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stumptowny · Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 310

Water has overflowed at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is attempting to discern the quality of the water and possible radioactive substances which could have been spilled.

TEPCO announced on Monday that the water overflowed in 12 areas of the plant.

Heavy rains caused water to flow over the barriers of an artificial embankment which surrounds a dozen tanks of radioactive water at the plant. TEPCO reported that liquid containing a source of beta radiation was found beyond the levees.

The company said the incident was “due to heavy rain in the Tohoku region.” Company specialists are attempting to identify the amount of leaked water and the radiation levels present in the liquid.

Radioactivity levels in a well near a storage tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have risen immensely, the plant’s operator earlier reported, fueling ongoing concern about the impact of radiation on the surrounding environment.

Last Wednesday, heavy rains brought with Typhoon Wipha caused reservoirs for collecting rainwater to overflow. The natural disaster was described by weather forecasters as the strongest in a decade, leaving at least 17 people dead and 50 others missing in its wake.

Workers at the Fukushima plant had to pump rainwater out of protective containers surrounding approximately 1,000 tanks holding radioactive water. It is thought that the heavy rains lifted contaminated soil.

Shortly afterwards, radiation levels were found to have skyrocketed. TEPCO officials said Friday that they detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances - including strontium - at the site of a well near a storage tank. The level was 6,500 times higher than readings taken Wednesday, according to NHK World.

The news showed that radioactive substances like strontium have reached the groundwater, according to the officials. In August, the same storage tank leaked over 300 tons of contaminated water.

Earlier this month, TEPCO announced that 430 liters of polluted water had spilled from a tank as the company’s employees tried to remove rainwater dumped at the plant by recent typhoons. The contaminated water may well have flowed into the sea, TEPCO said.

However, estimates still may be unreliable. The UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) raised doubts at the beginning of the month. A preliminary report published in the Japanese press concluded that estimates of radioactive substances discharged at the plant provided by the Japanese authorities, TEPCO, and other entities may have underestimated the impact of the disaster.

The power plant was disrupted in March 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami which wreaked havoc at Fukushima and sparked a nuclear crisis in which meltdowns occurred in three reactors. It was considered to be the world’s worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

In September, a senior utility expert at Fukushima, Kazuhiko Yamashita, said that the plant was “not under control.” TEPCO downplayed his comments, saying that he had only been talking about the plant’s waste water problem – not the facility as a whole.

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-leak-radioactive-overflow-469/

OneJoelFifty · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 463

Pitarou · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

stumptowny · Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 310

lets hope the current typhoon "Francisco" does not wreak more havoc at fukushima. its due this weekend and although its only a cat 1 and likely smaller by this weekend, it's the rains that are flooding the troubled areas. last weeks typhoon did just that.. water spills of contaminates are largely diluted by the sea... concerning fisheries and wildlife but particularly bad for the amounts of water tokyo receives from underground aquafirs in that area.

Solar Strength · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 557 Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Mr. Kalgukshi · Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 6:28 pm Post subject:

This thread has just been edited and many off-topic and derailing postings have been deleted. If this occurs again, those responsible for such postings will be severely sanctioned. My advice is to stick to the topic and not introduce extraneous material unrelated to the discussion at hand.

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http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=77549

stumptowny · Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 310

MOD EDIT

Postings not directly related to the topic at hand will be deleted. This includes contentious bickering, personal asides and other derailing comments.

Members that choose not to comply with this warning will no longer be with us along with their ISPs.

There will be no more warnings.

stumptowny · Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 310

Tepco or the Japanese Gov. to address Fukushima? The Answer: TEPCO!

Great coverage on the thom hartmann show (link below) about privatizing power... the japanese gov. has given TEPCO control of the cleanup. this could be ugly...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XD3EuTKzcQ

stumptowny · Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 310

BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in fukushima tomorrow to inspect the reactors... He gives a radio interview on NPR program "Here and Now" dated November 6th

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/11/06/fukushima-nuclear-cleanup