Thursday, August 08, 2013

A minor little problem that will soon be brought to an end…

"No problem with nuclear power ever...why look at the Japanese", says no one anymore. For not only is the Fukishima plant still leaking radioactive waste into the ocean, it's providing stark and morbid evidence of the wonders of such efforts.
A survey released today by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said water laced with caesium and other radioactive materials is flowing into the ocean at a rate of 300 tons a day. The ministry, which oversees the nuclear industry, said it could not rule out the possibility that the water has been leaking into the Pacific since the crisis began more than two years ago. Critics have accused the NRA of allowing Tepco off the hook. After months of denials, the embattled utility was finally forced to admit the groundwater leaks last week.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

6 comments:

Montag said...

It was apparent in the first couple of days after the tsunami that these guys were in a tub of shit and had no idea how to climb out of it. It's only gotten worse since then.

The problem, I think, is that TEPCO is still under the genuinely stupid and mistaken belief that they're going to be able to fix this and salvage more use out of the reactors. They should have just admitted the write-off and filled the sub-containment and the containment with concrete a long time ago. Not a perfect solution (the cores would have heated up and burned down through some of the concrete), but it would have minimized the contact with groundwater.

As it is now, they've got their thumbs up their asses, watching their little toys spray radiation into the Pacific.

StonyPillow said...

Hey, all that cesium and strontium are flowing underground from the storage pools to the sea. Nothing wrong with that, right?

The solution
To pollution
Is dilution

Ebon Krieg said...

Nothing to see here (adjusts blinders to a tighter setting), just move along to the really important stuff that like more weiner shots.

Brian M said...

I should probably give up sushi at this point, no?

Anonymous said...

Is it still sushi if it's already cooked before it's caught?

On the other hand, glowing sushi could be a new trend, like midnight bowling...

Anonymous said...

300 tons?

Why not put that figure in a context where we can understand it better? Like gallons. It's about 75,000 gallons, at 8 lbs/gallon. Which is the size of about 3.5 suburban home pools.

We need more nuclear energy.