Tongue-in-cheek
comments -
Tepco:
"300 tons of radioactive water a day into the Pacific. Or maybe
it's 400. Nothing is real, however. It's all conjecture."
Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe: "Tepco and the government has admittedly
fucked up and kept secrets for the past two years. Trust me, however,
because I'm pro-business and I am now the government. As in the
Superman movie, we're going to create an Ice Fortress. If that
doesn't work, we'll use Kryptonite. If none of those two options
work, I'll make use of Halliburton. Oh, and I want to start-up all
the rest of our country's nukes as soon as the good people of Japan
let me."
- M.G
Japanese
government to help halt nuke leak
Radioactive
water is seeping past barriers
8
August
TOKYO
– The government said it will step in and take “firm measures”
to combat leaks of radioactive water at Japan’s crippled nuclear
power plant, including possibly funding a costly containment project.
The
announcement Wednesday came a day after the operator of the wrecked
Fukushima Dai-ichi plant said some of the water was seeping over or
around an underground barrier it created by injecting chemicals into
the soil that solidified into a wall.
“There
is heightened concern among the public, particularly about the
contaminated water problem,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during
a government nuclear disaster response meeting at his office. “This
is an urgent matter that needs to be addressed. The government will
step in to take firm measures.”
The
latest problem involves water that accumulated over the last month
since the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., began creating the
chemical barrier to stop underground leaks after detecting radiation
spikes in water samples in May.
Government
officials said Wednesday that an estimated 300 tons of radioactive
water has been leaking into the sea each day since early in the
crisis, which was caused by the March, 11, 2011, earthquake and
tsunami.
Since
a major leak occurred from a maintenance pit a month after three
reactors at the plant melted following the disasters, TEPCO had
denied any further leaks of radioactive water into the sea, despite
repeated warnings by experts, until finally acknowledging them last
month.
The
underground barrier on the coastal embankment has slowed the leaks
somewhat, but has caused underground water to swell. To prevent an
overflow above the surface, which is feared to happen within weeks,
TEPCO will start pumping out about 100 tons of underground water from
coastal observation wells this week. Later this month, TEPCO will
remove old contaminated water from trenches near the coast – a time
bomb that it had left untouched despite repeated prodding from the
government.
Shinji
Kinjo, an official at the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said
faster-than-expected swelling of the underground water following the
installation of the chemical barriers accelerated the emergency
caused by TEPCO’s delays.
Alarmed
by the leaks, a fisheries cooperative in nearby Iwaki city decided to
indefinitely postpone a test catch planned for September.
Government
officials said Wednesday they were considering funding a separate,
multibillion-dollar project to surround the reactor buildings with a
wall of frozen ground to block underground water from entering the
contaminated buildings. The project, announced in May, is scheduled
for completion in July 2015.
Similar
methods have been used to build tunnels, but building a wall that
surrounds four reactor buildings and their related facilities is
“unprecedented anywhere in the world,” said Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yoshihide Suga. “We believe it is necessary that the
country steps forward to support its construction,” he said.
Abe
Joins Greenpeace in Signal Tepco Not Up to Cleanup
Japan
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an unlikely companion with environment
protection campaigner Greenpeace as both indicated Tokyo Electric
Power Co. (9501) isn’t up to the task of containing the Fukushima
nuclear disaster.
7
August, 2013
Greenpeace’s
comments were blunt, Abe’s less so, though they both agreed on the
seriousness of revelations that radioactive groundwater is gushing
into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled coastal atomic station north
of Tokyo.
At
least 300 tons of water laced with strontium and other radioactive
particles is getting into the ocean each day, according to the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry at a briefing in Tokyo
yesterday. The leaks may have been happening for two years, though
not at the same rate, said Tatsuya Shinkawa, who heads a division at
the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy helping handle the
accident.
“The
worsening leaks of contaminated water at the Fukushima nuclear plant
prove Tepco is incapable of dealing with the disaster,” Greenpeace
International said in a statement, referring to Tokyo Electric.
“Japan’s authorities must now step in and ensure action is
finally taken to stop the leaks.”
Abe
did just that yesterday, telling a ministerial meeting the government
will draw up a strategy to tackle the problem.
“It
is an urgent problem,” Abe said. “We will not leave this to
Tepco.”
Back
Burner?
Activist
groups in Japan will be pressing a similar case today in a meeting
with the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
The
groups include citizen activists from Fukushima, where as many as
160,000 people had to evacuate to escape airborne radiation when
buildings exploded and reactors melted down at the atomic station in
March, 2011.
The
activist groups argue the NRA is dedicating its already slim
resources to checking that applications by utilities to restart
reactors closed for inspections after Fukushima comply with new
safety standards, Kyoto-based organizer Green Action said in a
release.
“The
bulk of the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s human resources is being
used to examine electric utility nuclear power plant restart
applications,” Green Action director Aileen Mioko Smith said in the
release. Dealing with the Fukushima accident is on the “back-burner
at the NRA.”
Not
Fast
All
but two of Japan’s 50 reactors are idled for safety checks after
Fukushima. The NRA, which was set up after the disaster to
independently review the nuclear industry, has accepted applications
from three utilities for safety inspections at four separate plants.
The
regulator has also indicated growing alarm about the water leaks.
Radioactive
water leaks are getting out of control and “creating a state of
emergency,” said Shinji Kinjo, citing comments made by NRA Chairman
Shinichi Tanaka in a meeting last week. Kinjo leads a Fukushima
disaster task force for the regulator.
More
funds will be made available to help stem the flow of contaminated
water, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press
conference in Tokyo yesterday.
“I
believe Tepco is doing all it can,” Suga said. “But from the
point of view of those in the disaster zone and the people of Japan,
it does not seem to be progressing very fast.”
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