Powerful Typhoon Wipha Heads For Fukushima


This October 13, 2013 NASA satellite image shows Typhoon Wipha in the Pacific Ocean.

AFP: Powerful Typhoon Wipha heads for Fukushima, Tepco bracing ‘inflows of water’ — Experts: Huge flood potential for area around plant — Forecast to grow and strengthen, up to 40-foot waves off Japan coast (PHOTO) (ENENews, Oct 15, 2013):

Kyodo News, Oct. 15, 2013 at 8:46a JST: Typhoon Wipha, the 26th typhoon of the year, was traveling northward around 260 km east of Minamidaito at a speed of 25 kph as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to [Japan’s Meteorological Agency]. It had an atmospheric pressure at its center of 940 hectopascals and was packing winds of up to 216 kph.

AFP, Oct. 15, 2013 at 12:00a ET: Strong typhoon heads for Japan’s nuclear plant […] A powerful typhoon was closing in on Japan on Tuesday, heading towards the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Typhoon Wipha, packing winds of up to 144 kilometres per hour near its centre, was in the Pacific south of Japan early this morning. It has been forecast to reach an area off the Tokyo metropolitan area by early Wednesday and then head toward the coast of Fukushima […] TEPCO says it is bracing for the winds after a series of leaks of radiation-polluted water. “We are making preparations for proper management of contaminated water… we will patrol places that could have inflows of water (from the storm),” a company spokesman said. […]

Read morePowerful Typhoon Wipha Heads For Fukushima

Powerful Typhoon Danas Rips Into Okinawa, To Hit Fukushima Nuke Plant On Oct 10, 2013

Typhoon Danas to hit Fukushima plant on 10/10/2013 / “Very strong” (Fukushima Diary, Oct 7, 2013):

According to Japan Meteorological Agency, Typhoon No.24 “Danas” is going to hit Fukushima plant area on 10/10/2013.

Currently it’s near Okinawa. It’s heading for North East Japan at 30km/h. The central pressure is 935 hPa. Meteorological Agency states “Very strong”.

Since mid September, Tepco has had the contaminated water tank area overflow every time a Typhoon passed near the plant.

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/typh/

Typhoon Danas rips into Okinawa, Amami (NHK, Oct 7, 2013):

A powerful typhoon is moving north, with Okinawa and the remote islands of Kagoshima Prefecture engulfed in its storm zone.

The Meteorological Agency says Typhoon Danas was 110 kilometers west of the southern island of Tokunoshima at 8 PM on Monday. It is moving north-north-west at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour.

The storm has a central atmospheric pressure of 935 hectopascals and is packing winds of up to 180 kilometers per hour near its center.

Read morePowerful Typhoon Danas Rips Into Okinawa, To Hit Fukushima Nuke Plant On Oct 10, 2013

Fukushima: 1000 Tons Of Polluted Water Dumped Into Pacific Ocean

1000 tons of polluted Fukushima water dumped in sea (SBS, Sep 17, 2013):

The operator of the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday that it dumped more than 1,000 tons of polluted water into the sea after a typhoon raked the facility.

Typhoon Man-yi smashed into Japan on Monday, bringing with it heavy rain that caused flooding in some parts of the country, including the ancient city of Kyoto.

Read moreFukushima: 1000 Tons Of Polluted Water Dumped Into Pacific Ocean

Japan Officials: Nuclear ‘Event’ At Fukushima From Radioactive Release Into Ocean? (AP)

Japan Officials: Nuclear “event” at Fukushima from radioactive release into ocean? -AP (ENENews, Sep 16, 2013):

Associated Press, Sept. 16, 2013: […] As a preventive step, workers […] were pumping away rainwater that was pooling around hundreds of storage tanks containing radioactive water.  [Tepco] said the rainwater was being released to the ocean and was believed to be untainted. Tepco said it was pumping away the water to reduce the risk of flooding and potential tank leaks mixing with rainwater, then seeping into the soil or flowing into the sea. The government’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, however, said the pumping and release of the rainwater into the ocean was possibly ‘‘an event’’ subject to reporting under nuclear safety rules. Tepco said the radioactivity in the released water was within allowed discharge limits, but duty regulators at the plant were checking. […]

International Science Times, Sept. 16, 2013:  […] working around the clock to avoid the risk of tank leaks […] workers pump accumulating rain water that has been pooling around hundreds of storage tanks that contain radioactive water. Should the tanks puncture, radioactive water will mix with rainwater and seep into the soil or flow into the sea. […]

See also:

‘Emergency Measure’ At Fukushima Plant After Typhoon: Radioactive Water Being Pumped Into Pacific Ocean

TEPCO Releases Typhoon Water Into Ocean, Says It Was ‘Safe’:

In areas where water samples were highly toxic, however, Tepco took a different approach and transferred it elsewhere through makeshift pumps. One of those areas contained rainwater that was emitting 170,000 becquerels per liter, far higher than allowed.

Typhoon Pounds The Philippines, Killing At Least 7

Typhoon pounds the Philippines, killing at least 7 (AP, Dec 4, 2012):

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — One of the strongest typhoons to hit the Philippines this year barreled across the country’s south on Tuesday, killing at least seven people and forcing more than 50,000 to flee from inundated villages.

Typhoon Bopha slammed into the Davao region at dawn, its ferocious winds ripping roofs from homes and its 500-kilometer- (311-mile-) wide rain band flooding low-lying farmland. The storm, packing winds of 160 kilometers (99 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 195 kph (121 mph), toppled trees, triggered landslides and sent flash floods surging across the region’s mountains and valleys.

Read moreTyphoon Pounds The Philippines, Killing At Least 7

Fukushima Plant Faces Typhoon Summer With Added Tornado Threat – Nuclear Expert Prof. Kazuhiko Kudo: ‘Reactor No. 3 And No. 4 SFP’s Are Currently Naked’

Links on what will happen if reactor No.4 SFP collapses are down below.

From the article:

“Tepco completed installing a temporary cover at the No. 1 reactor building to prevent the diffusion of radioactive substances by the end of October. The cover is designed to withstand winds of 25 meters per second (56 miles per hour), Matsumoto said.”

What can you say?


Fukushima Plant Faces Typhoon Summer With Added Tornado Threat (Bloomberg, June 22, 2012):

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant faces its second typhoon season since the March 11 disaster last year, raising the risk of further radiation leaks if storms thrash exposed pools of uranium fuel rods or tanks holding contaminated water.

Typhoon Guchol hit Japan this week and moved up the main island of Honshu, prompting warnings of floods and landslides from the Japan Meteorological Agency. The Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant wasn’t damaged by the storm, which passed north of the crippled nuclear station, Tokyo Electric spokesman Taichi Okazaki said by telephone on June 21.

Typhoons rake through Japan’s islands most summers. The difference this year is Guchol arrived just a month after one of the most powerful tornadoes ever recorded in the nation hit Tsukuba, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) southwest of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi facility. The tornado, one of four to make landfall on May 6, ripped through an area 17 kilometers long and 500 meters wide, the weather agency said in a May 16 report.

The twisters killed a teenage boy, injured 50, wrecked nearly 300 houses and raised concern among scientists about tornado risk at the Fukushima plant, where explosions last year blew roofs off pools holding spent uranium fuel rods.

‘Naked’ Pools

“Uranium spent fuel pools of No. 3 and No. 4 reactors are currently naked,” Kazuhiko Kudo, a research professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University, said on June 5. “A tornado with winds of 100 meters per second like the one that hit Tsukuba could suck up the pool water,” exposing the fuel rods. He raised the concern during a meeting assessing safety measures at the crippled plant in May, he said.

As dismantling and decommissioning the reactors will take decades, Tepco should review the plant’s safety measures against not only aftershocks and tsunamis but also tornadoes and huge typhoons, even if the possibility of extreme phenomena are very low, said Kudo, one of 12 members of the advisory panel to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, or NISA.

Read moreFukushima Plant Faces Typhoon Summer With Added Tornado Threat – Nuclear Expert Prof. Kazuhiko Kudo: ‘Reactor No. 3 And No. 4 SFP’s Are Currently Naked’

Typhoon Directly Heading For Leaking Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Typhoon Roke Nears Japan on Track for Leaking Nuclear Plant (Bloomberg, Sept. 20, 2011):

Typhoon Roke brought evacuation orders and fears of floods to Nagoya city in central Japan today as it approached the main island of Honshu on a course toward the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

More than 1 million people in Nagoya have been advised to evacuate because of Roke and almost 80,000 have been ordered to leave due to flood risk, said Katsuya Kobayashi in the city’s disaster prevention center.

That’s more than double the numbers for typhoon Talas earlier this month, which dumped record rainfall on southern Japan, causing mudslides and floods that killed 67 people and left 26 missing. Talas was the deadliest storm to hit Japan in seven years.

Read moreTyphoon Directly Heading For Leaking Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Typhoon Dumps Record Rain On Japan, Killing At Least 20 People

Typhoon dumps record rain on Japan, killing 20 (AP, Sep 04, 20119):

TOKYO (AP) — Typhoon Talas dumped record amounts of rain Sunday in western and central Japan, killing at least 20 people and stranding thousands more as it turned towns into lakes, washed away cars and triggered mudslides that obliterated houses. At least 50 people were missing, local media reported.

Evacuation orders and advisories were issued to 460,000 people in the region, which is hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the country’s tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast.

Read moreTyphoon Dumps Record Rain On Japan, Killing At Least 20 People

Typhoon Ma-on Increases Level Of Radioactive Water In Reactor No. 1 Basement By 44 Centimeters In One Day

Rain increases contaminated water at plant (NHK, July 21, 2011):

Heavy rain brought by a tropical storm has increased the level of radioactive contaminated water at the basements of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Typhoon Ma-on moved east off the southern coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu. 115 millimeters of precipitation was recorded in Namie Town, north of the plant, between Tuesday and Thursday.

Rain has been gathering in the buildings housing the reactors because the roofs were severely damaged by hydrogen explosions that occurred after the initial March 11th disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Company or TEPCO, the plant’s operator, says that at 7 AM local time on Thursday, the level of contaminated water pooled at the basement of the building of the No. 1 reactor was 44 centimeters up from the previous day.

Read moreTyphoon Ma-on Increases Level Of Radioactive Water In Reactor No. 1 Basement By 44 Centimeters In One Day

Powerful Typhoon Ma-On On Track To Strike Mainland Japan Next Week

Typhoon Ma-On Targeting Japan (AccuWeather, July 14, 2011):

A powerful typhoon is on track to strike mainland Japan early next week.

Widespread adverse impacts from rain, wind and heavy seas would result from a direct hit on the southern mainland. Heavy rain, high winds and rough seas could also impact the site of the tsunami and nuclear disaster north of Tokyo.

Read morePowerful Typhoon Ma-On On Track To Strike Mainland Japan Next Week

TEPCO: Fukushima Not Prepared For Heavy Rain, Wind From Powerful Typhoon

Crippled nuke plant not prepared for heavy rain, wind (Mainichi, May 28, 2011):

TOKYO (Kyodo) — The crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds forecast due to a powerful typhoon moving Saturday toward disaster-affected areas of northeastern Japan, according to the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Heavy rain has been forecast for the areas from Sunday to Monday due to the season’s second typhoon, Songda, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Tokyo Electric, or TEPCO, has for the last month been spreading anti-scattering agents around the troubled Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings to prevent radioactively contaminated dust from being carried into the air and sea by rain and wind.

But some of the reactor buildings have been left uncovered after they were damaged by hydrogen explosions following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. TEPCO plans to launch the work to put covers on the destroyed buildings in mid-June.

A TEPCO official said, “We have made utmost efforts, but we have not completed covering the damaged reactor buildings. We apologize for the lack of significant measures against wind and rain.”

Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told a press conference Friday that the current measures “cannot be said to be appropriate.”

He added, “We are now doing the utmost to prevent further spreading of radioactive materials in consideration of the typhoon.”

On TEPCO’s ‘utmost efforts’:

Typhoon Strengthens, May Hit Fukushima Nuke Plant (Bloomberg):

“We are still considering typhoon measures and can’t announce detailed plans yet,” Takeo Iwamoto, a spokesman at Tokyo Electric Power Co., said by phone when asked about the storm.

Typhoon Strengthens, May Hit Fukushima Nuke Plant (Bloomberg)

See also:

Super Typhoon With 195 Mph Winds Approaching Fukushima


Typhoon Strengthens, May Hit Fukushima Nuke Plant (Bloomberg, May 27, 2011):

Typhoon Songda strengthened to a supertyphoon after battering the Philippines and headed for Japan on a track that may pass over the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant by May 30, a U.S. monitoring center said.

Songda’s winds increased to 241 kilometers (150 miles) per hour from 213 kph yesterday, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said on its website. The storm’s eye was about 240 kilometers east of Aparri in the Philippines at 8 a.m. today, the center said. Songda was moving northwest at 19 kph and is forecast to turn to the northeast and cross the island of Okinawa by 9 p.m. local time tomorrow before heading for Honshu.

The center’s forecast graphic includes a possible path over Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, which has been spewing radiation since March 11 when an earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems. Three of six reactor buildings have no roof after explosions blew them off, exposing spent fuel pools and containment chambers that are leaking.

“We are still considering typhoon measures and can’t announce detailed plans yet,” Takeo Iwamoto, a spokesman at Tokyo Electric Power Co., said by phone when asked about the storm. The utility known as Tepco plans to complete the installation of covers for the buildings by October, he said.

Read moreTyphoon Strengthens, May Hit Fukushima Nuke Plant (Bloomberg)

Fukushima: Rain From Approaching Typhoon Likely To Induce More Radioactive Leaks

Related info:

Super Typhoon With 195 Mph Winds Approaching Fukushima


Rain likely to induce more radioactive leaks (NHK, May 28, 2011):

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it is closely monitoring contaminated water levels in the facility as heavy rain is forecast next week.

Tokyo Electric Power Company is continuing to inject water to cool reactors. As a result, the level of highly radioactive water around reactor buildings is rising.

The company is concerned that contaminated water in the basement of reactor buildings and nearby tunnels may overflow and seep into the ground and the sea.

Rain is forecast on Sunday and Monday because of an approaching typhoon.

Read moreFukushima: Rain From Approaching Typhoon Likely To Induce More Radioactive Leaks

Super Typhoon With 195 Mph Winds Approaching Fukushima

Typhoon Songda brings floods, snarls traffic in Philippines (Bloomberg, May 25, 2011):

The typhoon may pass over the main island of Honshu, including Fukushima prefecture where Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled nuclear plant is located, according to the forecast. The storm is expected to weaken before reaching Japan.

Super typhoon churns through Pacific, threatens Okinawa (CNN, May 26, 2011):

Super Typhoon Songda ripped across the western Pacific on Thursday, dropping heavy rain on the Philippines and threatening Okinawa and the Japanese main islands with rain and damaging winds into the weekend.

Songda was a Category 5 storm late Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of 161 mph and gusts of 195 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The storm was producing wave heights of 38 feet in the Pacific, forecasters said.

Read moreSuper Typhoon With 195 Mph Winds Approaching Fukushima

Philippines May Lose 600,000 Tons of Rice From Supertyphoon


Super Typhoon Megi satellite photo

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — The Philippines, the world’s biggest rice buyer, may lose 600,000 metric tons of the crop as Supertyphoon Megi, the strongest to hit the nation this year, strikes some of the nation’s biggest producing areas, a government official said. Rice futures advanced.

“Once the typhoon hits those areas, the crop will be affected,” Agriculture Undersecretary Antonio Fleta said in a phone interview from Manila. “Even if farmers harvest the damaged rice, they’d have a hard time drying the grain. There may not be much left to sell.”

About 157,000 hectares of land planted to rice in Cagayan and Isabela provinces may be in the path of the typhoon, Fleta said. Megi has sustained winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, making it a Category 5 storm capable of catastrophic damage.

Half of the planted areas in the two provinces are ready for harvest and the rest are in the reproductive stage, leaving them susceptible to damage, Fleta said.

Damage to Philippine crops would come amid production losses in other countries, further curbing the global harvest and potentially sustaining a rally in prices.

Rough-rice futures have surged 43 percent from this year’s low of $9.55 per 100 pounds on June 30 as flooding in Pakistan and dry weather in the U.S. cut harvests. The contract for November delivery advanced for a fifth consecutive day today, gaining 0.3 percent to $13.655 on the Chicago Board of Trade at 12:10 p.m. Singapore time.

Read morePhilippines May Lose 600,000 Tons of Rice From Supertyphoon

Philippines ‘state of calamity’: Tens of thousands flee new typhoon

This is another picture after typhoon Ketsana hit:

philippines-typhoon-sept-27
People wade in the chest deep floodwater Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 in suburban Cainta, east of Manila, Philippines

Source: Time


Philippines Flooding
Residents go on with their normal life amidst floodwaters in Taytay township, Rizal province, east of Manila, Philippines Friday Oct. 2, 2009. Tropical storm Ketsana brought the worst flooding in metropolitan Manila and neighboring provinces in more than 40 years that left more than 250 people dead and dozens more missing. The Philippines is bracing for the super typhoon Parma which is expected to hit the northern part of the country Saturday. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

MANILA, Philippines — Tens of thousands of villagers fled the likely path of a powerful typhoon bearing down Friday on the Philippines, as the government braced for the possibility of a second disaster just days after a storm killed more than 400.

Heavy rain drenched mountainous coastal regions in the northeast as Typhoon Parma tracked ominously toward heavily populated areas still saturated from the worst flooding in 40 years.

Parma was forecast to hit the east coast Saturday, packing sustained winds of up to 120 mph (195 kph) and gusts up to 140 mph (230 kph). Officials fear it may develop into a “super-typhoon,” the government’s weather bureau said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a nationwide “state of calamity” and ordered six provincial governments to evacuate residents from flood- and landslide-prone areas in the path of the storm.

The “state of calamity” extends the one applied to Manila and 25 provinces hit by the earlier storm. The declaration frees up funds to respond to emergencies.

Read morePhilippines ‘state of calamity’: Tens of thousands flee new typhoon

Typhoon kills at least 41 in Vietnam; Floods could reach the historic highs of 1964

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Typhoon Ketsana headed west toward Laos Wednesday after battering central Vietnam with powerful winds and heavy rain, leaving behind blue and sunny skies but dangerously rising flood waters. The official death toll was placed at 41, but officials said that number was expected to rise as more reports came in and as floodwaters threatened further destruction.

“The rain was heavy and the wind was like crazy,” said Nguyen Trong Tung, a photographer, describing the scene in a telephone call from Danang. “Right now the sun is beautiful, there are white clouds and the sky is blue and the streets are already clear.”

The clear weather is deceptive and the danger has not passed, said Andrew Wells-Dang, a representative of Catholic Relief Services, who called Ketsana “the most serious typhoon that’s hit here in four or five years.”

“The casualty figures will get worse over the next days as more reports come in and also as the river levels rise from rain up in the mountains that will cause more flooding,” he said in a telephone call from the capital, Hanoi. The floods could reach the historic highs of 1964, said Le Van Duong, a relief and disaster mitigation coordinator for World Vision, speaking by telephone from Danang.

Read moreTyphoon kills at least 41 in Vietnam; Floods could reach the historic highs of 1964

China’s east coast battered by typhoon


Waves as high as 9m have been reported on China’s south-east coast;

Taiwan hotel collapses after typhoon

Typhoon Morakot has struck China’s south-east coast, destroying hundreds of houses and flooding farmland.

Almost one million people were evacuated ahead of the storm, which crashed ashore in Fujian province with winds of up to 119km/h (74mph).

Flights were cancelled and fishing boats recalled to shore. A small boy died when a building collapsed.

Morakot has already hit Taiwan, killing at least three people and causing some of the worst flooding for 50 years.

In one incident, an entire hotel – empty at the time – was swept away by the waters.

Read moreChina’s east coast battered by typhoon

Philippines: Food Shortage Looms – Arroyo Adviser

Related article (Typhoon Fengshen):
Fishing industry suffers after ferry tragedy:

“The government suspended all diving operations to recover bodies inside the vessel and banned fishing around the island on Friday after it was revealed the ferry was carrying a highly toxic pesticide.”

“Should the chemicals leak into its pristine waters the impact on local marine life would be devastating, according to marine biologists.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – A “food shortage” looms in the next one to two months after massive floods due to typhoon “Frank” (international codename: Fengshen) devastated farm lands and livestock in the Western Visayas, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s adviser for the region said Sunday.

“We may face a food shortage, that is the extent of the damage from the typhoon,” Presidential Adviser on the Western Visayas Raul Bañas told reporters here after he received a delivery of relief supplies from Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Alexander Yano.

“In our aerial sorties, we saw firsthand how grave the damage is to crops. I think that’s one of the major problems we are facing,” he said.

Bañas said one of the affected provinces, Iloilo, is one of the top three rice-producing provinces in the country.

He said the floods destroyed 22 hectares or rice lands, equivalent to 66,000 metric tons of rice, and “almost wiped out” livestock and fisheries in the region.

In Cadiz town in Negros Occidental, Bañas said the storm destroyed half a billion pesos worth of fishing boats.

Bañas appealed for donations of potable water, saying the water systems destroyed by the storm have not been repaired.

By Joel Guinto
06/29/2008

Source: Inquirer.net

China: One of the strongest typhoons in history

BEIJING (Reuters) – Fifty-six Chinese fishermen were missing on Friday as a typhoon bore down on the southern resort island of Hainan which state media said was the earliest to threaten the region in decades and may well be the strongest.

The fishermen were taking shelter near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea and had not been heard from since Thursday evening, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Hainan and the neighboring province of Guangdong are braced for Typhoon Neoguri, the first of the year, with almost 22,000 fishing boats having been called back to harbor as the storm skirted Vietnam.

“Neoguri will be the earliest typhoon of the season to affect the south China region since the founding of new China in 1949,” Chen Lei, deputy commander of the State Headquarters of Flood Control and Drought Relief, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

The storm was expected to be “one of the strongest in history” to hit the region, Xinhua said.

Typhoon tracker Tropical Storm Risk labeled the storm as category two in a scale up to five, with maximum sustained winds of 96-110 miles per hour.

Read moreChina: One of the strongest typhoons in history