Highly Radioactive Water Overflow at Fukushima

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/20-1



Leak follows recent reports of skyrocketing groundwater contamination

Highly Radioactive Water Overflow at Fukushima
- Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer
Published on Thursday, February 20, 2014 by Common Dreams

Highly radioactive water flowed into the ground from a storage tank at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant on Wednesday, in what officials said was the largest contamination leak in roughly six months.

The water, reading high levels of radiation, overflowed from a large storage tank after a valve that had been mistakenly left open allowed excessive amounts of contaminated water into the tank.

The overflow was discovered Wednesday night, but before the valve was closed the tank is estimated to have spilled 100 metric tons of water containing 230 million becquerels per liter of "beta-emitting radioactive isotopes, including strontium 90."

The water quickly seeped into the ground, TEPCO officials said, but claimed that it was "unlikely to have reached the ocean."

[madokie]

1. Reaching the ocean is the last of my worries

in fact that would be the lessor of two evils. Reaching the water table is where the problem would be.

At any rate fukushima is the gift that will keep on giving for years to come. There is no end in sight.