|
|
Post by Admin on Sept 2, 2013 15:24:12 GMT
The discovery of the pipe came a day after Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it found new radiation hotspots at four sites around coolant tanks, with one reading at 1,800 millisieverts per hour—a dose that would kill a human left exposed to it in four hours.The pipe, which was found dripping one drop per around 90 seconds and was repaired using adsorption material and plastic tape, accounted for one of the four sites. Water with a radioactivity of 230 millisieverts per hour was found below it, TEPCO said. Last week the plant operator admitted 300 tonnes of toxic water had seeped out of one of the vast containers—one of around 1,000 on the site—before anyone had noticed. The spill sparked fears the toxic water may have seeped into the nearby ocean and was categorised as a Level 3 event, the most serious category since the meltdown itself. Response to growing domestic and international criticism over TEPCO's handling of the crisis, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday promised the world his government would play a greater role in stopping leaks of highly radioactive water. The accident in Fukushima cannot be left entirely to Tokyo Electric Power. There is a need for the government to play a role with a sense of urgency, including taking measures to deal with the waste water," he said. Abe's pledge came as the world's nuclear watchdog urged Japan to explain more clearly what is happening at Fukushima and avoid sending "confusing messages" about the disaster. For the general population in Fukushima prefecture, across Japan and beyond “the predicted risks are low and no observable increases in cancer rates above baseline rates are anticipated,” said the WHO. Clear cases of health damage from radiation only occur following exposures of 1000 mSv – far more than the 10-50 mSv WHO said was received by the worst-hit people in Namie and Iitate. The WHO also said the effects of the accident “are not expected to cause an increase in the incidence of miscarriages, stillbirths and other physical and mental conditions that can affect babies born after the accident.”  |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Sept 4, 2013 0:47:50 GMT
 Ever since Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami in 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has leaked 300 tons of radioactive water per day. In an effort to protect local water, the Japanese government announced a plan Tuesday to spend 32 billion yen (approximately US$320 million) on an underground "ice wall" to prevent contaminated water from flowing out to sea. In addition to the ice wall is a 15 billion yen project to upgrade water treatment plants in the area to remove radioactive elements, placing the mission's total budget at 47 billion yen, just shy of half a billion dollars. Bill Horak, chair of nuclear science and technology at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, said that it's not just the storage containers that are a source of water contamination. "There's an aquifer underneath the plant that runs out to the sea, like an underground river," he told ABC News. "It picks up contaminants that have leaked into the ground, and no one has a good handle on how contaminated that water is." The so-called ice wall may conjure up images of igloos, but Horak said that it's not so much an actual wall of ice as it is a network of coils, similar to what you would find in the refrigerator or freezer. "The coils transport liquid nitrogen at 30 degrees Kelvin, which freezes the ground and builds an impenetrable wall," he said. |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Oct 9, 2013 5:41:15 GMT
On Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan is finally open to receiving global aid to contain the ever-growing disaster at Fukushima, where radioactive water leaks continue to contaminate the Pacific Ocean’s ecosystem, and thus, the entire world’s food supply. Even prior to Monday’s power failure at Fukushima, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, just last week said more than 110 gallons of contaminated water spilled when workers overfilled a storage tank without a proper gauge. Tepco has admitted that "most" of the 110 gallons from the tank have reached the sea, but that tank is just one of about 1,000 tanks placed within Fukushima specifically to hold water used to cool the melted nuclear fuel in the plant’s broken reactors each day. And these leaks, which are extremely hazardous, are unfortunately not rare.  A Google Map taken in 2012 shows the impact of radiation from the Fukushima disaster on the Pacific Ocean. Many say the contamination has since spread to the U.S. Pacific coast. |
|
