Japan to consider dumping stored radioactive water into ocean off Fukushima

[sharon sanders]

Gov't to consider discharging Fukushima toxic water into sea

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's central government said Thursday it will carefully consider discharging into the sea some of the radioactive water accumulating at the site of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as proposed by the U.N. watchdog.


more...

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131205p2g00m0dm062000c.html

 

[Emily]

Re: Japan to consider dumping stored radioactive water into ocean off Fukushima

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2013/12/05/Releasing-radioactive-water-an-option-for-Fukushima/UPI-33101386271716/?spt=mps&or=4

Releasing radioactive water an option for Fukushima?
Dec. 5, 2013 at 2:28 PM

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/En...r-Fukushima/UPI-33101386271716/#ixzz2n3zHLJuV
...
"It is necessary to find a sustainable solution to the problem of managing contaminated water at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station," the IAEA preliminary report says. "This would require considering all options, including the possible resumption of controlled discharges to the sea."

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/En...r-Fukushima/UPI-33101386271716/#ixzz2n3zAvDPR

'Sustainable solution"..."controlled discharge"...

http://phys.org/news/2013-12-decontamination-japan-fukushima.html

Water decontamination system in trouble at Japan's Fukushima
Dec 01, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/05/us-japan-nuclear-fukushima-labour-insigh-idUSBRE9B415P20131205

Insight - Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor
By Antoni Slodkowski
NAHA, Japan Thu Dec 5, 2013 4:25pm EST

...
These bolted-style storage tanks, each as tall as a 3-storey building, were intended to last only until 2016, giving Tepco time to have a purification system in place so contaminated water could be cleansed and safely discharged.

In August, one of the tanks was discovered to have leaked about 300 tons of water, raising global alarm over Japan's handling of the crisis and prompting the government to order that the makeshift, bolted tanks like those assembled by the Okinawa crew be replaced by sturdier, welded tanks.

Weeks later, radiation at the ground near one of the tanks spiked to a level so high that it would have caused radiation sickness within an hour if a worker had been directly exposed. That spike, after an apparent leak of radioactive water, occurred in the same area where Uechi and the Okinawa crew had been working - an open space known as H3 on an elevated plain above Fukushima's four wrecked reactors.

"Yes, we did a shoddy job," said one of Uechi's co-workers, who didn't want to be named as it could jeopardize his job prospects. "The quality of what we did was low, but what else would you expect? We had to race to finish up the tanks." The worker quit after only a month at Fukushima due to the fear of radiation. He now works on a construction site in Okinawa....