The World Must Take Charge at Fukushima

[thorfourwinds]

Fukushima Ice Wall is Melting; Tepco Injecting Cement Into Broken Barrier
Strontium Milks
Published on Sep 4, 2016

"Ice wall" Around Fukushima Nuclear Plant Melts in 2 Places Following Powerful Typhoons

http://tinyurl.com/h3w7f6r

TOKYO — The frozen soil wall built around the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant have melted in two places following recent powerful typhoons, local media reported Friday, raising concerns over effect of the approach adopted by the Tokyo Electric Power Co.(TEPCO) to reduce the massive volume of radioactive water.

The 1.5-km-long frozen soil wall, also known as the "ice wall," which was partly put into use in March, melted in two places following Powerful Lionrock, the tenth of the season, battered the region, with temperature of the melting parts rising above zero centigrade, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported.

The melting was probably caused by lashing of large amount of groundwater as a result of recent powerful typhoons and heavy rainfall, said local reports.

Groundwater flowing under the nuclear plant is leaking through the melted parts of the wall to outside and TEPCO is trying to refreeze the parts by injecting special chemicals to the wall, said the reports.

The ice wall construction was finished in February after two years of work involving driving more than 1,500 steel pipes with 30 meters into the soil around the perimeter surrounding the No. 1 to 4 reactors at the troubled plant.

Liquid calcium chloride at minus 40 degrees Celsius was then pumped into the pipes to freeze the surrounding soil, which, in theory, would prevent groundwater from flowing into the facilities and getting contaminated when it comes into contact with melted nuclear fuel.

However, reports showed that there still remained unfrozen parts as of mid-August, and TEPCO revealed plans to take additional steps such as injecting cement into the parts of the wall that are not fully frozen.

The ice wall, costing tax payers [NOT TEPCO!] some 35 billion yen (USD 336 million), met with doubts and criticisms from experts from the very beginning, with the technique having been used previously in engineering projects, but not on a scale of the Fukushima plant or for the expected duration.

Some experts believe that capping the reactors in concrete, as was the case following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, would be a more effective means of dealing with the ongoing crisis.

The project was considered failed by some outside experts at an earlier meeting called by the Nuclear Regulation Authority to assess the effectiveness of the approach.

Typhoons cause 'ice wall' to melt at Fukushima nuclear plant
http://tinyurl.com/guduopy

Rainfall from recent typhoons caused partial melting of the "ice wall" at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, allowing highly radioactive water to leak from around the damaged reactor buildings, the plant's operator said Sept. 1.

Around 5.5 cm of rainfall a day fell in the area when the typhoon hit.

The groundwater level, however, actually rose by 7 cm, although 740 tons of groundwater was pumped out of the section.

"If there had been an additional 15 cm of rain, (the contaminated water) could have poured out over the ground surface" and spilled into the sea, a TEPCO official said Sept. 1.

The Meteorological Agency's initial forecast said Typhoon No. 10 would bring a maximum 20 cm of rain a day at some locations in the Tohoku region.

The 34.5-billion-yen ($336 million) frozen wall was completed in spring to prevent groundwater from entering the reactor buildings and mixing with highly radioactive water.

TEPCO admitted the underground wall of frozen dirt is not working.

The company said the temperatures at the two sections of the frozen wall have climbed above zero since Typhoon No. 7 approached Fukushima Prefecture on Aug. 17.

The company believes that the partial melting was caused by the influx of water brought by the typhoons and heavy rain in between.   

Fukushima ICE WALL FAILS/DIRECT RAD LEAK
26 June 2014
BPEarthwatch

[Irene]

Why in the world would you install such a ridiculous wall knowing it will require a lot of power to maintain and it's subject to melting?

I thought all six reactors are offline, three in meltdown. From where are they drawing the power?

To me that seems like the height of stupidity.

[thorfourwinds]

The ice wall project is expected to cost ¥31.9 billion [$287,760,712 United States Dollars]and will put a massive burden on the power grid when completed: It will need about 45.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to operate, equal to annual power consumption of 13,000 average households.

Fukushima Never Again

44.2 percent of 94.975 sampled Fukushima children have had thyroid ultrasound abnormalities as a likely results of their exposure to radiation.

Only a few days after the meltdown, I-131 concentration levels in California, Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon and Washington were up to 211 times above the normal level.

At the same time, the number of congenital hypothyroidism cases increased dramatically, seeing a 16 percent increase from March 17 2011 to December 31 2011. In 36 other US states outside of the exposure zone, the risk of congenital hyperthyroidism decreased by 3 percent.

[Irene]

Thor,
Why have they not encased the units in meltdown in a proper sarcophagus? Is it because they're in meltdown?

What do you think they should do?

[thorfourwinds]

Greetings Irene:

Thank you for your interest in a subject that has been banished from the world's media and therefore public awareness.

To fully understand exactly what would be entailed in any type of sarcophagus/containment building, here is more information regarding just what exists under the nuclear power reactors - 3 MELT-THROUGHS, not merely meltdowns (which implies the corium is still within some sort of containment) which is certainly not the case.

TEPCO has admitted that the corium of reactors 1, 2, and 3 is many meters below containment and no technology exists to not only extract it but put it "somewhere." 

I think Zorgon posted about a sarcophagus earlier, I'll look for it.

TEPCO : Water Shielding Wall
8 July 2013

In order to mitigate the dispersal of radioactive material into the ocean, we have been constructing a water shielding wall in front of the existing seawall of Units 1 to 4 since October 2011. It is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2014.

We started placing steel pipe sheet piles, which will form the main structure of the water shielding wall, from April 2.

The Study Result on the Water Shielding Wall at the Ground side

1. Purpose of this study
We conducted analysis on the effect and influence of installing water shielding
wall at the ground side in addition to the one at the seaside from the following
aspects:

(1) Effect to prevent further expansion of ocean contamination
(2) Risk of accumulated water inside the buildings flowing into groundwater
(3) Interference with other projects


For the mitigation of groundwater flow into the buildings, because it is difficult to manage groundwater level around the buildings in accordance with the water level of accumulated water inside the building by implementing water shielding wall at the groundwater, we plan to study on another solution to manage groundwater level around the buildings by sub-drain around the buildings.

2. Study Result
(1) Effect to prevent further expansion of ocean contamination
Because hydrogeological structure around Units 1 to 4 buildings draws a slope
evenly from mountain side to seaside, groundwater flows from mountain side to
seaside. Therefore, groundwater around the buildings would not flow out into
four directions, but always flow into the sea (Figure-2).

Taking into account the characteristics of groundwater flow at the designated
location, we have analyzed the effect of further expansion of ocean
contamination by installing water shielding wall by means of three-dimensional
flow line trace analysis.

As a result, we find that we can prevent groundwater around the buildings from flowing into the sea by managing with ground water drain, installing water shielding wall at the seaside (Figure-3).

In case of installing water shielding wall at the groundside, because it is not
possible to prevent groundwater from flowing from mountainside completely, it
is necessary to implement countermeasures like water shielding wall at the
seaside in order to prevent further expansion of ocean contamination.

(2) Risk of accumulated water inside the buildings flowing into groundwater
We analyzed the level of change in groundwater level around the buildings,
caused by the installation of water shielding wall, by means of
three-dimensional seepage analysis.

As a result, regarding the groundwater level around the buildings, the level
would decrease by 0 to 0.5m from current situation in case of water shielding
wall at the seaside. In case of water shielding wall at the groundside, the level
would decrease by 1 to 2 m from current situation (Figure-4).





Therefore, it is concluded that the case installing water shielding wall at the groundwater would increase the influence in terms of the risk of accumulated water inside the buildings to flow out, because the possibility which the level of groundwater would be lower that the level of accumulated water inside the building would rise.


(3) Interference with other projects
Water shielding wall at the seawater would not interfere with the other projects
because the wall will be installed at the seaside of existing seawall. On the other
hand, water shielding wall at the ground side interferes with important facilities
and construction which aim for stabilization.

Further because it has many difficulties in its implementation, e.g. requiring the removal and move of existing facilities, there would be more influence by installing water shielding wall at the ground side from points of interference with the other projects
(Figure-5).

3. Conclusion
Regarding the prevention of further expansion of ocean contamination, it is
important not to let accumulated water inside the buildings flow into
groundwater. In this sense, it is appropriate to see the water shielding wall as
the countermeasure to prevent such flow of contaminated groundwater into
ocean. We deem that we should avoid countermeasures which would increase
such risk of accumulated water inside the building to flow out.

With those aspects, after the comprehensive evaluation on the effect and
influence by installing water shielding wall at the ground side, we have reached
the conclusion that it is appropriate to address the issues only with water
shielding wall at the seaside, not combining the one at the groundside.

For the installation of the water shielding wall at the ground side, we will discuss
the matter again at an appropriate point of time, based on the progress of the
other projects.


TEPCO : Nuclear Power Station | Fukuichi Live camera

tfw
Peace Love Light
Liberty & Equality or Revolution

FALLOUT CLOCK - Elapsed Time since March 11, 2011, 2:46 PM - Fukushima, Japan

[zorgon]

Thor,
Why have they not encased the units in meltdown in a proper sarcophagus? Is it because they're in meltdown?

With respect to Thor...

There is one issue that is being overlooked.

In Chernobyl they could build a sarcophagus because the accident was inland and on relatively stable ground. So putting a cover over it would stop radiation from seeping into the air and stop rainwater from washing radiation into the local ground water.

The core however melted straight down into the earth. This would of course still contaminate local ground water but the rest of the area is already relatively safe to access for short periods of time.   See my photo pages of the town left abandoned


At Fukushima you have a very different and serious problem.   The cores, all THREE of them. did melt down into the earth, but the ground beneath the plant is all FRACTURED  so allowing seepage IN from the sea  which then takes contaminated water back out to sea every tide.  A sew wall will do NOTHING...  A sarcophagus over the buildings would at least reduce emissions into the air as well as stop rain water from adding to the contamination... but there is NOTHING known to mankind at this time that can stop the core from affecting the ground water and sea seepage in the fractures ground.

This fractured ground was already discussed years ago at ATS and there were charts from the Japanese news NHK at the time. I am sure I still have them somewhere considering ATS deleted it all. I will have to finish my Fukushima pages for the record. Never thought ATS would delete that important thread

Ah wait  here it is...







Eat GLOW FISH   (they have been eating the extremely deadly Blow Fish for decades so should be no problem

[Irene]

A slight correction, if I may Z. The Chernobyl meltdown resulted in the Elephant's Foot coming to rest several feet below the compromised reactor vessel.

It looks like a solid mass but it is, in fact, continuing its meltdown beyond our ability to see. No timetable has been offered on the speed of its descent.

When discovered, 30 seconds of exposure killed. Today it can be approached briefly for monitoring. The definition of insanity if you ask me.

I'd like to post photos, in succession, but the greedy bastards seem to have copyrighted them all. Search "Elephant's Foot Chernobyl".

ArMaP, perhaps you can assist with this? You seem to be very good with photos.

Sorry, folks. I'm tired.

[thorfourwinds]

LARGER

Artur Korneyev, Deputy Director of Shelter Object, viewing the "elephants foot" lava flow at Chernobyl, 1996. (Photo: US Department of Energy)

But there's something undeniably eerie about the scene, for good reason. You're looking at the largest agglomeration of one of the most toxic substances ever created: corium.

In the days and weeks after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in late April 1986, simply being in the same room as this particular pile of radioactive material—known as the Elephant's Foot—would have killed you within a couple of minutes.

Even a decade later, when this image was taken, the radiation probably caused the film to develop strangely, creating the photo's grainy quality.

The man in this photo, Artur Korneyev, has likely visited this area more than anyone else, and in doing so has been exposed to more radiation than almost anyone in history.

Remarkably, he's probably still alive. The story of how the United States got a hold of this singular photo of a human in the presence of this incredibly toxic material is itself fraught with mystery—almost as much as why someone would take what is essentially a selfie with a hunk of molten radiated lava.

Source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-chernobyls-most-dangerous-radioactive-material-was-a-selfie

[thorfourwinds]

The Most Radioactive Object on Earth

[thorfourwinds]

The Nuclear Disaster America Wants You To Forget

[spacemaverick]

Fukushima, the forgotten catastrophe.  It seems become forgotten after a while simply because it's not news in the lamestream media.

[zorgon]

A slight correction, if I may Z. The Chernobyl meltdown resulted in the Elephant's Foot coming to rest several feet below the compromised reactor vessel.

Correct  Sorry I wasn't more specific...

The problem is not so much the MEDIA 'forgetting"  It is the FICKLE AUDIENCE that has a short attention span.  It's yesterdays news... no longer important..

You see I DID spend a LONG time on the Fukushima material  only to have it deleted from ATS...  So now I need to pull up all that saved material and finish the pages at Livingmoon

I ALSO Dis CHERNOBYL    Right here on the forum and showed all the details of the elephants foot... and the team that went back down there to look

Ah well How soon they forget... must be the radiation 





Chernobyl Disaster Documentary

From the meltdown to the coverup and the aftermath... Quite a story

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=56.msg605#msg605

and HERE:

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Endangered_Earth_Chernobyl_Meltdown.html

[ArMaP]

I am sure I still have them somewhere considering ATS deleted it all.

The thread was not deleted, it still exists but is inaccessible. It worked for a few days some time ago, after an attempt at repairing it.

[zorgon]

One of the missing ones  its in theater format to bypass the copyrigyht issues

Seconds From Disaster S01E07 Meltdown in Chernobyl



okay did find the FULL copy here 

[zorgon]

The thread was not deleted, it still exists but is inaccessible. It worked for a few days some time ago, after an attempt at repairing it.

Deleted or inaccessible... result is the same   Can they not just split the thread like we do here?