Cleanup begins on Yellowstone River for oil leak near Glendive

Cleanup efforts have begun on the Yellowstone River downstream from where an oil leak was reported over the weekend.

According to Paul Peronard, the on-scene coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, crews are using two techniques to cleanup the estimated 50,000 gallons of oil that leaked into the river from the Bridger Pipeline company's Poplar pipeline system on Saturday.

The crews are using a traditional boom, which doesn't work well in the swift water conditions, so it is being backed up by secondary capture point near Crane, which is located between Savage and Sidney about 30 miles away from the spill site.

At the secondary location crews are using what is called an ice slotting technique in which cut holes in the ice and then capture the oil using a boom that is lowered through the ice.

Finding a location where the ice was thick enough was difficult because of the condition of the ice needing to be combined with a location to get trucks and pumping equipment to the river.

Should the oil reach Sidney, there is no water intake in Sidney on the Yellowstone River.

There is a water intake for Savage on the Yellowstone River, and crews have placed a preventative boom there and are making preventative arrangements around the Intake Diversion Dam.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has joined the emergency response team. Both Pallid Sturgeon, which are endangered, and Paddlefish are in the area.

Crews are attempting to keep oil from getting to the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers where both of the fish species spawn.

Meanwhile, authorities said residents in the Glendive area who have smelled petroleum in their water need to call 406-377-3318 ext 16. The number connects to a city office, but they are taking information off an answering machine because the office is closed.

Callers will need to leave their name, number, and the address of where the smell was detected.

Officials are mapping out where the smells are reported.

As of 11:30 a.m. Monday, authorities said they still believe there is not a problem in the water distribution system. They have flown samples out of the water treatment plant in Glendive to a lab in Billings to be tested.
 http://www.kxlf.com/news/cleanup-begins-on-yellowstone-river-for-oil-leak-near-glendive/
19/1/15
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First of four Fukushima reactors cleared of nuclear fuel (VIDEO aljazeera)

One of four heavily damaged reactor buildings at Japan's tsunami-battered Fukushima nuclear power plant has been cleared of radioactive fuel rods, the operator said on Saturday (Dec 20).
It was a significant step in the decommissioning efforts, but workers still have three heavily crippled reactors to clean up after they were sent into meltdown in the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster. The overall clean-up work of the Fukushima plant is expected to take decades.

A total of 1,535 fuel rod assemblies have been now taken out of the building after Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO's) year-long operation, a company spokesman said. "Completion of the removal work is a milestone, but the decommission work will continue," plant chief Akira Ono told reporters.

The nuclear fuel was removed from a pool used to store the rods - which were mostly spent - in the reactor number 4 building, which was offline for regular check-ups at the time of the March 2011 disaster. 

The tsunami battered the plant's cooling system and sent reactors number 1 to 3 into meltdown, setting off the worst atomic accident in a generation.

TEPCO will remove fuel rod assemblies from the pools of other damaged buildings before extracting the melted fuel from the reactors.

- AFP/al

 [channelnewsasia.com]

20/12/14

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Related:

• All spent fuel removed from reactor 4 pool at Fukushima No. 1, Tepco says ...

• Earthquake with an intensity of 4 on the Japanese scale of 7 rattled the Hamadori area of eastern Fukushima Prefecture at 6:31 p.m. Saturday, the Meteorological Agency said.....

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Related:

• Fukushima Water Treatment System Fails Again

• Effectiveness of Fukushima Ice Wall Unclear to Experts

• TEPCO finds water leak area in crippled Fukushima No.1 reactor

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Related:

• TEPCO moves 22 fuel rods from the 4th unit of NPP “Fukushima-1” to a special pool...

• Fukushima operator to start fuel-rod removal. -Japan's engineers prepare to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods as part of plant's decades-long decommissioning plan.

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TEPCO finds water leak area in crippled Fukushima No.1 reactor

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said it has identified the exact location of water leakage at the bottom of the container of the plant's No. 1 reactor, local media reported Wednesday.

The company said that a remote-controlled robot survey found that water was leaking from a joint in a pipe connected to the No. 1 reactor's primary containment vessel, Kyodo News said.

The metal bellow joint is likely to have been corroded by seawater that was used as an emergency measure to cool the reactor during the early stage of the nuclear crisis triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Kyodo quoted a TEPCO official as saying.

The official, according to the report, denied the possibility that the leakage was caused because the earthquake damaged equipment, adding TEPCO will continue to investigate if there are other areas of leakage nearby.

Confirmation of locations of water leakages is an important part of TEPCO's plan to scrap the No. 1 to 3 reactors, which suffered meltdowns as the operator has to plug the leaks and fill the containers with water that serves as radiation shield so as to remove the melted fuel.
(Xinhua)- [cntv.cn]
28/5/14
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TEPCO detects record radiation at Fukushima’s reactor 2, new leak suspected

TEPCO has found a record 1.9 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances at its No.2 reactor. Also radioactive cesium was detected in deeper groundwater at No.4 unit’s well, as fears grow of a new leak into the ocean.
The level of beta ray-emitting radioactivity in groundwater around the crippled Fukushima reactor No. 2 reactor has been rising since November, NHK reported.

Previous the highest level – 1.8 million becquerels (bq/liter), of beta-ray sources per liter - was registered at reactor No.1 on December 13.

Meanwhile, TEPCO’s latest examination of deeper groundwater beneath the #4 reactor's well has raised new concerns that there might be another source of radioactive substances leakage into the ocean.

For the first time, the analysis of water samples taken from a layer 25 meters beneath the No. 4 reactor's well that is facing the ocean has revealed radioactivity in groundwater.

TEPCO investigators detected 6.7 bq/liter of Cesium 137 and 89 bq/liter of strontium as well as other beta ray-emitting radioactive substances.

However, the company’s officials said that it is early to talk about a hotspot of radiation leak and more examinations are needed to prove that. TEPCO suggested that current numbers could be wrong because radioactive substances may have been mistakenly mixed during the process of getting the sample.

Leakage of radiation-contaminated water has been the major threat to Japan’s population and environment from the very beginning of the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

Only in late July 2013 did TEPCO acknowledge the fact that contaminated water is escaping from basements and trenches of the Fukushima plant into the ocean.

Since then, TEPCO reported about two major leaks of highly radioactive water into the ocean from storage tanks – a 300-ton leak in August and 430 liters in October. 
rt.com
21/12/13
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-

• Fukushima: Verstrahltes Wasser bedroht den Pazifik 

• Fukushima: le typhon a fait couler de l'eau radioactive dans un fossé...

Death toll from China oil pipeline blast rises to 47.

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The casualty count from oil pipeline blast in the Eastern China stands at 47 while 136 wounded

SHANGHAI
The death toll from an oil pipeline blast in the coastal town Qingdao in Eastern China rose to 47 while wounded 136 people are treated in hospitals, said local sources.

The explosion occurred when leaked oil caught fire as workers were trying to contain a rapture at an underground oil pipeline belonging to Chinese petroleum giant Sinopec.

Over 100 firefighters were deployed to douse the blaze.

Local authorities stated oil spill had spread across 3,000 square meters on sea and 22 sea cleaning vessels, 10 fishing boats and 6 coast guard boats continued clean up effort.
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/headline/255059--death-toll-from-china-oil-pipeline-blast-rises-to-47
23/11/13
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Death toll from oil pipeline blast in China... από euronews-en

TEPCO moves 22 fuel rods from the 4th unit of NPP “Fukushima-1” to a special pool...

Specialists from the Japanese energy company TEPCO, operator of the accident-struck nuclear power plant, “Fukushima -1” have successfully moved 22 fuel elements (rods) from the container to a special pool just 100 meters away from the fourth unit, is being reported in a press release.
Work on extraction of the fuel rods at the fourth power plant, “Fukushima -1” began on Monday, the 18th of November. In the fourth power unit, 1.533 fuel elements are stored, most of them consisting of spent nuclear fuel.


 Last year, TEPCO, in test mode, removed two of them and made sure that the elements have not been corroded, allowing the beginning of their safe removal. 

The Company expects that work on extraction of the fuel elements at the fourth power plant, “Fukushima -1” will be completed by the end of next year.

Read more: http://indian.ruvr.ru/news/2013_11_23/TEPCO-moves-fuel-rods-from-Fukushima/
23/11/13
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-
Related:

• Fukushima operator to start fuel-rod removal. -Japan's engineers prepare to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods as part of plant's decades-long decommissioning plan.

Fukushima operator to start fuel-rod removal. -Japan's engineers prepare to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods as part of plant's decades-long decommissioning plan.

 -

The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has taken the first step in the long and hazardous process of decommissioning the facility, extracting four fuel-rods from their container for later removal.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, known as Tepco, said it transferred the uranium and plutonium rods to a steel cask within the same cooling pool in a badly damaged reactor building, beginning on Monday the delicate and unprecedented task of removing 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel from that reactor.

"We will continue with the work from tomorrow and proceed, paying close attention to safety," Tepco said in a statement.
The removal of the rods was the most difficult and dangerous task undertaken since runaway reactors were brought under control two years ago.
It follows months of setbacks and glitches that have stoked widespread criticism of the utility's handling of the crisis, the worst nuclear accident in a generation.
The work pales in comparison with the much more complex task that awaits engineers, who will have to remove the misshapen cores of three reactors that went into meltdown.
More than 1,500 rods must be pulled out of the storage pool where they were being kept when a tsunami smashed into Fukushima in March 2011.
Over the course of two days, the company said it expects to remove 22 rods, with the entire operation scheduled to run for more than a year.
A huge crane with a remotely controlled grabber will be lowered into the pool and hook onto the rods, placing them inside a fully immersed cask.

Complicated decommissioning
The 91-ton cask will then be hauled from the pool - to be loaded onto a trailer and taken to a different storage pool about 100 metres away.
Experts have warned that slip-ups could quickly cause the situation to deteriorate. Even minor mishaps will create considerable delays to the already long and complicated decommissioning.
While such operations are routine at other nuclear plants, the disaster has made conditions far more complex, TEPCO has said.
Months of setbacks at the plant have included multiple leaks from tanks storing radioactive water, and a power outage caused when a rat electrocuted itself on a circuit board.
Tepco's management of the problems has been criticised as haphazard and uncoordinated, with one government minister saying it was like watching someone playing "whack-a-mole".
The full decommissioning of Fukushima is likely to take decades and include tasks that have never been attempted anywhere in the world.
Villages and towns nearby remain largely empty. Fear of radiation makes residents unable or unwilling to return to live in the shadow of the leaking plant.
aljazeera.com
18/11/13
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Related:
 

• Robot detects locations of radioactive leaks at crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

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• Fukushima: Verstrahltes Wasser bedroht den Pazifik 

• Φουκουσίμα: «Δεν είναι ανησυχητική» για το περιβάλλον η διαρροή ραδιενεργού ύδατος.

 

Robot detects locations of radioactive leaks at crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on November 13, 2013 shows US nuclear expert Lake Barrett (R) inspecting the unit four reactor building of the crippled TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture. (AFP Photo/TEPCO)

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For the first time, a remote-controlled robot has detected the exact spot of radioactive water leaks from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant’s Reactor 1, local media reported.

The robot was sent close to the lower part of the Reactor 1 containment vessel at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi on Wednesday. Its camera captured images of radioactive water leaking from two holes of the vessel into the building housing the reactor, NHK television reported. 
The lower section of the vessel contains water that cools the molten nuclear fuel rods, damaged after the March 2011 earthquake that triggered a tsunami which hit the Fukushima nuclear facility.
The radiation levels in the inspected area were reported at 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts an hour, while a typical release of radiation is generally accepted to be 1 millisievert a year.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the nuclear plant’s operator responsible for the cleanup, has to keep the melted uranium fuel rods of the three damaged reactors cool for them to be relatively stable. Thus, the operator is storing huge amounts of radioactive water at Fukushima nuclear facility.
However, TEPCO engineers said that they cannot estimate the amount of water that leaked through the holes, NHK reported. They also admitted that Reactors 2 and 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi have similar problems.
TEPCO is now planning to use robots to locate other leaks which have been causing concern, as it is important not only in solving water contamination problems but also in carrying out decommissioning of the reactors.

This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on November 13, 2013 shows US nuclear expert Lake Barrett and TEPCO workers inspecting the spent fuel pool at the unit four reactor building of the crippled TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture. (AFP Photo/TEPCO)

Earlier in November, TEPCO announced that by the end of the month the company will start extracting more than 1,500 fuel rods from the No 4 reactor of the crippled nuclear plant, which contains 10 times more Cesium-137 than Chernobyl did.
The rods are expected to be placed in the outdoor pool at the station by the end of next year.
However, scientists have urged caution as such an operation has never been undertaken, while a mishap could release a huge amount of radiation into the atmosphere or cause an explosion many times worse than the original disaster.
“If something goes wrong this could be a global catastrophe that dwarfs what has happened in Fukushima Daiichi thus far,” Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist from the organization Beyond Nuclear told RT.
According to experts, complete elimination of the consequences of the nuclear catastrophe will take from 30 to 40 years.
The crippled reactors of the nuclear facility are located near the coast of the Pacific Ocean. After the tsunami that hit Fukushima, the cores of the three reactors melted and burnt through the concrete basement of the reactor zone. The water used to cool them has been leaking into the soil and contaminating the ground water on the premises of the nuclear facility. This water eventually started seeping into the Pacific. According to estimations from Japan’s Ministry of Industry, around 300 tons of contaminated groundwater has leaked into the ocean daily since the nuclear disaster occurred in 2011.
rt.com
14/11/13
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-
Related:

• Fukushima: Verstrahltes Wasser bedroht den Pazifik 

• Radiation levels in Fukushima bay highest since measurements began - reports...

• Φουκουσίμα: «Δεν είναι ανησυχητική» για το περιβάλλον η διαρροή ραδιενεργού ύδατος.

• Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant leaking contaminated water....

• Japan Reports Soaring Fukushima Groundwater Radiation...

• Έως 44 δισ. ευρώ η απορρύπανση της Φουκουσίμα

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  • TEPCO admits Fukushima-1 reactors leak radioactive water to Pacific Ocean

  • Φόβοι για εκροή ραδιενεργού ύδατος από το εργοστάσιο της Φουκουσίμα στη θάλασσα 

• Radioactive cesium level soars 90-fold at Fukushima in just 3 days...

Μεγάλη διαρροή πετρελαίου από αγωγό της ExxonMobil στα ανοιχτά της Νιγηρίας

Σε ακτίνα τουλάχιστον 30 χιλιομέτρων από τα παράλια εκτείνεται η διαρροή πετρελαίου από έναν αγωγό της εταιρείας ExxonMobil στα ανοιχτά του Δέλτα του Νίγηρα, καλύπτοντας τα νερά με μία ταινία βούρκου και προκαλώντας τεράστια προβλήματα στους αλιείς που κατοικούν στην περιοχή.

Η ExxonMobil διέκοψε τη λειτουργία του επίμαχου πετρελαιαγωγού την προηγούμενη Κυριακή, 11 Νοεμβρίου, λόγω της διαρροής, ωστόσο το πρόβλημα δεν έχει ακόμα επιδιορθωθεί.


Τα αίτια της διαρροής δεν έχουν αποσαφηνιστεί, με τον τοπικό επικεφαλής της εταιρείας, Μαρκ Γουάρντ, να αναφέρει πως έχουν κινητοποιηθεί οι μονάδες καθαρισμού.

Πρόκειται για τη δεύτερη μεγάλη διαρροή πετρελαίου που εντοπίζεται κοντά σε εγκαταστάσεις της ExxonMobil στην περιοχή τους τελευταίους τρεις μήνες.

Οι διαρροές πετρελαίου είναι αρκετά συχνά φαινόμενα στη Νιγηρία, όπου η εφαρμογή κανονισμών προστασίας του περιβάλλοντος είναι ιδιαίτερα χαλαρή και ένοπλες συμμορίες συχνά προκαλούν ζημιές σε αγωγούς προκειμένου να κλέψουν αργό πετρέλαιο.

Εντός της εβδομάδας , η BP ήρθε σε εξωδικαστικό συμβιβασμό με τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες για την υπόθεση διαρροής ποσότητας πέντε εκατομμυρίων βαρελιών αργού στον Κόλπο του Μεξικού το 2010, συμφωνώντας να πληρώσει συνολικά 4,5 δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια ως αποζημίωση.

Παρά τις συχνές και μεγάλες διαρροές που λαμβάνουν χώρα στη Νιγηρία κάθε χρόνο, καμία μεγάλη πετρελαϊκή εταιρεία δεν έχει υποχρεωθεί να καταβάλει οποιαδήποτε χρηματικά αξιοσημείωτη αποζημίωση.
. skai gr
18/11/12
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• Ιστορικό πρόστιμο κατά της BP

• Νιγηρία: Στα 5 δισ. ευρώ το… «μάρμαρο» από την πετρελαιοκηλίδα

• ΠΕΤΡΕΛΑΙΟΚΗΛΙΔΑ ΤΗΣ SHELL ΣΤΗ ΝΙΓΗΡΙΑ: ΕΝΑ ΠΑΡΑΛΟΓΟ “ΠΑΙΧΝΙΔΙ” ΑΡΙΘΜΩΝ

• Εκπαίδευση για αντιμετώπιση καταστροφών

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Nigeria Exxon Spill Spreads for Miles along Coast 

By Tife Owolabi
IBENO, Nigeria (Reuters) - An oil spill at an ExxonMobil facility offshore from the Niger Delta has spread at least 20 miles from its source, coating waters used by fishermen in a film of sludge.
A Reuters reporter visiting several parts of Akwa Ibom state saw a rainbow-tinted oil slick stretching for 20 miles from a pipeline that Exxon had shut down because of a leak a week ago. Locals scooped it into jerry cans.
Mark Ward, the managing director of ExxonMobil's local unit, said a clean up had been mobilized, and he apologized to affected communities for the spill.
Exxon said last Sunday it had shut a pipeline off the coast of Akwa Ibom state after an oil leak whose cause was unknown.
"This is the worst spill in this community since Exxon started its operations in the area," said Edet Asuquo, 40, a fisherman in the Mkpanak community, as women scooped oil into buckets. In some marshy areas, plants were poking out of the slick, not yet dead and blackened by the oil.
"The fishermen cannot fish any longer and have no alternative means of survival," Asuquo said.
The U.S. major's outage comes on top of multiple production problems in Africa's biggest crude exporter, after fellow oil majors Shell and Eni reported disruptions at onshore sites due to oil theft and Nigeria's worst flooding in 50 years.
"Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) regrets this incident. Our teams are being mobilized to clean up the area," Ward said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
"We apologize for the inconveniences that it has caused."

OIL SLICK
One fisherman described noticing a large quantity of oil on the surface of the sea and all over the beach the Friday before last, adding that the company has since sprayed chemicals in the water, which was helping to disperse it.
It was the second major oil spill near Exxon facilities in three months. At the end of August, an oil spill left a slick running for miles along the coast.
Oil spills are common in Nigeria, where enforcement of environmental regulations is lax and armed gangs frequently damage pipelines to steal crude. Oil majors say thieves are responsible for most of the spills on shore.
A U.N. report in August last year criticized the government and multinational oil firms for 50 years of oil pollution that has devastated the Ogoniland region.
"Our prayers are for tough punishment on the oil companies operating the Niger Delta," said Inyang Ekong, the secretary of the fishermen's association, as the car he was in swept past oil washing up onto beaches in an area called Ibeno.
Oil major BP Plc this week agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties for spilling nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Despite thousands of barrels a year spilt by oil majors in Nigeria, none has ever been forced to make a financially significant settlement.
Some communities are now attempting to sue for compensation from Shell in Western courts.
A raft of production outages has caused export delays to Nigerian crude to lengthen, as the country's number one export suffers acutely, oil traders say.
Shell still has a force majeure in place on Forcados and Bonny Light crude oil grades after a tanker being used to steal oil caught fire on September 30, spreading a blaze across several oil and gas installations.
(Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alison Williams)
 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nigeria-exxon-spill-spreads-for-mil
17/11/12