TEPCO locates groundwater inflow into reactor turbine building for first time

[kristopher]

I'm betting this title should properly have the words 'one of the sources of' preceding the word 'groundwater'.

TEPCO locates groundwater inflow into reactor turbine building for first time[/b
September 05, 2013
By SHUNSUKE KIMURA/ Staff Writer


The location of an underground water leak into a reactor turbine building of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been spotted for the first time since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

TEPCO said Sept. 4 it confirmed groundwater is flowing into the first basement of the No. 1 reactor turbine building from the junction of the building and outside piping.

To locate underground water influx, TEPCO drilled a hole on the first floor of the No. 1 turbine building and lowered a video camera into the part connecting outlet pipes with the building. TEPCO said the video camera recorded images and sound of underground water flowing into the building basement.

The operator will decide what measures to take to stop groundwater inflow after assessing the current amount of water flowing into the building.

While an estimated 70,000 tons of radioactive water has already accumulated in the basements...

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201309050051


The accompanying article

Government banking on uncertain technologies to resolve Fukushima water crisis
September 04, 2013
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The government on Sept. 3 failed to allocate funding to resolve the immediate challenge of leaking radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, although it pledged taxpayer money on unproven technologies that will take a few years to implement.

"The whole world is watching to see if we will be able to decommission the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, including if we can cope with the problem of radioactive water there," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a meeting of the government's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters on Sept. 3. "My government will work as one to resolve the issue."

Despite the prime minister's enthusiasm, the government has set forth no plan to pay for replacing storage tanks of the flange type, which utilize steel sheets connected with bolts, for holding radioactive water on the grounds of the crippled plant.

One of those flange-type tanks, which account for approximately 350 of the 1,000 storage tanks on site, was found in mid-August to have leaked 300 tons of radioactive water.

"We will consider the matter in the future," was the only response given by an official of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy to a question at a Sept. 3 news conference why no funds were being earmarked to immediately deal with the problem....

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201309040061

Their Fukushima page has a lot of material. If you've never visited it, you might find it interesting.
http://ajw.asahi.com/category/0311disaster/

[madokie]

1. This whole tragedy

shows for all to see that when nuclear goes wrong it tends to go wrong in a big way. Theoretically on paper nothing is better but in reality nothing is worse.
We can do better
Solar, wind, geothermal, wave, renewables and the list could grow if we'd put our efforts towards that end.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. And when it goes right...

it produces waste that the "Experts" really have no good idea how to store safely. Waste that remains deadly for centuries. Store it underground? That's like hiding under the covers from Gawdzilla.

[madokie]

3. Its like they just quit once they figured that we the people would allow them to build the plants

to begin with. No idea what to do with the waste. One of the main reasons why we stopped a nuclear power plant from being built upwind of us here was what we asked that question there was only crickets. When they did give us an answer it was bullshit. One of the smartest things people around here ever did is stop PSO from building Blackfox nuclear power station

[GliderGuider]

4. That's what worries me most.

Long-term reliance on nuclear power, while societies edge ever closer to collapse, is a recipe for disaster. Operating nuclear plants require constant high-tech attention and especially reliable external power sources to maintain their safety. A severe disruption of the conditions required for maintenance of control, as we saw with Fuku, carry an very high potential for catastrophe. It doesn't even need to be a natural disaster. For example, the failure of a nationally essential social system like the economy could disrupt the power a country needs to bring their reactors to a stable cold shutdown. The grim potential of such a situation should be obvious.

While I may have a greater expectation of social collapses occurring around the world than some others here, imagine what the situation would be like now if Iraq, Libya, Egypt or Syria had invested strongly in nuclear power infrastructures - as they easily could have. Proliferation aside, how worried would we be about the potential for accidents under their current conditions? If there is a possibility of such destabilization spreading to other regions, it behooves us to get nuclear plants out of the picture ASAP.