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Page added on August 7, 2013
Tepco Plan Could Cause Fukushima Reactor Buildings to “Topple”
Japan’s Nuclear Accident Response Director Warns that Tepco’s Actions Might Cause Reactor Buildings to Collapse
Tepco’s ill-considered efforts to change soil permeability and water flow have caused severe problems at the site … including highly radioactive groundwater bubbling up to the surface.
NHK notes:
The vice governor of Fukushima Prefecture has asked the government to take the lead in handling the matter and stop the leakage. Masao Uchibori told an official from the Nuclear Regulation Authority that some of Tepco’s measures have increased the risk of further leaks.
The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Arnold says:
Obviously this is a massive public health issue … if it gets into the ocean obviously this could be spread throughout the Pacific, could also get into the food supply.
But there is another – stunning – threat.
Specifically, BBC points out:
Engineers are now facing a new emergency. The Fukushima plant sits smack in the middle of an underground aquifer. Deep beneath the ground, the site is rapidly being overwhelmed by water.
What happens when you pour hundreds of thousands of tons of water (400 metric tons each day times 2.5 years times 365 days in a year equals 365,000 metric tons of water) onto soil which sits above a massive aquifer?
We noted last year:
The spent fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4 is the top short-term threat to humanity, and is a national security issue for America.
As such, it is disturbing news that the ground beneath unit 4 is sinking.
Specifically, Unit 4 sunk 36 inches right after the earthquake, and has sunk another 30 inches since then.
Moreover, Unit 4 is sinking unevenly, and the building may begin tilting.
The Wall Street Journal reports today:
As [Tepco] prepares this week to start work on a new set of measures that would ring off and cap the area where the most highly contaminated water has been found, some experts and regulators are saying that the battle to completely contain radioactivity to the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents may be a losing one.
***
It’s preparing to extend the underground hardened-earth barrier in a ring around the most heavily contaminated section of coastline, in hopes of heading groundwater off before it can flood in. Tepco is also proposing to cap that ringed section with gravel and asphalt, so nothing gets out. The operator is hoping to get an initial ring of hardened ground done by October.
***
But there’s a risk to changing the flow of groundwater in the ways that Tepco is considering, said Tatsuya Shinkawa, nuclear accident response director of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, at a news conference last month. The water could pool dangerously underground, softening the earth and potentially toppling the reactor buildings, he said.
No wonder even top Japanese government officials are calling for Tepco to be fired …
7 Comments on "Tepco Plan Could Cause Fukushima Reactor Buildings to “Topple”"
BillT on Thu, 8th Aug 2013 12:10 am
Amazing! And this was the country that was going to take over the world economy not 20 years ago. Now they cannot even control, let alone clean up, the mess they allowed to happen because of poor design and siting. But then, I doubt the all powerful US could even do as well as there are no stupid people here that would go near that mess to do anything. Or, I could be wrong. Maybe we will find out in the nest few years as our antique reactors start to crumble.
BillT on Thu, 8th Aug 2013 12:31 am
BTW: GE owns the press and you will NOT hear much in the US about this. Ge also designed and built these reactors and still sells nuclear reactors.
Fukushima was opened in 1971 so they are 42 years old. Way past the design safety zone for the equipment.
PrestonSturges on Thu, 8th Aug 2013 6:36 am
Many US plants are just as vulnerable to earthquakes, floods, terrorists, plane crashes, and cyber hacking. US nuclear plants routinely catch intruders and nuts who often manage to wander around for hours.
mike on Thu, 8th Aug 2013 7:02 am
Send all the nuclear advocates ovwe there to build a dome over it. It a good use for the psychopaths that support nuclear.
Feemer on Thu, 8th Aug 2013 12:22 pm
Where is the International Atomic Energy Agency? Why hasn’t the government stepped in to do anything? This is out of control, and it needs to be cleaned and fixed regardless of the price, which is probably why Tepco is going so slow or not being thorough. Nuclear power is bad, we have no place to put spent fuel rods that last for hundreds of thousands of year, and we get nuclear accidents like this and Chernobyl. Imagine if Three mile Island had melt down…
PrestonSturges on Thu, 8th Aug 2013 3:03 pm
Maybe it’s just time to build the giant equivalent of giant arcade claw machine (the phonebooth like enclosure where you try to pick up a plush toy and drop it down the chute).
Then just rip the whole thing apart by brute force to at least stop what seems to be an ongoing reaction and get the shit into lined pools. Yes it would be messy beyond believe, but would it be any worse?
bobinget on Thu, 8th Aug 2013 3:17 pm
Fuk is a slow moving train wreck of unimaginable consequences. WE all agree. The environmental, political ‘fall-out’ from this disaster will effect Japan and other nations contemplating nuclear energy as a clean substitute for burning expensive fossil fuels for decades.
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