Fukushima operator may have to dump contaminated water into Pacific

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Fukushima operator may have to dump contaminated water into Pacific

Justin McCurry in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
theguardian.com, Monday 10 March 2014 16.56 GMT

A senior adviser to the operator of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has told the firm that it may have no choice but to eventually dump hundreds of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

Speaking to reporters who were on a rare visit to the plant on the eve of the third anniversary of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, Dale Klein said Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) had yet to reassure the public over the handling of water leaks that continue to frustrate efforts to clean up the site.

"The one issue that keeps me awake at night is Tepco's long-term strategy for water management," said Klein, a former chairman of the US nuclear regulatory commission who now leads Tepco's nuclear reform committee.

"Storing massive amounts of water on-site is not sustainable. A controlled release is much safer than keeping the water on-site.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/10/fukushima-operator-dump-contaminated-water-pacific

[FBaggins]

1. Not "may" have to... absolutely will have to.

They're only three years into a multi-decade process. They can remove almost all of the radioactive contamination, but there isn't anything that can be done to remove the tritium... so even once it's more than safe to dump the water into the ocean, it will still be contaminated.

[Kelvin Mace]

2. That was the plan all along

They just hoped that by the time they got around to doing it, no one would be watching.

[tech3149]

3. Who could have seen it?

I am constantly amazed at the inability for people to understand long term risks and unintended consequences.
Are we really that dumb? Aaw, don't answer that! We are Idiocracy.

[hunter]

4. And this is worse than the toxins spewed by any normally operating fossil fueled power plant...

... or fossil fueled vehicle how???

The non-radioactive toxins spilled by the tsunami are almost certainly more damaging to the environment and human life than the tritium in this water.

How many tons of herbicides, pesticides, industrial chemicals, fuels, lubricants, heavy metals, medical wastes, sewage, and other toxins were swept out to sea by the tsunami???

Controlled releases of tritium seem quite mild in comparison.

A toxin is a toxin, radioactive or not. Non-radioactive toxins can fuck you up just as badly as radioactive toxins and they are much more difficult to measure than the radioactive toxins.

We live in a stew of man-made industrial toxins. How's a bit of tritium any different? What's the magic that makes it so much scarier to people than all the non-radioactive shit?

Frankly those leaking coal ash ponds all over the U.S.A. are a lot scarier than this.

Have a nice day.

[madokie]

5. The only choice they had was lost when they built the damn thing to begin with

A nuclear power plant is a big ass machine and big ass machines do break down, trouble is with a nuclear power plant when that happens the consequences can and are often grave. It matters not so much what caused it at this point in time, it matters it happened and they don't know what to do once it did.

Its only a matter of time before we have a situation with one of our 100 or so nuclear power plants here in the good oh USA. Been some close calls already. Law of averages says it will happen sooner or later.

[Demeter]

6. You mean, happen again