FUKUSHIMA: ANOTHER PROBLEM!
- David Polden -
First published in Kick Nuclear January newsletter
At Kick Nuclear’s Friday vigils outside the Japanese Embassy (for details see front page) we have begun handing out a new Fukushima Nuclear Disaster 2022 Update that I’ve written (copies sent at request)
In this update I talked about the continuance of the disaster, including the problem of dealing with well over a million tonnes of radioactive water already, and continually rising, being stored in tanks as a result of the need to keep the reactors’ melted-down fuel cool by pouring water down through the ractors. Japan’s current plan is to dump all this water in the Pacific, after it has been subject to a treatment process that removes a lot of the radioactivity, but not all (It doesn’t remove the tritium or all of other radio nucleides), thus polluting the Pacific.
What I completely overlooked however was the problem of what to do with the of course this doesn’t result in a diminution of the radioactivity involved, it just means it gets highly concentrated in a much smaller volume. The resulting mixture is characterized as “slurry”.
“But where to put it?” an article dated 10/1/22 by Robert Hunziker in Counterpunch asks.
He continues, “How to handle and dispose of the radioactive slurry…is almost, and in fact may be, an impossible quagmire. It’s a big one as the storage containers for the tainted slurry quickly degrade because of the high concentration of radioactive slurry. These storage containers…in turn, have to be constantly replaced as the radioactivity slurry eats away at the containers’ liners.
“Radioactive slurry is muddy and resembles a shampoo in appearance, and it contains highly radioactive strontium readings that reach tens of millions of Becquerel’s per cubic centimeter. Whereas, according to the [US Environmental Protection Agency], 148 Becquerel’s per cubic metre…is the safe level for human exposure. Thus, tens of millions per cubic centimetre is “off the charts” dangerous! Instant death…
“Since March 2013, TEPCO has accumulated 3,373 special vessels that hold these highly toxic radioactive slurry concentrations. But, because the integrity of the vessels deteriorates so quickly, the durability of the containers reaches a limit, meaning the vessels will need replacement by mid-2025.
“Making matters ever worse…the NRA [US Nuclear Regulatory Authority] has actually accused TEPCO [the Tokyo Electric Power Company] of “underestimating the impact issue of the radioactivity on the containers linings,” claiming TEPCO improperly measured the slurry density when conducting dose evaluations. Whereas, the density level is always highest at the bottom, not the top where TEPCO did the evaluations, thus failing to measure and report the most radioactive of the slurry. Not a small error.
“As of June 2021, NRA’s own assessment of the containers concluded …31 radioactive super hot containers had…reached the end of operating life…another 56 would need replacement within the next 2 years.
“Transferring slurry is a time-consuming highly dangerous horrific job, which exposes yet a second issue of unacceptable risks of radioactive substances released into the air during transfer of slurry. TEPCO expects to open and close the transfers remotely. But, TEPCO, as of January 2, 2022, has not yet revealed acceptable plans for dealing with the necessary transfer of slurry from weakening, almost deteriorated containers, into fresh, new containers. (Source: TEPCO Slow to Respond to Growing Crisis at Fukushima Plant, The Asahi Shimbun, [2/1/22]
“Meanwhile, additional batches of a massive succession of containers that must be transferred to new containers will be reaching the end of shelf life, shortly.
“Another nightmarish problem has surfaced for TEPCO…In the aftermath of the 2011 blowup, TEPCO stored radioactive water in underground spaces below two buildings near reactor No.4. Bags of a mineral known as zeolite were placed to absorb cesium. Twenty-six tons (52,000 lbs.) of bags are still immersed with radiation readings of 4 Sieverts per hour, enough to kill half of all workers in the immediate vicinity within one hour. The bags need to be removed.
“TEPCO intends to robotically start removing the highly radioactive bags, starting in 2023, but does not know where the bags should be stored. Where do you store radioactive bags containing enough radioactive power to kill someone within one hour of exposure?...”