Expert warns saltwater will flow into Fukushima plant if ice wall is installed!

NPR: Melted reactor cores’ radioactivity being carried out to sea — Expert warns saltwater will flow into Fukushima plant if ice wall is installed; “Even if it works, it might not be a good thing… can have ‘unintended consequences’” (AUDIO)

Published: September 8th, 2013 at 10:42 am ET

minnesota.publicradio.org...



enenews.com... s-installed-even-if-it-works-it-might-not-be-a-good-thing

"It is an experiment, and I think it's a risky experiment .."

ANALYSIS AIR DATE: Sept. 3, 2013
What if the Fukushima Ice Wall Defrosts? Looking at Risks of Japan's Experiment

www.pbs.org...

JEFFREY BROWN: So, Arjun Makhijani, explain this idea of the ice wall. It sounds strange. How exactly would it work, and how much has it been tried before?

ARJUN MAKHIJANI: Well, I don't know that an ice wall like this has been tried before.

It's like building a dam underground, but with ice, by freezing all the poor water in the soil, all soil has -- so there's water coming in from uphill, through the side and going into the ocean, all underground. It's an aquifer. Some of that water contacts the molten fuel and is becoming contaminated.

And they hope to build -- to freeze the soil, basically, with a giant freezing machine, just like your freezer at home, put cooling coils in the soil, lots and lots of them. It takes an enormous amount of electricity and they would freeze it. Of course, it contains the water behind it like a dam, but eventually it's going to overtop the dam, as it did before.

They had another wall that they built. They chemically impregnated the soil to kind of solidify it. And that is what is overflowing into the sea 300 tons a day. So...

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, so it has been done before, but not on this scale, you think? So is it an -- how would you describe it? Is it an experiment? Is it a kind of stab at something?

ARJUN MAKHIJANI: It is an experiment.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

ARJUN MAKHIJANI: And I think it's a risky experiment, because if the power fails, you know, just like if your -- when the power goes out with your refrigerator, everything will de-freeze in -- defrost in the freezer.

So, if this ice melts suddenly and it's blocking an enormous amount of contaminated water behind it, then you have got a problem. At the same time, you know, the tanks are themselves something of a threat, if there's another earthquake and this highly contaminated water gets into the ocean. And so they have a got a very -- couple of very, very serious problems of containing the water.

Humans have the science and technology to solve this problem fairly quickly, but the people in charge of the situation can't seriously consider the best solutions due to cost. They would be losing money faster than they are dumping radioactive water into the ocean right now.

If they can make money with a band-aid approach they will, regardless of the potential risks involved - the bottom line.

Do they just assume we're all stupid and have absolutely NO memory whatsoever????

The first weeks were entirely SALT WATER flowing through the remains of the Fukushima cooling system...right into the core areas, or as deep as they could force it to try and cool them. What NEW problem do they suggest this will cause? They already exposed almost everything there to the extreme corrosion of salt water and I'm sure I'm safe to assume they haven't been IN there to replace all the equipment turned to junk by the salt.

Maybe someone can explain ...in real, not Tokyo fantasy land terms...what this actually ADDS for problems to a situation that has already been all but submerged in pacific salt water??

...and Tokyo Olympics tickets go on sale when?

I might go. Watch some people run around, check out the mutated countryside, buy six hundred pound radish that screams when you touch it...perfect choice, IOC. Ice wall, ha!!! I think those scientists have been watching a few too many cartoons.

Originally posted by the owlbear
...and Tokyo Olympics tickets go on sale when?

I might go. Watch some people run around, check out the mutated countryside, buy six hundred pound radish that screams when you touch it...perfect choice, IOC. Ice wall, ha!!! I think those scientists have been watching a few too many cartoons.

The Olympics have sealed the fate of millions... Now they have every reason, every single day to downplay and cover this more than EVER before. Winning that damned bid was the worst news I've heard since the wave hit the generators at that place.

Lets just award the Summer Olympics to North Korea next time... I mean, hell, fitness of a nation to have them means absolutely nothing. The human damage done to locals to "look good" is just eggs to make the omelette, it seems... so why not? At least the DPRK has all the free prison labor to make the venues and won't be poisoning a planet to entertain them at some stupid games.

I wonder what the body count will be for those games? It's a stat someone ought to be recording. It'll be a high one when all is said and done, I have no doubt after watching this Chinese fire drill from day 1.

Nuclear Consultant: They will have to maintain Fukushima ice wall for hundreds of years if ever installed
John Large

However, nuclear expert John Large is sceptical:

"The problem with ice walls is that you can crack and fissure the clay, which provides migration routes for the water and the radioactivity through the ice wall, so it's not at all certain."

He also points to the fact that the ice wall presents a technical challenge for future generations as it will have to be maintained at minus 40 degrees for 200-300 years.

ruvr.co.uk...

MichiganSwampBuck
Humans have the science and technology to solve this problem fairly quickly, but the people in charge of the situation can't seriously consider the best solutions due to cost. They would be losing money faster than they are dumping radioactive water into the ocean right now.

If they can make money with a band-aid approach they will, regardless of the potential risks involved - the bottom line.

That's a load of poopoo. There is no technology, nor any precedence, for how to deal with this.

reply to post by captaintyinknots


There are those who would agree that my cynical comments are just poo-poo. Like these articles . . .

www.washingtonsblog.com...

and

enenews.com... ed

However, there was mention of a filtering system in the first link and the Japanese seem to be doing well with there robotic designs like in the following link . . .

japandailypress.com...

There are many good ideas out there right now and with more serious and urgent global research they could be doing better than considering freezing the ground. Now they will need a few more nuclear plants nearby to keep the freezers running for decades or longer.

why do you people react as if anyone doesn't know this wont be over with just an ice wall, they understand it WILL cost Trillions over many years, there is no place to begin but to begin.

they will freeze it, so that people for a time and after a couple of years safely eat fish, the freezing will not be perfect, they will have to install pumps to do something about the build up, while frozen they will have to build a real wall, there might be dams built to hold back the sea, barriers in the bay a covering eventually put atop the whole thing

before said and done, it will be a monument you can see from space and cost a few Trillion dollars.

And we WILL succeed