Heavy rains from typhoon Wipha appear to have dramatically raised radiation levels at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant. Radioactive strontium, measuring 1,400 becquerels per liter, has been detected in a drainage ditch leading into the sea. This is 70 times higher than was recorded in the same location just a few days earlier. It is […]
Water Treatment System Fails Yet Again
The trouble-plagued ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System) system, intended to filter radioactive substances from the water in holding tanks at the Fukushima cleanup site, has reportedly failed once again, causing a minor disruption in the leanup efforts. The system was partially shut down last Saturday after calcium was discovered in one of its 3 lines. […]
Radioactive Water Leaks – An Overview
It is a mess. There is no other word for it. The clean-up of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant has been beset by problems, one after another, since the triple disaster of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear melt-down that struck on March 11, 2011. Granted the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which maintains the […]
Fukushima plant water purifier restarted
After several glitches, the water purification system at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is running again. However all may still not be well. As The New Zealand Herald writes: ” TEPCO [Tokyo Electric Power Co.] is struggling to handle the huge — and growing — volume of contaminated water….Thousands of gallons of contaminated water are […]
Plan to freeze contaminated water has failed
The most recent plan to deal with the contaminated water under the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant involves freezing this water and erecting an ice-and-soil wall around it to stop the radioactive water from leaking into the sea. While the ice wall may very well work, there’s one small problem: the contaminated water refuses to […]