Tepco: “Losing faith” in leaking Fukushima tanks!

Japan's quake-crippled nuclear plant "losing faith" in leaking water pits
TOKYO | Tue Apr 9, 2013 7:39am EDT

(Reuters) - The company that runs a Japanese nuclear power plant destroyed by a tsunami two years ago said on Tuesday it was losing faith in temporary storage pits for radioactive water - but it doesn't have anywhere else to put it.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it had found a new leak at one of the pits at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Three out of seven storage pits are now leaking, compounding clean-up difficulties after the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

"We cannot deny the fact that our faith in the underwater tanks is being lost," Tepco general manager Masayuki Ono told a hastily arranged news conference.

"We can't move all the contaminated water to above ground (tanks) if we opt not to use the underground reservoirs," Ono said. "There isn't enough capacity and we need to use what is available."

www.reuters.com...

Tepco: “Losing faith” in leaking Fukushima tanks — But we don’t have anywhere else to put the radioactive water
April 09, 2013

[TEPCO] said on Tuesday it was losing faith in temporary storage pits for radioactive water – but it doesn’t have anywhere else to put it.

[TEPCO] said it had found a new leak at one of the pits at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Three out of seven storage pits are now leaking [...]

“We cannot deny the fact that our faith in the underwater tanks is being lost,” TEPCO General Manager Masayuki Ono told a hastily arranged news conference. [...]

Ono said on Monday TEPCO did not have enough tank space should it need to move the water out of the storage pits [...]

enenews.com...


260 tones of contaminated water leaked from reservoir No.1 ?
Posted by Mochizuki on April 9th, 2013

Tepco states the water was returned from No.1 to No.2 by siphon effect but the water level of No. 2 kept on decreasing linearly. *1 They observed the water level decreased from 57% to 55% in reservoir No.1. The capacity of No. 1 is 13,000 m3. Roughly estimating, if 2% of the 13,000 m3 leaked, it’s 260 m3.

fukushima-diary.com...


Tepco concealing all the radiation data about water reservoir leakage
Posted by Mochizuki on April 9th, 2013

fukushima-diary.com...

Defect could affect all radioactive water storage tanks at Fukushima plant
April 08, 2013

The latest problem at the stricken plant suggests that the defect could cause leaks at the five other underground water storage tanks because they all have the same structure.

TEPCO, operator of the plant, said April 7 that radioactive water leaked from the No. 3 storage tank. It earlier confirmed that at least 120 tons of contaminated water leaked from the adjacent No. 2 storage tank.

The utility has yet to confirm how the leaks occurred, but it said it suspects a breach where water-shielding sheets had been connected or damage to the sheets.

ajw.asahi.com...

ajw.asahi.com...

ajw.asahi.com...

reply to post by MariaLida


Translation: lets face it,unless we can pull a rabbit from a hat,that waters going into the ocean..

Originally posted by all2human
reply to post by MariaLida

 

Translation: lets face it,unless we can pull a rabbit from a hat,that waters going into the ocean..

edit on 9-4-2013 by all2human because: (no reason given)

It's just getting worse and worse ..

Tepco is release all that info so situation is probably very dangerous and alarming ..

It's extremely big amount of very high radiation-contaminated water, with every day amount is bigger and bigger ..

Anyway what they will do with all that high radiation-contaminated water, lo0l ..

Originally posted by all2human
reply to post by MariaLida

 

Translation: lets face it,unless we can pull a rabbit from a hat,that waters going into the ocean..

edit on 9-4-2013 by all2human because: (no reason given)

So can someone with some knowledge of radioactive waste tell us what this will do to the pacific, how far reaching it will be, and how long it would take to go away. Clearly it's bad. But fish are already affected so its getting into the sea. I am just wondering about the above questions even if anyone has a good estimate/guess.

Baby seals washing up dead on the west coast is an extremely bad sign of how far reaching this may be (unsure if they found cause for those dead seal pups yet). If there is only a small amount in the pacific it's clear it has an extreme affect at minimal amounts. They need to fix this - period. They are in a quake zone and will have more. It's just terrifying that more cannot be done and if not already happening the UN needs to get in on this one as its a global issue.

reply to post by Dianec



Here is some info on it also.

Japanese experts say that Fukushima is currently releasing up to 93 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium into the ocean each day. How much radiation is this? A quick calculation shows that it is about ten thousand times less than the amounts released by Chernobyl during the actual fire at the Russian nuclear plant. But the Chernobyl fire only last 10 days … and the Fukushima release has been ongoing for more than 2 years so far. Indeed, Fukushima has already spewed much more radioactive cesium and iodine than Chernobyl. The amount of radioactive cesium released by Fukushima was some 20-30 times higher than initially admitted. Fukushima also pumped out huge amounts of radioactive iodine 129 – which has a half-life of 15.7 million years. Fukushima has also dumped up to 900 trillion becquerels of radioactive strontium-90 – which is a powerful internal emitter which mimics calcium and collects in our bones – into the ocean.

www.globalresearch.ca...

But someone will be along soon,claiming this is fear mongering and we are safe.

1. Tepco will never speak until it is too late, so this admission is not a "we will loose faith" but a "we lost faith a year ago, we're just telling you now."

2. If Tepco quits dealing with this, there is no plan. Think about this, an ongoing global disaster has no backup plan to the bankrupt company managing it.

3. The US will spend 1 trillion dollars this year on the infrastructure to kill people who are going to inevitably die from this mess when it all crumbles. This seems the great irony of all, morons, idiots, zealots, freaks all making weapons to kill people who have already been given a long term (some short term) lethal injection. Why not save us to kill us, damn it.

4. Every day the infrastructure crumbles a bit from the saltwater/radiation mess. One day, it will just go poof, letting the full scale genetic havoc begin.

5. Until poof happens, tepco will soon run out of workers who are willing to put their fingers in the radioactive damn holes. Then, when conscription begins, watch the hang wringing from the above collective of morons.

Originally posted by MariaLida

Originally posted by all2human
reply to post by MariaLida

 

Translation: lets face it,unless we can pull a rabbit from a hat,that waters going into the ocean..

edit on 9-4-2013 by all2human because: (no reason given)

It's just getting worse and worse ..

Tepco is release all that info so situation is probably very dangerous and alarming ..

It's extremely big amount of very high radiation-contaminated water, with every day amount is bigger and bigger ..

Anyway what they will do with all that high radiation-contaminated water, lo0l ..

edit on 9-4-2013 by MariaLida because: (no reason given)

the real bummer about this is,. no one cares,./
our oceans are being polluted,. earths air is contaminated.. life seems like a downward spiral
and no one cares

reply to post by MariaLida


The default solution to pollution has always been dilution.

It seems Tepco prefers the 'fashionably late' approach, as they finally join the party with everyone else in the world who have, long ago, lost faith in the 'Fukushima Nuclear Nightmare'...

Better late than never, I suppose...

there's enough radioactive water to fill up to 112 olympic swimming pools that has the potential to leak... why don't they ask for help or get outside assistance or something! cause seriously this is getting from bad to worse. they don't care though ; that water is just coming over to the states and contaminating soon to be drinking water for human consumption.

There clearly isn't a solution for this disaster and only time will tell how serious the implications are on human and other life.

The solution to stop this complete disregard for the planet is to stop ALL large scale nuclear activities globally. That means nuclear weapons, nuclear energy generation etc. Radiation should only be granted authorisation for use in medical sciences/ treatment and space programmes. An international ban on development of further nuclear fuel and weapons will prevent anything like this happening again.

On a side note, what will happen to all of these nuclear warheads dotted around the planet if they are never used? Do they eventually 'melt down' and pollute or do they degrade to an unusable level? Either way, there is too much concentrated nuclear material on the planet and if it was up to me I'd send it all towards the sun.

NOAA maps and animation, probably today they will update new image ..

www.ncdc.noaa.gov...

www.ncdc.noaa.gov...

Japan's Tepco may run out of space for radioactive water
TOKYO | Mon Apr 8, 2013 7:10am EDT

(Reuters) - Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Monday it does not have enough tank space should it need to move contaminated water from storage pits that started leaking over the weekend at its wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Two years after the worst nuclear disaster in a quarter of a century, Tepco is struggling with breakdowns and glitches in its jerry-rigged cooling system to keep reactors and spent fuel pools in a safe state known as cold shutdown.

About 120,000 liters (32,000 gallons) of water contaminated with radiation leaked from two giant pits over the weekend. The cooling system has broken down twice over the past three weeks.

www.reuters.com...

testimonyofthetwowitnesses.com...

They should have come up with a better plan from day one. This "keep pouring water on it to keep it cool" plan is simply ridiculous and doomed to fail from the very start. This is the inevitable result of clean energy suppression and now we have to deal with it.

This is, by far, the greatest challenge to the planet in regard to radiation exposure to all life forms. Before we get into what’s going on right now with the contaminated water, it’s important to know what we started this disaster off with.

On March 11th, 2011, there were six nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan. This list shows you what was on-site at the time of the incident:

Reactor Number 1: 50 tons (including an active core at just under 100 tons)
Reactor Number 2: 81 tons (including an active core)
Reactor Number 3: 88 tons (including an active core)
Reactor Number 4: 135 tons (In “cold shutdown” with the rods from the core in the SPF)
Reactor Number 5: 142 tons (In “cold shutdown” with the rods from the core in the SPF)
Reactor Number 6: 151 tons (In “cold shutdown” with the rods from the core in the SPF)
Common SPF: 1097 tons
Dry Storage: 70 tons

It’s important to remember that reactors 1, 2, and 3, all had active cores at the time of the incident. It was reported as early as May 25, 2011 that the cores of reactors 1, 2, and 3, had already melted down and were eating through the bottom of the cores into the primary containment buildings. According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of Japan, Reactor 1 nuclear fuel breached the pressure vessel five hours after the earthquake (8 p.m. on March 11, 2011). Reactor 2 nuclear fuel breached the pressure vessel 80 hours after the earthquake (10:50 p.m. on March 14, 2011). Reactor 3 nuclear fuel breached the pressure vessel 79 hours after the earthquake (10:10 p.m. on March 14, 2011).

It is highly suspected that the molten cores breached their respective toruses, but this can not be confirmed as it is impossible for humans, and even robots, to enter these areas without near-immediate death. To make matters worse, the Pacific Ocean has currents which move water around. As NOAA points out, the North Pacific current moves water from Japan almost directly to the entrance of the Straight of Juan de Fuca here in Washington State. We are directly in the path of this radioactive water. The water isn’t our only concern. The radioactive steam from reactors 1,2,3, and SPF 4, has been vented to the atmosphere. The jet stream also moves the contaminated air from Japan to our area.

Reports in the media typically focus on two elements discharged into the atmosphere, Cesium and Iodine. This list isn’t remotely complete and the public needs to be aware that fission creates many “daughter products” to include: Selenium, Krypton, Rubidium, Strontium, Yttrium, Zirconium, Molybdenum, Ruthenium, Cadmium, Tellurium, and several others. These elements aren’t being discussed by the media because they likely don’t know about them. Some of the principle concerns are:

Strontium-90 - Mimics calcium, and is absorbed into bones and teeth. It’s a strong beta emitter with a half-life of 28.8 years. It’s a cause of leukemia.

Ruthenium-103 - Can form ruthenium tetroxide, which is a stronger oxidant and may be active in breaking down the tanks in Fukushima and working against structural integrity of buildings, and containment facilities.

Iodine-131 - This doesn’t stick around for very long, it’s half-life is roughly eight days. Those who are exposed to it have it absorb into the thyroid and it’s both a beta and gamma emitter.

Cesium-137 - Has a half-life of 30 years and is the primary source of penetrating gamma radiation from spent fuel until 300 years or more after discharge. It acts like Potassium in bodies, and it actively absorbed into muscle tissue, primarily the heart.

It’s important to remember that the cores in 1, 2, and 3 are being pumped full of water everyday and the water is constantly pouring in. This indicates that the secondary containments are not sound and that the water is exposed to extremely high radiation areas before being discharged into the ground. This is significant because these reactors are less than fifty meters from the Pacific. It’s also important to remember that Reactor 3 was fueled with MOX, not normal uranium, and presents significant health issues due to Plutonium being extremely toxic.

There exists a report by the Washington Military Department Emergency Management Division titled, “Radiological Emergency Information for Farmers, Food Processors, and Distributors”, dated June 2007. On page 19, it states that the average annual background radiation in Washington state is 360 Millirem/Year. On page 18, it goes on to state that according to the EPA and FDA, exposure to 1000 millirem requires evacuation in place or shelter in place. For 2000 millirem exposure, it requires relocating residents over the next 12 months. As radioactive particles fall upon our farmlands, they will bioaccumulate into produce, and livestock, consumed by our citizens. We need to put into place food safety measures to ensure that our foods do not contain radioactive elements.

Originally posted by Panic2k11
reply to post by MariaLida

 

The default solution to pollution has always been dilution.

dilution of what, tho, exactly, collateral damage of the whole destruction of oceangraphic ecosystems, that diluation
or dilution in the safety of the planet, lack of food, getting into the food chain, and then diluting all land population, including humans, as well...... cause that's what we're really talking about. 120 tons of extremely radioactive coolant water, stored to cover spent fuel rods and absorb their shedding and decay and emission of racioactivity.

Sorry, I went off a little there. I'm just stunned.