Radioactive Leaks in Japan Prompt Call for Overseas Help

[Purveyor]

By Yuji Okada, Jacob Adelman and Peter Langan - Aug 21, 2013

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) indicated it’s losing the battle to contain leaks of radioactive water at its Fukushima plant and emphasized for the first time that it needs overseas expertise to help contain the disaster.

The remark from Zengo Aizawa, a vice president at the utility, followed a leak of 300 metric tons of irradiated water this week. Japan’s nuclear regulator labeled the incident “serious” and questioned Tepco’s abilty to deal with the crisis. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made similar comments earlier this month.

“We will revamp contaminated-water management to tackle the issue at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant and seek expertise from within and outside of the country,” Aizawa said at a press conference last night in Tokyo. “There is much experience in decommissioning reactors outside of Japan. We need that knowledge and support.”

In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it’s prepared to help. Besides radiated water, the site north of Tokyo has more than 73,000 cubic meters of contaminated concrete, 58,000 cubic meters of irradiated trees and undergrowth, and 157,710 gallons of toxic sludge, according to the utility.

The tanks holding highly radioactive water cover an area equal to 37 football fields, and the utility is clearing forest to make room for more. There are 480 filters clogged with cesium. Each weigh 15 tons and are warehoused in what the utility calls temporary storage, though it will take hundreds of years for the radiation to decay.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-21/tepco-shares-plunge-on-report-of-serious-radiated-water-leak.html

[Mojorabbit]

1. This is good news! It needs to be an international effort. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. NOW they ask for help????? Now?????

2 years and counting after the tsunami and quake...

Related:

Fukushima Radioactive Leak May Be Raised to 'Serious'

",,,,,,,about 300 tons (300,000 liters, 80,000 gallons) of contaminated water has leaked from one of hundreds of steel tanks around the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co. hasn't figured out how or where the water leaked, but suspects it did so through a seam on the tank.

The leak, the fifth since last year involving tanks of the same design, also raised concerns that this could be the beginning a new disaster - contaminated water leaking from storage tanks one after another.

http://www.wunderground.com/news/fukushima-radioactive-leak-20130821

Why the concern about the leaks?
Because the tanks design is flawed AND the people inspecting the leaks are not really inspecting the tanks.
See the story at the link above.

[ljm2002]

3. Better too late than never...

...oh, wait.

Well here's hoping it is not too late. I had a huge amount of sympathy for Tepco and all of the workers at the plant when this first happened. Now, not so much for Tepco.