Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Why are the Recent Contaminated Water Spills at Tepco so Significant


Majia here: There have been many recent reports of major leaks by most, if not all, of Tepco's water tanks used for containing radioactive water.

The reason containment leaks are significant is that the Daiichi site is saturated with water.

Contaminated ground water at the site could contaminate the fresh water aquifer (indeed, it probably already has).

Furthermore, contaminated ground water will pour into the basements of the reactor buildings. Tepco cannot handle the volume of this water and has not been successful in pumping it all out.

The possibility of highly contaminated water entering the buildings and becoming further contaminated seems given at this point.

That means yet greater contamination of the ground water, ocean, and atmosphere (through radioactive steam emissions).


By SHUNSUKE KIMURA(8 April 2013) ‘Defect could affect all radioactive water storage tanks at Fukushima plant’ Asahi Shimbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201304080089

[Excerpt] Groundwater has been flowing into the reactor buildings, creating 400 tons of radioactive water daily.

TEPCO planned to pump up groundwater and release it into the sea before it enters the reactor buildings. That plan would be meaningless if the groundwater is already contaminated. [end]







3 comments:

  1. let's take this for a walk: 370 tons of water are injected every day just to keep the SFPs cool (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201304070026) and the radiation levels strewn all over Daiichi are going to take 180 to 300 years to subside (Steven Starr at Caldicott symposium) you don't need a calculator to do the math: TEPCO's water storage was never a serious approach to the problem - I always wondered if they were just running out the clock on their liability, but I think Japanese legislators closed that loophole - also: TEPCO has never told the truth when a lie was available, so why is this info coming out so promptly? might the IAEA observers be doing some legitimate work? wouldn't count on it - no, the water is going to start going right into the ocean, no ifs, ands or buts, and this flurry of 'news' is being released (pun intended) to 'justify' that horrendous decision - a better decision: fire 'em and send in Arnie, Yastel Yamada's skilled veterans corps, and all the military forces in the world, working together to save the world - but hey, then the whole corporate heist is over and peace would have a chance... so watch the spin mercs tackle Mangano and the EPA raise 'acceptable' limits, or check out how they handled the Arkansas oil spill: de facto martial law (http://www.alternet.org/14-things-you-need-know-about-horrifying-arkansas-oil-spill?page=0%2C2&paging=off) sorry, I'm not in a good mood today...

    ReplyDelete
  2. So well said jBee.

    Yastel Yamada's Skilled Veterans Corp has not been even allowed on site.

    No accountability.

    :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. ditto that :-( BTW Yastel is in the hospital right now, recovering from surgery for... throat cancer

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.