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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWrecked Fukushima nuke plant leaking 330 tons of contaminated water a day
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday ordered increased efforts to stop radiation-contaminated water from spilling into the Pacific Ocean from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
A government official told reporters Wednesday that an estimated 300 metric tons (330 tons) of contaminated water was leaking into the ocean every day from the Daiichi plant, which was devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Reuters reported.
The official also said the government believed the leaks had been happening for two years.
Few people are granted access to the radioactive Fukushima exclusion zone in Japan, which remains abandoned and frozen in time on March 11, 2011 the day a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused a triple nuclear meltdown in the city. Channel 4's Alex Thomson reports.
The plants operators Tokyo Electric Power Company has been building an underground wall by injecting liquid glass into the ground in an attempt to contain the contaminated water.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/07/19910577-wrecked-fukushima-nuke-plant-leaking-330-tons-of-contaminated-water-a-day?lite
WillyT
(72,631 posts)hunter
(38,264 posts)Coal wins!
Lochloosa
(16,019 posts)hunter
(38,264 posts)And don't forget coal mine wastes.
But the big one, that will greatly disrupt and possibly destroy this civilization, is greenhouse gases.
It would take many more Fukushima sized accidents to equal fossil fuels' ghastly record.
But the solution isn't "alternative energy" sources or anything else. Buying more stuff is what got us into this mess, and even if the stuff we buy is wind turbines or solar panels, whatever, that doesn't address the fundamental problem.
We've got to reduce our numbers (free birth control for all!) and learn to live better with much less.
Current economic ideologies are destroying the environments we are best adapted to. The current religion of "economic productivity" has got to be discarded.
It's better to sit back and watch a garden grow than it is to work in a factory so you can pay for the car that you drive to the factory.
How do we create a society of comfortable people who are less "productive," who don't buy much stuff, and only have one or two kids?
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Us how much worst coal is over this disaster? Congratulations are in order. We've missed you guys in all the recent Fuku threads.
I know, I know, eat those bananas.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)Bananas?
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)That it was not worst than coal, in fact, coal was more radioactive, and the level of radiation would be like your granite table, or eating a banana.
It has become a running gag.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)And the granite can be tough on the teeth
markpkessinger
(8,381 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)There was a woman that ate rocks constantly because she liked the crunch. Hey wait... I live in "The Granite State" AND I eat bananas! Guess that means Im completely screwn.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Your teeth will prefer it, as well as your dentist.
hunter
(38,264 posts)Radioactivity is just one way.
I'm simple. If you are chaining yourself to the front gate of the nuclear power plant on Saturday, you ought to be chaining yourself to the front gate of the fossil fuel plant on Sunday. Otherwise it looks like you are working for the fossil fuel industry. "Clean" coal or natural gas is propaganda, it's not clean, it's toxic. Some anti-nuclear activists are actually paid by the fossil fuel industry, both directly and indirectly. The natural gas industry loves wind and solar because gas is the perfect back up fuel when the sun's not shining and the wind's not blowing. Look at public radio and television. They've largely been bought by the natural gas industry.
"Fracked" natural gas is a horrible fuel. The groundwater contamination in that industry is every bit as bad as the situation in Fukushimi, maybe worse. Same with coal.
To quit nuclear power, to quit fossil fuel power, you have to quit. It's like smoking. A pack-a-day smoker who adds a joint or two to his daily smoking routine is still a pack-a-day smoker.
That's the kind of thing Germany has accomplished with all their alternative energy schemes. They shut down the nuclear plants and they are building new coal plants. It's like they're saying, yep, I quit the oxycodone habit for black tar heroin and a few poppers. Yay!
I'm a Luddite. I think we should get rid of any high energy industry that's not directly related to food, shelter, medicine, and art. Our big box store automobile based "consumer" society needs to die. We can spin it down on our own terms or we can wait until mother nature takes us down the old-fashioned way.
The first alternative, doing it on our own terms, is preferable. By nature's rules, animals living unsustainable lifestyles simply die. Using our unusual brains we have a choice. We can figure out what is sustainable or we can die.
I'm not optimistic. I think our world civilization is going to die, and the human population will be greatly reduced in extremely unpleasant ways.
http://dieoff.org/page80.htm
malaise
(267,823 posts)All of our threads on the subject have been sinking like stones and M$Greedia is certainly not covering this topic on TV.
spanone
(135,636 posts)malaise
(267,823 posts)330 tons of contaminated water a day leaking is one thing but every day a more senior official from Japan sounds the alarm and the media and politicians are more concerned about Snowden and Russia.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)Why the hell isnt there a global effort to deal with this?!
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)Whereas dismantling the reactor, vessel and building is not a viable option with current radiation levels. I'm not so sure there is any technology that could completely seal off the contaminated water.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)Im almost afraid to ask... will this thing ever go dry?
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)If we fail to cool the core, we could have a catastrophic event. The only option right now is to keep pumping water in, even if the water is also leaking out.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)Is that better than a meltdown? I was just reading that they've already found radioactive fish. I guess I dont understand how they can be allowed to do this to the rest of us. Its terrifying to think of this going on for years and years.
edit: typo
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)If you think contamination is bad right now, wait until the contents of the reactor are vaporized and cast out into the open air because we cut off the coolant flow.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)I dont know enough about it to say. Chernobyl vs a toxic Pacific Ocean is not a very good choice.
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)I would rather have contaminated water leaking into the ocean than a cloud of radioactivity belched into the wind.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)Im scared to see what starts washing up on Californias coast though. There should be a price to pay when these companies trash the planet.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)Its hard to imagine why the Gov't is just now getting involved.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)My hopes are not high.
City Lights
(25,171 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)its no big deal.
malaise
(267,823 posts)Some are still being repeated almost daily
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)I have missed hem in recent threads.
malaise
(267,823 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)City Lights
(25,171 posts)I encourage those that think it's no big deal to head over and swim in the waters just offshore. When they're finished swimming, they can tour the plant.
Logical
(22,457 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)they need warm bodies inside the plants doing gainful work. I'm sure TEPCO would pay good money for that time too
spanone
(135,636 posts)(Reuters) - Highly radioactive water from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is pouring out at a rate of 300 tonnes a day, officials said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.
The revelation amounted to an acknowledgement that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) has yet to come to grips with the scale of the catastrophe, 2 1/2 years after the plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami. Tepco only recently admitted water had leaked at all.
Calling water containment at the Fukushima Daiichi station an "urgent issue," Abe ordered the government for the first time to get involved to help struggling Tepco handle the crisis.
The leak from the plant 220 km (130 miles) northeast of Tokyo is enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool in a week. The water is spilling into the Pacific Ocean, but it was not immediately clear how much of a threat it poses.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/07/us-japan-fukushima-pm-idUSBRE97601K20130807
brush
(53,475 posts)Hasn't the Japanese government really downplayed it by saying it's harmless to the nearby population?
Wonder how long marine life in the oceans can take this and I mean oceans because they're all connected. Sooner or later those daily 330 tons (330 x 365 = 120,450) will move into the Indian, Atlantic and Southern oceans.
And if the oceans are poisoned so eventually will be everything else.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Speak the truth long enough and hopefully someone listens...
Sirveri
(4,517 posts)Exactly how much waste water do they have there? Reading the article in question, it's quite light on useful technical details. What kind of CDFPA reading are they getting from their samples. What is the primary nuclide that they are concerned about?
Further background research indicates that it's groundwater that leaked into the basement, and then back out to the ocean... So how much contamination is in the basement? It also makes one wonder why they haven't begun repair efforts of the water seal in the basement. What exactly do they do there.