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Page added on April 7, 2012
Radioactive Water Leaks From Fukushima Into Pacific Ocean
About 12 tonnes of water contaminated with radiation has leaked from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Plant operator TEPCO believes most of the water flowed into the Pacific Ocean. It says the contaminated water leaked from a treatment pipe.
The water contained radioactive strontium which tends to accumulate in bones and can cause leukaemia.
It is the second time in two weeks there has been a leak of contaminated water from the nuclear plant, prompting yet another apology from TEPCO.
About 120 tonnes of radioactive water leaked at the plant’s water decontamination system last month and about 80 litres seeped into the ocean, according to TEPCO.
The water, once it has been used to cool the reactors, contains massive amounts of radioactive substances and is put into the water-processing facility so it can be recycled for use as a coolant.
“Our officials confirmed that cooling water leaked at a joint in the pipes,” a TEPCO spokesman said, adding that “it is possible that part of the water may have flowed outside the facility and poured into the ocean”.
The leak has since been plugged, the spokesman added, saying the utility was probing the cause of the accident and how much, if any, water flowed into the Pacific.
The plant, about 220 kilometres north-east of Tokyo was crippled by meltdowns and explosions caused by Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami in March last year.
Radiation was scattered over a large area and made its way into the sea, air and food chain in the weeks and months after the disaster.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes around the plant and swathes of the zone remain badly polluted.
The clean-up is proceeding slowly, amid warnings that some towns could be uninhabitable for three decades.
4 Comments on "Radioactive Water Leaks From Fukushima Into Pacific Ocean"
Kenz300 on Sat, 7th Apr 2012 1:39 am
This nuclear disaster is far from over. They will be dealing with the disaster for decades to come. It is time to transition to safe, clean alternative energy. Nuclear energy is too dangerous and too costly.
BillT on Sat, 7th Apr 2012 4:21 am
Three meltdoens that they cannot even get close to, not to mention try to control. No, this disaster may only be beginning. There is now only 1 out of 54 reactors still running and that one gets shut down in May. Most are so old and questionable that they may never become active again. What if this happened on the US West Coast Ring of Fire? Imagine that fallout raining over the other 47 states. Not to mention the large amount already falling from Japan. And many of our plants are just as old and made by the same corporation.
Norm on Sat, 7th Apr 2012 6:35 am
Nuclear power is Cheap, Safe, and Efficient.
Har har, just kidding.
Maybe they can dump all those pieces of broken down nuclear reactor, into a volcano. It would turn into lava, then harden up into boulders.
BillT on Sat, 7th Apr 2012 10:04 am
Norm, It is a long, dangerous and very very expensive process to decommission a nuclear reactor. And then what do you do with the many tons of radioactive debris for the next 10,000+ years? Who is going to pay to maintain all that security for that long? Especially when there is no energy benefits coming out off it, only death? When the economy is already on it’s death bed? Who? No one, that’s who. Our grand kids and their grand kids and their grand kids will be paying for our ‘cheap’ nuclear electric.
If a civilization from another planet visited us, they would think we were all insane, and they would be correct!