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14
October 2013
Radiation
levels in seawater outside one of the crippled Fukushima reactors has
spiked to the highest level in two years. That’s according to
TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It said
that radiation levels on Wednesday, the day six workers were exposed
to highly radioactive water, jumped 13 times the previous day’s
reading. A TEPCO spokesman said that the sudden spike in
radiation was caused by construction work near the No. 2 building.
This
week’s significant spike in radiation levels is seen as the latest
setback for TEPCO. It has repeatedly been slammed for its handling of
the nuclear disaster after a massive quake and tsunami that hit the
Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011, triggering three reactor
meltdowns.
TEPCO,
which is pouring hundreds of tons of water to keep reactors cool, has
struggled to contain the build-up of radioactive water at the plant.
In
the latest incident, six workers were exposed to radiation after a
pipe connected to a contaminated water treatment system was
mistakenly detached. As a result, at least 7 tons of contaminated
water escaped the system.
Meanwhile,
Japanese officials have said that there is no environmental threat to
other countries as radiation will be diluted by the sea. Tokyo,
despite lingering concerns over the long-term safety situation at
Fukushima, was selected last month to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
The
Voice of Russia spoke with Arnie Gundersen, Chief
Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, on this issue.
Does
everyone really understand the real troubles posed by Fukushima
disaster? Is there anything else to discover?
This
is a problem that doesn’t seem to go away. And there are 3-4 pieces
to it. There is buildup of order in thousand tanks, each tank has a
thousand cubic meters of water in it and there is a thousand of those
tanks, some of which are leaking directly into the ground. That is
problem number one. But problem number two is that the building
basements are also leaking and the building basements have lots of
radiation left over from the meltdown 2 years ago. So, water flowing
in from the ground is in contact with the radiation and now all the
buildings on the site are highly radioactive as well. So, Tokyo
Electric solution is to build a wall of ice all the way around the
entire reactor about 2 km long but the problem is they won’t have
it done for at least 2 years. So, the problems we are experiencing
now are going to get worse over the next 2 years before Tokyo
Electric can begin to turn the corner.
Is
the wall of ice the best solution in this case or is there something
that would work faster and more effectively?
I
had proposed an idea 2 years ago that would have been better. I had
proposed instead of keeping the water from leaking into the Pacific,
the right solution is to keep clean water from leaking into the
building. It is like having a bathtub. Tokyo Electric choice is to
build the sides of the bathtub higher to keep the water in the
bathtub. My solution is to turn the tap off and prevent the water
from filling the tub in the first place. I was told 2 years ago that
Tokyo Electric couldn’t afford that. But the solution they are
proposing is much more costly. That really gets to the root of the
problem. Your question is right on the mark. Tokyo Electric is not an
engineering front and they have been asked to do engineering when in
fact they’ve been an operating company. And on top of that they
don’t have enough money, the Japanese government isn’t giving
them enough for an adequate cleanup. So, you have an inadequate firm
underfunded from the Japanese government and until those 2 problems
get solved we will have leaks and building failures in the future.
How
much of a risk is this for the rest of the world and why haven’t
members of the worldwide community really stepped in to offer help,
to offer funding and consulting services to help liquidate the
disaster?
The
Japanese government hasn’t asked for help and I don’t know
whether that pride or fear that they might find out how bad things
really are. Just last week Prime Minister Abe asked for help. But
I’ve been contacted by three Americans firms who’ve gone over and
bagged to give them their technology and they’ve been rebuffed by
the Japanese. So, I really don’t believe that the Japanese want to
have an adequate solution here because they can’t afford it. And on
the environmental effects of the Pacific, we are contaminating the
Pacific Ocean. There was some caesium in the ocean from bomb testing,
from mainly the US and Russian programs but also others, but
Fukushima is putting in 10 times more caesium than there was before
the accident happened. And that is going to work its way up to food
chain. The organisms on the bottom of the ocean will become
contaminated and then those who eat that will be contaminated and
ultimately it will show up in the top fish, the salmon and the
tuna.
Read more:
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_10_14/Japanese-government-doesnt-give-enough-money-for-cleanup-after-Fukushima-disaster-expert-2649/
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