean, turning its waters into a radioactive solution, flowing into the World Ocean.

According to environmentalists, in particular the American Whitney Web, “in just three months after the disaster, radioactive chemicals were dumped into the Pacific Ocean in volumes exceeding the release during the Chernobyl disaster. However, the actual figures may actually be much higher because, as several scholars have shown in recent years, official Japanese estimates do not correspond to the actual situation.” (Rosbalt also wrote about mutual responsibility and lies about the Fukushima accident of the Japanese heirs of the CPSU Central Committee, more than once.)

Fukushima, almost six years later, continues to dump 300 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean every day - even the country's officials have admitted this. “So it should not be surprising,” writes Whitney Web on the American website The True Activist, “that Fukushima has already contaminated the entire Pacific Ocean with radiation.” She claims, citing serious researchers, that some parts of the West Coast North America over the past few years they have been feeling the effects of Japanese radiation. For example, some time after the accident, blood began to flow from the gills, mouths and eyes of fish in Canada. The government ignores this “disease,” although it has reduced the local fish fauna by 10%, including North Pacific herring. In Western Canada, independent scientists recorded a 300% increase in radioactive iodine levels just 22 days after the accident. According to their forecasts, radiation levels in Pacific Ocean will grow.

"IN American state Oregon sea ​​stars began to lose legs and then completely disintegrate, reports Whitney Web, when radiation reached the region in 2013. Sea stars are now dying in record numbers, putting the region's entire ocean ecosystem at risk. However, government officials say that it is not Fukushima's fault, although it was after the accident that the radiation level of Oregon tuna tripled. In 2014, radiation on California beaches increased by 500%. Government officials responded by saying that the radiation was coming from a mysterious 'unknown' source and that there was nothing to worry about." The author supports all his words with references to sources.

But the Fukushima disaster did not just impact the West Coast of North America. Scientists now say that the entire Pacific Ocean is 5-10 times more radioactive than during World War II and immediately after it, when the US government tested underwater atomic bombs in the Pacific Ocean.

The most disgusting thing about this whole Fukushima nuclear history the fact that Western politicians, famous scientists, and the media almost never talk about it. Why? According to writer Whitney Web, because the Japanese company Tepco is a subsidiary of General Electric - one of the largest companies in the world, controlling numerous media outlets, as well as politicians. Maybe this is precisely the secret of the worldwide conspiracy of silence around the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant?

After all, if something similar had happened in Russia and Moscow had been sending hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive water into the ocean for almost six years, there would have been a universal cry from Washington to Brussels and beyond. As it already happened, however, after the Chernobyl accident under the USSR. But there the classification was explained by the inhumane communist system. But in reality it turns out that today the world democracy, stubbornly hushing up the terrible consequences of the nuclear disaster in Japan, is giving a head start to the Soviet totalitarian one. Double standards - this is already visible to the blind - is the basic instinct of the free world. And Japanese radiation, with this approach, is, of course, safer than Soviet radiation.