Groundwater flowing into Fukushima nuclear plant

[kristopher]

Source: Mainichi Shimbun

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it suspects that 200 to 500 tons a day of groundwater might be flowing through pits and wall cracks into reactor and turbine buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The suspicion is based on the fact that a decline in water levels in these buildings has slowed down.

"The suspected groundwater inflow is now unlikely to cause problems as the plant is capable of treating nearly 1,000 tons of radiation-contaminated water," said an official at the company known as TEPCO.


Read more: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110920p2a00m0na006000c.html

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Do "pits and wall cracks" only allow one-way flow of groundwater?

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Everything is just peachy. Smirk." - Nuclear Officials

[marions ghost]

2. "treating" 1,000 tones of contaminated water..."

does that mean dumping it?

[dtexdem]

3. Oh, don't worry: it's flowing right back out.

;-)

[kristopher]

4. Oh, well everything is OK then.

"Out of sight out of mind" is the motto of polluters of all stripes, but it seems particularly dear to the hearts of those in the nuclear industry.

[Downwinder]

5. But not as bad as Chernobyl.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Hydra]

7. Of course not!

Chernobyl would have been just peachy had the owners not been "Commie Reds."

No mistake a capitalist makes is ever a "mistake." It's an "unforeseen event."

[CJvR]

8. Actually....

Chernobyl was so badly designed it would have been illegal anywhere except in the workers and peasants paradise. Indeed with the possible exception of the Windscale plant it was one of the worst reactor designs ever.

[Hydra]

10. You mean other than the one sitting on various fault lines, leaking into the ocean currently? n/t

[CJvR]

13. Which one is that?

Fukushima is actually far from the fault line (Which is way out at sea).

[yardwork]

11. I was friends with a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project.

She told me that there are lots of reactors in the U.S. with the same design as that of Chernobyl. She told me not to believe the media reassuring us that it could never happen here.

[CJvR]

14. Your friend is wrong.

There are no reactor designs like that outside the old soviet block, something for which we all should be very grateful. Indeed, IIRC, it is illegal to build reactors with positive void coefficients.

ps: With the possible exception of some old small reserarch reactors back in the early days of the nuclear era, if your friend indeed worked on that project then it is probably those she remembers in her old age.

[leveymg]

15. "The pile" under the UChi stadium was an aircooled graphite reactor, like Chernobyl

I agree, there haven't been any more built in the US except research reactors since the dawn of the age.

[CJvR]

16. Chernobyl...

...was watercooled. With the exception of the British AGRs I doubt there are any power generating reactors operating.

[boppers]

12. No, it's worse than Chernobyl!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

(I see your four and raise you one.)

[avaistheone1]

19. Yes, not as bad.

Worse than Chernobyl.

[CJvR]

6. 500 tons?

Did they build the damn thing in a river or something?

[Bosonic]

9. Expect an uptick in water

Typhoon Roke on Track for Leaking Nuke Plant

Typhoon Roke brought evacuation orders and fears of floods to Nagoya city in central Japan today as it approached the main island of Honshu on a course toward the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

More than 1 million people in Nagoya have been advised to evacuate because of Roke and almost 80,000 have been ordered to leave due to flood risk, said Katsuya Kobayashi in the city’s disaster prevention center.

That’s more than double the numbers for typhoon Talas earlier this month, which dumped record rainfall on southern Japan, causing mudslides and floods that killed 67 people and left 26 missing. Talas was the deadliest storm to hit Japan in seven years.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-20/typhoon-roke-hits-japan-on-course-for-leaking-nuclear-plant.html

[CaliforniaHiker]

17. Nothing to worry about

Really, I'm sure there is nothing to see here. We know that they would tell us if we needed to be concerned.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[defendandprotect]

18. K/R -- Was listening to Gary Null today -- on UN station? -- re nuclear reactors -- YIKES!!

Of course, I've been aruging that we need to shut these things down because

of Global Warming --

might be the difference between "a whimper or a bang" -- !!

[lebkuchen]

20. Consider where your sushi is coming from

think I'll stick to kappa maki, but not if the cucumber was grown in Japan.