Huge 8.9 quake plus tsunami - Japan

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TomCochrane

Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
Jul 23, 2013 - 12:20am PT
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-23/tepco-says-toxic-water-leaked-to-sea-from-fukushima-plant.html?cmpid=yhoo


Tepco Says Toxic Water Leaked to Sea From Fukushima Plant
By Tsuyoshi Inajima - Jul 22, 2013 6:57 PM PT

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), operator of the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said radioactive water from the damaged reactors has been escaping into the nearby Pacific, confirming the leak for the first time.

Tepco, as the utility is known, suspected the breach after finding water levels in monitoring wells moving in sync with tidal flows, spokeswoman Kaoru Suzuki said by phone today. The operator doesn’t know yet when the leaks started or how much of the water has escaped into the ocean, she said.

The finding, first reported Monday, follows statements from the nation’s nuclear regulator that said earlier this month it suspected radioactive particles had leaked into the ocean after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant.

Water samples suggest contamination has been contained in the port area near the Fukushima plant, Suzuki said.

The handling of highly radioactive water is an issue that has vexed Tepco as the utility oversees the plant’s cleanup. Most of the leaking water is a legacy of the early days of the crisis when disaster teams used hose pipes and pumps to try and cool the reactors. Leaks in April raised the prospect the utility would be forced to dump radioactive water in the Pacific.

Last month, Tepco said it had found unsafe levels of radioactivity in groundwater at the Fukushima station. The contaminants were found at a monitoring well in a turbine complex at the Dai-Ichi plant.

The latest findings are a reminder of the complexities facing Tepco as it mops up the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. All but two of Japan’s reactors are idled for safety assessments after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Several of Japan’s regional utilities earlier this month applied to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for safety checks as part of a step toward restarting their reactors.

Tepco shares fell 4.9 percent to 669 yen as of 10:36 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after earlier dropping as much as 5.1 percent, headed for their biggest decline since July 3.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Jul 26, 2013 - 11:07pm PT
http://enenews.com/japan-govt-its-inevitable-that-fukushima-radioactive-water-will-be-dumped-in-pacific-ocean-tepco-has-no-choice
Bargainhunter

climber
Aug 7, 2013 - 03:49am PT
Out of the news but the crisis is still not ending:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/world/asia/leaks-into-pacific-persist-at-japan-nuclear-plant.html?hp
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Aug 7, 2013 - 04:15am PT
They really have no choice other than to keep pumping water into the reactors and with the leaks under them it's without question going into the ocean. The water they have tanked through the crisis will likely be dumped as well before it's all over.
TomCochrane

Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
Aug 7, 2013 - 01:53pm PT

Japan says Fukushima leak worse than thought, government joins clean-up

Reuters
Mari Saito and Antoni Slodkowski 4 hours ago NatureJapanTokyo Electric Power Company

By Mari Saito and Antoni Slodkowski

TOKYO (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is pouring out at a rate of 300 tonnes a day, officials said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.

The revelation amounted to an acknowledgement that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) has yet to come to grips with the scale of the catastrophe, 2 1/2 years after the plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami. Tepco only recently admitted water had leaked at all.

Calling water containment at the Fukushima Daiichi station an "urgent issue," Abe ordered the government for the first time to get involved to help struggling Tepco handle the crisis.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-government-joining-efforts-contain-fukushima-toxic-water-033418884.html
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Aug 7, 2013 - 10:20pm PT
another article and scarry photo of predicted ocean contamination

http://tinyurl.com/mxgx5q3
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Aug 8, 2013 - 12:23am PT
Pure insanity the way that situation has been handled.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/environment-and-energy/magazine/86335/fukushima-nuclear-mox-flaws#
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
Aug 8, 2013 - 12:36am PT
Tepco , can't clean up an enviro disaster that they own so now they are calling in the government to bail their incompetent asses out... i thought the government couldn't do anything right...?
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Aug 8, 2013 - 01:51am PT
Governments are the people or should be. That the Japanese government has not been involved says a lot. They have failed the people of the world.
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Aug 8, 2013 - 01:59am PT
Governments are the people or should be. That the Japanese government has not been involved says a lot. They have failed the people of the world.
Dr.Sprock

Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
Aug 8, 2013 - 05:06am PT
a 500 lb tuna that glows at night would be so cool,

add 2 heads and 3 tails and you have a license to print money if you own a small sub,

why don't they just send that MOX to Iran so we can get off this miserable planet?
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Aug 10, 2013 - 06:44am PT
Japan, while a modern society, Japanese culture and governance still retains aspects of its feudal shogunate heritage which is quite suitable to the administration of the country's infrastructure. However, many of those same aspects can represent significant obstacles to the effective management of large-scale emergencies / failures which entail a human-error component.
command error

Trad climber
Colorado
Aug 12, 2013 - 11:49pm PT
Fukashima may contaminate the entire Pacific Ocean?

..And create Godzilla and it'll attack New York. Film at 11 etc etc..

Seriously
Those fuel pellets are not supposed to be water soluble are they?


http://rt.com/op-edge/japan-fukushima-contamination-environment-229/






TomCochrane

Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
Aug 23, 2013 - 07:22pm PT
August 23, 2013 - Nuclear Expert Reports Fukushima Leak
“Much Worse Than We Were Led To Believe.” Report upcoming.

Not only have more than 80,000 gallons of highly radioactive water leaked from very damaged Unit 3 containment tank - the BBC reports today that radioactive water is leaking all over the TEPCO site with no accurate figures for radiation levels that are extremely high. Further in a Wednesday night phone press conference, TEPCO's Vice Pres. Zengo Aizawa asked for international help saying, “The contaminated water remains a problem that could lead to a crisis.”

“It is leaking out from the basements,
it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place.”

 Mycle Schneider, Independent Nuclear Consultant



“It's like a haunted house and mishaps keep happening one after the other.
We have to look into how we can reduce the risks and how to
prevent it from becoming a fatal or serious incident.”

 Shunichi Tanaka, Chairman, Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority
hb81

climber
Aug 23, 2013 - 08:51pm PT
We have to look into how we can reduce the risks and how to
prevent it from becoming a fatal or serious incident.”

BECOMING a serious incident? Half your f*#king plant blew up, remember?
I really hope this is just a case of "lost in translation"...
Bargainhunter

climber
Aug 27, 2013 - 03:00am PT
Just what we feared has happened, and the response continues to be inadequate and ineffective.
TomCochrane

Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
Aug 28, 2013 - 03:03am PT
Japan should turn Fukushima into a cancer radiotherapy clinic where Americans can receive "radiation treatments" for cancer, because we all know that radiation prevents cancer, right? That's what the cancer clinics tell us, anyway.

Fukushima can become the world's newest medical tourism hot spot for cancer patients. Walk in with cancer and you'll walk out with so many other symptoms that you won't even notice the cancer anymore! That's the miracle of modern medical science. Sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, of course.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041800_Fukushima_radiation_leaks_desperation.html#ixzz2dFFYcpDe
Bargainhunter

climber
Sep 1, 2013 - 03:33pm PT
Now, Tepco corrects itself and finds radiation at the site is 1800% worse than previously thought, enough to "kill an exposed person in 4 hours." There is also another new pipe leak.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/01/217883557/radiocative-water-leak-at-fukushima-worse-than-first-thought
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Sep 1, 2013 - 05:20pm PT
Yes, that TEPCO is still in charge of the site about says it all.
kunlun_shan

Mountain climber
SF, CA
Sep 3, 2013 - 09:46pm PT
The Japanese government is stepping up to "take charge".

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24001884/japan-fund-ice-wall-stop-reactor-leaks

Japan to fund ice wall to contain reactor leaks
By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press
Posted: 09/03/2013 12:46:49 AM MDT

TOKYO—The Japanese government announced Tuesday that it will spend $470 million on a subterranean ice wall and other steps in a desperate bid to stop leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after repeated failures by the plant's operator.

The decision is widely seen as an attempt to show that the nuclear accident won't be a safety concern just days before the International Olympic Committee chooses among Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid as the host of the 2020 Olympics.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has been leaking hundreds of tons of contaminated underground water into the sea since shortly after a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged the complex. Several leaks from tanks storing radioactive water in recent weeks have heightened the sense of crisis that the plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., isn't able to contain the problem.

"Instead of leaving this up to TEPCO, the government will step forward and take charge," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said after adopting the outline. "The world is watching if we can properly handle the contaminated water but also the entire decommissioning of the plant."

The government plans to spend an estimated 47 billion yen ($470 million) through the end of March 2015 on two projects—32 billion yen ($320 million) on the ice wall and 15 billion yen ($150 million) on an upgraded water treatment unit that is supposed to remove all radioactive elements except water-soluble tritium—according to energy agency official Tatsuya Shinkawa.

The government, however, is not paying for urgently needed water tanks and other equipment that TEPCO is using to contain leaks. Shinkawa said the funding is limited to "technologically challenging projects" but the government is open to additional help when needed.

The ice wall would freeze the ground to a depth of up to 30 meters (100 feet) through a system of pipes carrying a coolant as cold as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit). That would block contaminated water from escaping from the facility's immediate surroundings, as well as keep underground water from entering the reactor and turbine buildings, where much of the radioactive water has collected.

The project, which TEPCO and the government proposed in May, is being tested for feasibility by Japanese construction giant Kajima Corp. and is set for completion by March 2015.

Similar methods have been used to block water from parts of tunnels and subways, but building a 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) wall that surrounds four reactor buildings and their related facilities is unprecedented.

An underground ice wall has been used to isolate radioactive waste at the U.S. Department of Energy's former site of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee that produced plutonium, but only for six years, according to the MIT Technology Review magazine.

Some experts are still skeptical about the technology and say the running costs would be a huge burden.

Atsunao Marui, an underground water expert at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, said a frozen wall could be water-tight but is normally intended for use for a few years and is not proven for long-term use as planned in the outline. The decommissioning process is expected to take about 40 years.

"We still need a few layers of safety backups in case it fails," Marui told The Associated Press. "Plus the frozen wall won't be ready for another two years, which means contaminated water would continue to leak out."

Marui said additional measures should be taken to stop contaminated water from traveling under the seabed during that time and leaking further out at sea.

TEPCO has been pumping water into the wrecked reactors to cool nuclear fuel that melted when the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and cooling systems. The utility has built more than 1,000 tanks holding 335,000 tons of contaminated water at the plant, and the amount grows by 400 tons daily. Some tanks have sprung leaks, spilling contaminated water onto the ground.

After spending on the ice wall, the remainder of the public funding—15 billion yen until March 2015—will go to the development and production of a water treatment unit that can treat larger amounts of contaminated water more thoroughly than an existing machine, which is under repair after corrosion was found during a test run.

Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has repeatedly said that the contaminated water cannot be stored in tanks forever and eventually must be released into the sea after being fully processed and diluted, but only with local consent.

Other measures include replacing rubber-seamed storage tanks with more durable welded tanks as quickly as possible, and pumping out untainted underground water further inland for release into the sea to reduce the total amount of water flowing into the plant site. About 1,000 tons of underground water runs into the complex every day.

TEPCO is also constructing an offshore wall of steel panels to keep contaminants from spreading further into the sea. The utility says radioactive elements have mostly remained near the embankment inside the bay, but experts have reported offshore "hot spots" of sediments contaminated with high levels of cesium.

The leaks came as Tokyo headed into the final days of the contest to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. With anti-government demonstrations plaguing Istanbul's bid and a recession and high Spanish unemployment hanging over Madrid's candidacy, Tokyo is pushing its bid as the safe choice in uncertain times.

The IOC is to select the 2020 host on Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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