Japan to fund ice wall to stop reactor leaks

[TexasTowelie]

Source: AP

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 station 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 between 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 the 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged the complex. Several leaks from tanks storing tainted 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,” said 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.”

Read more: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/09/03/japan-to-fund-ice-wall-to-stop-reactor-leaks/

[stonecutter357]

1. Sick Bastard

[Bennyboy]

2. they need to build a nuke plant

just to build the wall and keep the ice cold enough to resist the heat............... absolutely ridiculous.......

[AtheistCrusader]

6. There isn't a lot of heat.

Not compared to a single operating reactor. And this measure is not unprecedented. The US Corps of Engineers has frozen the hillside next to the Libby Dam in Montana to keep it from moving and collapsing the dam. Been frozen for as long as I can remember.

[exboyfil]

3. So how much of a nuclear reactor

are they going to need to keep the ice wall in place indefinitely? I thought this was an Onion article at first.

[christx30]

15. The answer to that one is so simple

I'm suprised no one has thought of it. Radiation causes mutant powers. Get enough people exposed, one of them is bound to have ice powers. He keeps refreezing ice wall. The rest of the team fights crime, or leukemia, which ever comes first.

[raging moderate]

4. Good for you, Shinzo Abe!

This is a REAL government at work!

[davidpdx]

5. I don't think the IOC is going to pick Tokyo, but regardless they do need to do something to stop

the contamination. How well will the ice wall hold in warmer weather?

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Depends on how they place it, and how big it is.

I doubt they can put it under the buildings, because as the ice expands, it'll lift the buildings, and who the hell knows what will happen. Putting it under the buildings is the smallest footprint/easiest solution though...

If they have to run it for a mile or more along the coast, next to the plant, it gets harder and harder...

[Octafish]

13. If they can't put it under the buildings, how can it contain the three melted fuel cores?

It seems we may need to resort to some new thinking, so please help.

PS: I'm not being a douchebag: Totally serious, I am.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. The ice isn't about containing the cores.

The cores are safely inside the concrete containment. They aren't going anywhere. They are no longer critical for a couple reasons, and simply generate radioactive decay heat, which isn't that hard to manage. But they have to manage it, or the material might start burning, which means radioactive particulates released into the atmosphere, so they have to pump in water.

That's a problem because the containments are leaking somehow, speculation points to the suppression pools (torus) at the bottom of the containment. (The big ring around the base) All that leaking has moved radioactive sediment and maybe some fuel pellets into the basement of the building.

THAT is a problem because the rising groundwater gets into and flows through the building. As it does so, it'll be picking up radioactive material (the sediment and whatnot) for who knows, probably entire human lifespans. A long long time. To stop that, they have to stop the flow of groundwater through the buildings. The ice is meant only to halt that free flow of water.

If they can stop the water moving through, then the only water they have to store, and decontaminate, is the water leaking from the containments. Much more manageable. Right now they also have to deal with water that rains down on the buildings, because the roofs are gone, but they are quickly building a cover over the buildings that will prevent rainwater from getting in, so that'll be one more source of contamination off the table soon.

Overall, still a total damn mess, but there are gains as well as setbacks.

[Octafish]

17. Really? ''The cores are safely inside the concrete containment.''

Got a source or link for that?

[AtheistCrusader]

21. If they weren't

you'd know, because there would be a huge plume of radioactive steam from each of the damaged reactor buildings, and they wouldn't be trying to keep contamination IN the reactor buildings, because ahahahaa fuck it, it's left the barn already.

Basically, the correct question is; what credible sources claim the cores have exited the bottom of the buildings? (There is none)

Chilling the ground wouldn't help at all if that were the case, and the workers wouldn't be able to drill and put in the refrigeration stuff anyway. They'd all die.


I shouldn't perhaps use the word 'safely' in that context, I am just trying to illustrate a contrast between full on core material boring through the base of the building, and core sediment and particles carried out of the containment via the cooling water, which has collected and caused an enormous problem in the lower levels of the building.

[Berlin Expat]

8. Heh. I don't think the IOC

will choose Tokyo either, so that leaves between Madrid and Istanbul, and of those, most likely, it'll go to Madrid.

Nothing against Istanbul, mind you; it's a magnificent city, and I enjoy going there frequently. Personally, I just can't picture holding the 2020 Games there, but who knows?

I certainly do hope they can bring the situation at Fukushima Dai-Ichi to a halt. In this entire debacle, TEPCO has done nothing if not demonstrate its complete incompetence in the most breathtaking fashion. I'm referring to the company's upper management echelon, not to those individual TEPCO workers who have braved the situation on-site.

[davidpdx]

9. I think Istanbul is still a possibility given they are so far north

away from Syria.

[cilla4progress]

10. Ice?

You're kidding me right now, right?

[elleng]

11. The operative words:

'desperate bid'

[hughee99]

12. I'm not sure it will keep the white walkers out. I know it won't stop the wildlings. n/t

[egold2604]

20. you beat me to it

[heaven05]

16. yeah, right

Also, I would like to see them tell the world about the on going casualties from this disaster. Birth defects are starting, read that the other day. How many DEAD now and expected in the upcoming future? So much damage, so much silence on human costs.

[bobGandolf]

18. Sure beats releasing it into the ocean! n/t

[DeSwiss]

19. K&R

[heaven05]

22. what happens

to the power generators for this 'ice wall' if there is a disruption at power source through say, another earthquake?

[Politicalboi]

23. When the man falls through

You LOSE!.

<a href="http://imgur.com/t91E7xa"><img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

Don't Break The Ice

[proverbialwisdom]

24. The Real News on Fukushima, September 5, 2013

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10674&updaterx=2013-09-05+10%3A15%3A28

Record Radiation Levels At Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Japanese government $500 million ice wall is a precarious, temporary fix, not a permanent solution to the radioactive water leaking from stricken nuclear reactors - September 5, 2013

VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT

[wordpix]

25. an underwater ice wall instead of Tepco's ineptitude & irresponsibility? I'll take NO NUKES

Fuku has been a disaster since the beginning and so it remains. I have no confidence the gov of Japan will succeed and as for the Olympics, forget it. Japan rolled the dice on "safe, cheap, clean" nuclear and lost. US should take note, pronto, and NEVER renew licenses for 40 yr. old nukes or allow new permits.

[PoliticAverse]

26. "We are the watchers on the wall"... n/t