Insight - In Fukushima end-game, radiated water has nowhere to go

[xchrom]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/23/uk-japan-fukushima-endgame-insight-idUKBRE97M0FG20130823


(Reuters) - In the weeks after the Fukushima nuclear plant was destroyed by a triple meltdown in March 2011, the plant's owner turned to three of Japan's largest construction companies for a quick fix to store radiated water that was pooling in the disaster zone.

The result was a rush order for steel tanks supplied by Taisei Corp, Shimizu Corp and Hazama Ando that were relatively cheap and could be put together quickly, according to the utility and three people involved in the project.

The tanks, which stand as tall as a three-storey building, were shipped in pieces and bolted together as makeshift repository for the cascade of water being pumped through the reactors of Fukushima every day to keep fuel in the melted cores from overheating.

The bolted tanks were sealed with resin and designed to last until about 2016 - long enough to buy time for Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, to work out a more permanent solution. But at least one of the tanks has already failed, leaking 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water that may have seeped into a drainage ditch and into the Pacific Ocean.

[madokie]

1. In the mean time

All nuclear power plants should be shut down. No if and or buts about it

[FBaggins]

7. Did that make sense to you?

Until they can find some way to handle water from Fukushima... all nuclear plants should shut down?

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. If there was a thread debating whether or not the AL should keep the designated hitter rule... you would chime in with "they should cease this insane method of boiling water until they have it resolved!"

[madokie]

8. Did what make sense to me

what you just said? No it did not
You know full well what I'm getting at

[dipsydoodle]

2. A picture I saw on UK tvnews

conveyed that the problem is also that the storage tanks are up hill. Seepage is mixing with ground water and draining downhill into the Pacific.

[xchrom]

3. really? oy vey. nt

[dipsydoodle]

6. Yes - not just a little bit uphill.

A lot uphill which makes the drainage unstoppable.

[Yo_Mama]

10. Yes. n/t

[quadrature]

4. many people do not want this solved

consider the issue of, spent fuel being stored in
dozens of locations in Japan.
..................
Cesium produces a big fraction of the decay heat
of spent fuel, and would easy to separate,
because Cesium is volatile ..thus
making the problem easier to deal with.
the anti-nukes do not want this..

[CRH]

5. The short sighted plan without a long term answer, ..,

will soon run into long term reality. In a bit more time when all of Fukushima plant is filled with containers, then where to put a few thousand years of radioactive water?

Without somehow containing the cores and spent fuel ponds, the problem will never be solved in our lifetime. If the ponds go critical at some time in the future, it might disperse the problem some, much to the detriment of any one near. Tokyo real estate might start decreasing in price.

[Yo_Mama]

11. They always knew it was a temporary solution

The tanks were only expected to last three to five years, and in a site that still gets shaken by earthquakes, shooting for three years would be the wisest choice.

The problem is that there is not yet a plan as to how to extricate themselves. The Japanese government needs to step in and provide realistic funding for what must be a very large project requiring over a year to complete.

I have written in some detail in recent threads why I believe that the water problem is such a game-changer at Fukushima Daiichi so I won't repeat all that, but the bottom line is that there needs to be a plan and the plan needs to be real and relatively quickly implemented. Otherwise, the worst-case scenario is that they basically experience growing failure and at some unpredictable time in the not-so-far-future are forced to funnel the outflow from those tanks directly from the containment basin they built around the tanks into the Pacific in order to preserve their ability to continue work at the site. Not a good scenario.

[CRH]

12. Yeah I know, I read the entire article, ...

the problem is, there is yet to be a long term game plan. And what ever the future plans are for Fukushima, not dealing with the cores or fuel ponds towards a permanent solution, in no way addresses the problem.

I have felt for some time, containment of all the water was impossible, and likely a major release into the Pacific will ultimately be their only option. If it were possible to highly irrigate the 100 square miles surrounding the plant with irradiated water without much consequence to surrounding public health, the Japanese government would happily make the sacrifice. This is obviously not an option.

Cynic that I am, I believe Tepco and the government will probably release batches of contaminated water into the sea before announcing the action. They seem adamant, they do not want international help or oversight.

The only thing certain, the problems at fukushima will get worse before a solution is found. It is in the nature of the beast that they are dealing. Keep it cool or keep it contained, failure of either, means yesterday was a better day than tomorrow.

[Yo_Mama]

13. I have begun wondering about that too

Water releases, I mean.

There is no containment at Fukushima Daiichi. There can only be mitigation.

[CRH]

14. Yep, containment was lost when the tidal wave hit. n/t

[Nihil]

9. Even in an ongoing emergency, unjustified optimism was seen to be a viable strategy.

> The bolted tanks were sealed with resin and designed to last until about 2016
> - long enough to buy time for Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, to work out a more
> permanent solution.




> a rush order for steel tanks supplied by Taisei Corp, Shimizu Corp and Hazama Ando
> that were relatively cheap and could be put together quickly

> the bolted storage tank failed less than two years since it was installed.

> The discovery of the leak - which Tepco said on Friday was the fifth from the same type of tank

> Taisei said it could not comment on individual client projects. Shimizu and Hazama Ando declined to comment.

They're probably all doing a Halliburton and destroying the evidence.


> Tepco plans to more than double the current storage capacity by 2016, but doesn't have
> a plan beyond that point.

Guess what guys? The fact that your planned lifetime has just been halved (or worse) means
that your lack of a plan beyond 2016 has just become a lack of a plan beyond 2013 ...


> The government estimates 300 tonnes of radiated water are leaking every day.
+
> Kajima Corp, a construction and civil engineering company, has proposed freezing the ground
> around the Fukushima reactor to create a 1.4-kilometer ring of frozen earth intended to stop
> groundwater from seeping into the wrecked reactor buildings.
> Contractors will prepare a report assessing the feasibility of that project by December.

If "by December" means "before December 1st 2013" then thats another ~30,000 tonnes
of radiated water before the report is even read ...


> "The opinion among the groundwater specialists is that Tepco has no idea what it's doing"

No shit Sherlock.