Radiation, rusty metal seen in tsunami-hit reactor (AP)

TOKYO – Radiation-blurred images taken inside one of Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear reactors Thursday showed steam, unidentified parts and rusty metal surfaces scarred by 10 months' exposure to heat and humidity.

The photos that were the first inside look since the disaster found none of the reactor's melted fuel or its cooling water but confirmed stable temperatures and showed no major damage or ruptures caused by the earthquake last March, said Junichi Matsumoto, spokesman for the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Pipes and grates inside the reactor's containment vessel were seen in some images. Other photos were dark and blurry, resembling abstract paintings. Experts are studying the most obscured photos to identify which reactor parts are there. Radiation was visible as static, or electronic interference with the equipment being used.

The photos also showed the inner wall of the container had been heavily deteriorated by the high temperatures and humidity, Matsumoto said.

TEPCO workers inserted the endoscope — an industrial version of the kind of endoscope doctors use — through a hole in the beaker-shaped container at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's No. 2 reactor, hoping the first look inside since the crisis would help them better assess reactor conditions and make repairs.

High temperatures and radiation leaks had prevented the close-up view until now. Results of the 70-minute operation were mixed.

"Given the harsh environment that we had to operate, we did quite well. It's a first step," Matsumoto said. "But we could not spot any signs of fuel, unfortunately."

He said it would take more time and a better technology to get to the melted fuel, most of which has fallen straight down into the area that the endoscope could not reach. TEPCO hopes to use the endoscope to look inside the two other reactors that had meltdowns but that also would require customization of the equipment and further reduction of radiation levels.

The endoscope failed to find the water surface, indicating less-than-expected levels inside the primary containment vessel and questioning the accuracy of water monitors, Matsumoto said.

Radiation-tainted cooling water has been leaking from all three damaged reactors, pooling in massive amounts around the nuclear plant. Determining the No. 2 reactor's water levels could have helped locate cracks or damage causing some of the leaks.

Better assessment will help workers know how best to plug holes and cracks in the containment vessel — a protective chamber outside the core — to contain the radiation leaks and gradually work toward dismantling the reactors.

Three of six reactors at the Fukushima plant melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems and set off the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

TEPCO and nuclear officials have said that melted fuel probably fell to the bottom of the core in each unit, most likely breaching the bottom of the core and falling into the primary containment vessel, some dropping to its concrete floor.

Experts have said those are simulation results and that exact location and condition of the fuel could not be known until they have a first-hand observation inside.

The probe Thursday successfully recorded the temperature inside the containment vessel at 44.7 Celsius (112 F), confirming it stayed below the boiling point and qualifying a "cold shutdown state," the stable condition that the government had declared in December despite skepticism from experts.

The government has said that it would take 40 years until the Fukushima plant is fully decommissioned.

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Tepco: radiation from Fukushima plant declines further (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – The operator of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant Monday said the amount of radiation being emitted from the complex has halved from a month ago, in the latest sign that efforts to bring the plant under control are progressing.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 kilometers (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was damaged in March by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in the world's worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago.

"Our latest measurements show that radiation from the damaged reactors is 100 million becquerels per hour, which is one eight-millionth of the amount measured soon after the accident," Tokyo Electric Power's (Tepco) vice president Zengo Aizawa told reporters during a monthly review.

Aizawa said that this translates to about 0.2 millisievert per year of radiation measured at the fringes of the plant, below the 1 millisievert safety limit according to government guidelines.

The amount is half of what Tepco announced at its review a month ago.

In light of the progress being made in cooling its damaged reactors, which suffered nuclear fuel meltdowns in the first days of the crisis, Tepco formally brought forward its plan to bring the plant to a state of "cold shutdown" within this year, instead of by January as initially planned.

It had said last month it was hoping to achieve a cold shutdown within the year but had not made a formal declaration.

Technically, a cold shutdown is a state in which water used to cool nuclear fuel rods remains below 100 degrees Celsius, preventing the fuel from reheating.

With the help of newly built cooling systems, Tepco's efforts to cool the reactors have progressed steadily, with temperatures at all three of the damaged reactors falling below 100 degrees late in September.

But despite this development, Tepco and the government have been cautious about immediately declaring a cold shutdown.

"We still need to proceed with care. We need to continue monitoring whether the temperatures of the reactors and radiation levels being emitted remain stable going forward," Yoshinori Moriyama, deputy director-general of the government watchdog Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency, told the same news conference.

Declaring a cold shutdown will have repercussions well beyond the plant as it is one of the criteria the government said must be met before it begins allowing about 80,000 residents evacuated from within a 20 km (12 mile) radius of the plant to go home.

Japan faces a massive cleanup task if these residents are to be returned home -- the environmental ministry says about 2,400 square km (930 square miles) of land surrounding Daiichi may need decontamination, an area roughly the size of Luxembourg.

Even if a cold shutdown is declared Tepco has acknowledged that it may not be able to remove the fuel from the reactors for another 10 years and that the cleanup at the plant could take several decades.

It also has to decontaminate tens of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water pooled at the plant, a result of its efforts to cool the reactors early in the crisis by pumping in vast amounts of water, much of it from the ocean.

(Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Contaminated Rice, Radiation Problems Continue for Japan (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Radiation is an ongoing problem for Japan with recent reports focusing on contaminated rice. The lasting impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami continues to affect the country. However, I am forced to question why the rice was being grown in areas contaminated by the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Officials were aware of the nuclear plants releasing iodine 131 and cesium 137 into the air in March, yet they seem to have allowed food production to continue.

Lasting Tragedy

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami led to the damage of several Japanese nuclear power plants. The release of radioactive materials including iodine 131 and cesium 137 forced officials to caution residents about drinking milk and eating contaminated food. However, they also assured residents that the land surrounding the nuclear plants would be free from the effects of radiation within a few weeks. This was misleading information because cesium 137's half-life, the time necessary for half of it to decay, is 30 years.

Problems

Scientists warned Japan that the effects of radiation would not disappear quickly. Soil and water contamination would continue to be hurdles for many years. Although Japan made a commitment to continue testing food for radiation levels, it has allowed crops to grow in contaminated areas. The impact of eating food contaminated with radioactive particles may be difficult to measure initially. However, there is a strong link to cancer.

Rice and Tea

Japan's contaminated rice may have grabbed more headlines, but it is not the first time that the issue of radiation and food has come to the surface. In June, the Japanese government attempted to stop tea shipments because high levels of cesium 137 were found. The tea contained 3,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium. Compared to Japan's regulations of not exceeding 500 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, this was an extremely high amount.

The most disturbing aspect of the tea story is that it questions the officials' ability to stop shipments. The governor of the area with the contaminated product was defiant and blatantly announced his refusal to follow the government's instructions. How safe is Japan's food supply and how is this affecting other nations who receive the imports? Although it is obvious the country is making a strong effort to test food and shipments, are they able to control all of the situations and how many products go untested? Japan must face these uncomfortable questions as the country continues to deal with the aftermath of March 11.

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Japanese parents fume over Fukushima radiation impact (Reuters)

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Angry parents of children in Japan's Fukushima city marched along with hundreds of people on Sunday to demand protection for their children from radiation more than three months after a massive quake and tsunami triggered the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

"We want our lives back, we want to live like before the quake in happy families," said Hiroko Sato who marched in heavy rain with her nephews, age 3 and 7, next to banners saying "No Nukes" and "One Fukushima is Enough." "My baby was born two weeks before the nuclear accident and I don't feed her with my milk as I'm afraid I was exposed to too much radiation," said Sato.

Three reactors went into meltdown after the earthquake hit the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in northeastern Japan on March 11, forcing 80,000 residents to evacuate from its vicinity as engineers battled radiation leaks, hydrogen explosions and overheating fuel rods.

The parents have felt emboldened since May, when mass protests led to the government lowering the limit for radiation exposure for children at schools and to offer money for schools to remove topsoil in playgrounds with too much radiation.

But the protesters, who included activists and members of groups from Tokyo, said the government had not done enough.

"They still haven't removed the topsoil at the majority of grounds, and didn't help cleaning up the school buildings," said Akiko Murakami, a mother of four and volunteer at the "Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation."

It is one of many self-help citizen groups near the plant in Fukushima, where many areas are exposed to around 13 or more millisieverts of radiation a year, about 6.5 times natural background radiation levels, a city survey showed.

According to the survey, as many as 182 places showed readings close to or above the official annual exposure limit of 20 millisieverts per year.

The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends that governments set radiation exposure targets at the lower end of the 1-20 millisievert per year range.

GROWING WORRIES

Local governments now need to provide reports of radiation, while most schools in Fukushima are equipped with dosimeters and teachers have to record hourly radiation readings to help create a contamination map. Anxiety over health risks associated with prolonged stay in a contaminated area is shared by mothers who did not take part in Sunday's rally.

"I just found out that a place near my house was designated a 'radiation hotspot' and now I'm seriously thinking about leaving the city," said Noriko Ouchi, mother of a 4-year-old daughter.

"We are exhausted. We have to look at every food item we eat, we only use bottled water for cooking, and on top of that every day we confront this nagging dilemma whether it's really safe for our children to stay in Fukushima or not," she said.

The Fukushima disaster has triggered worries over the safety of other nuclear power plants in Japan.

On Sunday, government officials held a live TV talk show with residents in Saga, southern Japan, home to the 36-year-old Genkai plant, to convince them that safety measures were in place for a restart of reactors now shut for maintenance.

Reactors at the Genkai plant had been considered among the likeliest candidates for the first idled reactors in Japan to restart after the Fukushima disaster as electricity shortages loom for the summer, but residents remained worried.

"I couldn't keep up with the complex terminology. I couldn't understand what they were saying, so I'm not convinced (over safety)," said a housewife, one of just seven residents selected for the program. Dozens protested against nuclear power outside the venue.

(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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