Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 5th to April 8th, 2013

[dixiegrrrrl]

TEPCO is once again under fire this week, after two separate leaks were reported in underground tanks designed to hold radioactive water used to cool reactors. On April 5, TEPCO reported that 120 tons (almost 29,000 gallons or nearly 110,000 liters) of highly radioactive water had leaked from tank #2, which is approximately the size of several football fields and holds 13,000 tons of water. There are seven tanks at the facility.

Experts are now raising concerns that all seven underground tanks, which are all constructed similarly, may be at risk of leaking. Some have charged TEPCO with trying to save money by cutting corners and digging what are essentially storage pits, rather than building more expensive steel-reinforced tanks.

More news of various TEPCO problems also at link:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/fukushima-nuclear-crisis-update-for-april-5th/blog/44658/

[FBaggins]

1. The size of several football fields?

That would be a pretty odd shape for a tank of water. 13,000 tons of water would only be a couple feet deep spread over "several football fields".

[wtmusic]

3. Does it even matter?

It's probably a complete fabrication anyway.

[CreekDog]

4. I don't get it. You can't support even minor changes to help pedestrians be safer

which is good for the environment.

but you can support almost every example of nuclear energy you see in this forum.

i really don't get that.

i see a big contradiction in not wanting to make even minor changes for pedestrian safety because you don't want to wait longer at lights (even though that's not really the case).

what kind of environmentalist am i dealing with? against pedestrian safety, mocking of almost any criticism of nuclear energy?

are you in the nuclear industry?

[RobertEarl]

2. Underground or inground?

Sounds to me like the translation from Japanese into English may be a problem.

And that these tanks are rather more evaporation ponds than tanks. Open to the air and with a large area for evaporation, these ponds may be the trick to helping Tepco get rid of all that radiated water they have.

Read that the bottom of these ponds are a plastic liner that is meant for solids. Solids like in a refuse landfill liner, and that the seams have split, allowing leakage.

One way or another Tepco has to dispose of probably millions of gallons of irradiated water. I wish them luck.....