TEPCO Disposing of ‘Low-Level’ Radioactive Water in Pacific Ocean
April 4th, 2011Couldn’t they store the radioactive water in massive bladders (like these)?
Via: Kyodo:
Tokyo Electric Power Co. began disposing of a total of 10,000 tons of water containing low-level radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean on Monday from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to make room to store more highly polluted water filling the No. 2 reactor turbine building, as the water is hampering the plant’s restoration work, it said.
Separately from the contaminated water kept in a waste processing building, the company also said it plans to release 1,500 tons of groundwater, also containing radioactive materials, near the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors. The government said the water disposal will pose ”no major health risk” and is inevitable in order to secure safety.
For two years I had a job with NOAA-fisheries in California, that involved going out on their boat and sampling for 6 month old rockfish and identifying them to species, so they could forecast how many would be around as mature adults in a few years. The marine GPS maps by the Channel islands of S. California show all sorts of zones near the military islands (San Miguel and Clemente) where boaters aren’t supposed to go. Near Miguel, we pulled up an adult rockfish with a funny fused tailfin and joked that it resulted from the bombing practice they used to hold there (who knows what was wrong with the fish). However, when you look it up, they were dumping barrels of nuclear waste over there in an earlier era:
http://kaiserpapers.info/downey/blog/?p=220
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/feb/24/west-coast-delusions/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Islands#Nuclear_waste_dump
Oh – this article about plutonium dumping comes up for the european Channel islands
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/plutonium-dumped-off-channel-islands-1262613.html
@quintanus – That is creepy about the rockfish you found. And Kevin – those bladders seem like an awesome solution for containing radioactive water.
Obviously, creativity (looking for solutions) that would protect nature and the safety of the people and other creatures are not concerns in the hearts and minds of TEPCO right now, nor in the government
I read in the local paper (The Herald) that the Prime Minister and/or the Emperor just this weekend went to areas destroyed by the tsunami and earthquake. Shades of Bush and Cheney after Hurricane Katrina: except I think that if it weren’t for the kindler, gentler, people with manners (for lack of a bet word) in Japan, this guy wouldn’t have made it out alive in the U.S. At this stage in the game, three weeks later, why the sudden interest in the people? Shame. Damn shame. I wonder if the Japanese people are going to find a way akin to their nature to show their displeasure with the handle of this crisis? Certainly, those us in the U.S. who are more comfortable flipping some the bird, or yelling crude epitaphs, or shooting people we are angry with have something to learn here.
I think they call it Grace Under Pressure.
And I guess your light bulbs will be long in coming – I forgot to inform you that all products are going to Japan right now. Sorry about that.
Because bladders provide no shielding, radiation would radiate outward in all directions from the bladders, making them too dangerous to go anywhere near- depending on the usual factors- (particular isotopes, half lives, amount of decay, etc). That could make them as dangerous as swimming in the water that fills them.
It’s time to entomb that mess behind a fortress of concrete and steel for eternity and leave an access hole at the top to throw in anyone who says nuclear power is “the cleanest, safest means of generating electricity the world has.” If so, learn to live without and throw them in anyway.
@steve holmes
Because bladders provide no shielding, radiation would radiate outward in all directions from the bladders, making them too dangerous to go anywhere near
It’s not like the site is ever going to be used again, so why would it matter if the bladders, and eventually more permanent tanks, just sat there? At least the crap wouldn’t go into the ocean.
Besides, what are they going to do with the high level radioactive water that they were supposedly making room for by carrying out this atrocity?
I absolutely agree that the ocean is NOT the place to dump radioactive particles and toxins. However, that is EXACTLY what they are doing because of logistics (from what I can discern from the high def photos of the site(s)). There simply isn’t enough space to store such bladders without having to move, monitor and replace them from time to time because they will break down just like everything else.
What is being done at the plants is nothing short of crimes against humanity- I currently live in the Seattle/Tacoma Washington area on the west coast of the US. We’re expecting heavy rains for the next couple days and along with them, fallout. Is our own government saying anything about it? No, they are talking about Obama running for reelection in 2012 and other assorted bs that is just as meaningless- like wondering if Lindsey Lohan is drinking again.
The tank farms at Hanford (eastern washington) proved that “temporary storage” of radioactive waste liquids is a very BAD idea as the elements/isotopes can precipitate out and form a pile of sludge on the bottom that can cross the threshold into critical event (think nuclear weapon detonation) if it is not stirred efficiently and constantly to prevent settling and concentrating for 50+ years. Worse, IF it’s stirred suddenly after sitting for some time, there is a serious opportunity for an explosion. For example, the plumb-full “temporary” steel tanks at Hanford (which are FAR more robust than storage bags) are corroding out and unfortunately, even after decades of cooling, the contents are still QUITE lethal. A couple months ago I read that they have to spend tens or hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars and another 10 years doing research to learn exactly how to stir the sediment in the tanks so they can pump it out without it going critical on them.
So that’s the problem with the cooling pools/ponds, inside the “dead” reactors and at the collection points in all of the low areas at Fukushima-Diachi plant and whatever other plants have melted down that they aren’t talking about (but radiation readings indicate core meltdown has already taken place).
Collecting it in bags, tanks, whatever, is NOT something that can just be handled like sewage or petroleum products. Isotopes are NOT “stable” and want to come apart- besides being radioactive. Collecting and thus concentrating them all in one small container assures you can’t go near the container for many times the life expectancy of those bags. So think of the waste as potentially exploding, concentrated, violent death in a container that has to be replaced annually- and if you don’t replace it, it will leak and cause yet another spot of lethal contamination that has to be cleaned up…by someone.
Thank God I’m not a nuclear scientist- I can be wrong about this crap and blame it on ignorance- but from what I understand, storage is a very difficult, expensive, carefully engineered process that takes years (and in the case of Yucca Mountain, DECADES) to develop only to be canceled or worse, misrepresented as “safe.” So far, the industry and governments have been fooling around with the waste for 60+ years with no end in sight when it comes to processing the deadly waste products into a permanent and safe tooth paste additive.
That’s why they are flushing it into the ocean. It’s the easiest option and as for liability, there is absolutely NOBODY that can make them “clean up” the ocean. EVER. I’m a hobby fisherman and I own property at Clam Gulch on Cook Inlet in Alaska, but damned if I’m ever going to be able to eat any clams from there without testing them with a bunch of expensive equipment that I don’t have. This whole thing sucks, but they don’t have any other way of dealing with it after the fact, which puts the responsibility back to the design of the plant in the first place- and that was just incredibly stupid and repeated over and over up and down the coastline in Japan- and a few times in the US.
Also, I’m not convinced that Tepco or the Japanese government has the slightest idea what the rest of humanity would reasonably call “low level radioactive waste.” Typical “high level” waste is so “hot” that nobody can go near it for decades for more than a couple minutes without risking death.
One thing is certain- what they have is a mess rivaling or surpassing Chernobyl that they should already be making serious permanent plans to contain for THOUSANDS of years. I’m trying to figure out where I can go to be OUT of the path and aftermath of the fallout that is going to blanket this area as soon as the rain starts again in a couple hours. I won’t buy milk and I won’t drink tap water from here for a LONG time at this point- so I need to buy bottled water that is not contaminated and hit road.
No, we have not seen the worst of this yet because nobody can see inside the reactors or storage ponds. I knew this was going to happen coming the day of the earthquake. It’s a no-brainer because this isn’t an isolated event- it’s happened over and over and the result is always the same- innocent people get screwed by their own governments because they are too trusting and too ignorant to understand that they need to do when the pooh hits the propeller.
@steven holmes
I do not know what to say to you, but somehow or another I want to offer you something and I don’t know how to express it yet. If its any comfort to you, the radioactive iodine is here also in Pennsylvania. All the way across the country from you. This weekend, when I till my garden to plant all my berry plants (sob) that are the WORST fruits to eat (they have no protection from absorbing THE BIG NUCLEAR SHIT FAN FROM JAPAN), I’ll be wearing a loop mask on my face and my plastic rain gear. Under all that clothing I’ll be sweating. There are lots of sayings that go with that but not appropriate to the time or place.
As to nuclear waste- those who generate it are worse than the banks. And those who are supposedly designing solutions for its storage after the fuel is spent are up against a wall. For example, the U.S. Navy has a legal agreement with the state of Idaho as to what they are going to do with all of those spent naval reactors from the submarines. They are spent, they are “hot” and they are sitting out there. There is a “plan.” This plan I trust. I do.
The Yucca Mountain storage option is a political football. In my mind, Yucca Mountain is a viable place to contain past waste – but it doesn’t have room for future fuel. Believe me, I’ve studied this. This site only had/has room for Naval spen fuel. So what the fluck are utility operators in the U.S.(who already know there is room for them at Yucca Mountain) thinking (they are not) when they continue to use nuclear fuel? There is nowhere else to keep the waste but in these cooling ponds. Like in Japan, outside the generator? How stupid is that?
I don’t know what to tell you Steven but hang in there.
Not a one of us gets out of here alive.