Engineers fail to seal leak at Japan nuke plant

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By RYAN NAKASHIMA and MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) - Engineers failed to seal a crack where highly radioactive water was spilling into the Pacific from a Japanese nuclear power plant incapacitated by last month's earthquake-spawned tsunami but said a search of the site found no other leaks Sunday.

The wave has carved a path of destruction up and down the coast and is believed to have killed 25,000 people. The first deaths at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant itself, though, were confirmed Sunday by the operator. A 21-year-old and a 24-year-old were believed to be conducting regular checks at the complex when the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit March 11.

"It pains me that these two young workers were trying to protect the power plant while being hit by the earthquake and tsunami," Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said in a statement.

It was unclear why the men did not evacuate when the quake hit.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110403/D9MBVL7G2.html

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In this Saturday, April 2, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) via Kyodo News, leaking radioactive contaminated water drain through crack of a maintenance pit, right, into the sea, near the Unit 2 reactor of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Highly radioactive water was leaking into the sea Saturday from a crack discovered at the nuclear power plant destabilized by last month's earthquake and tsunami, a new setback as frustrated survivors of the disasters complained that Japan's government was paying too much attention to the nuclear crisis. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

[tavalon]

1. The reason people are complaining is because their government has been lying to them

Just as our government is to us. I've been wearing a dosimeter for the last two weeks and it's already showing that I've reached half of my yearly allowable dose. Itsy bitsy radioactive fallout climbed up the Japanese spout, down came the rain and washed the radioactive fallout on Seattle. (meant to be sung to the tune of itsy bitsy spider, but it doesn't have the right number of syllables).

[nc4bo]

2. Don't worry, the EPA will soon raise the radiation limits for air, water and soil

I'm sure your yearly allowable dose will be raised also.

Government's lie. Our government will also lie even if it risks your life or the life of your families.

DUer Nadinbrewski(sp) said it best, don't pay much attention on what a government says, watch what they do.

I think we'd all be better off if we heeded that advice and acted accordingly.

ETA - I'm not sure what exactly the Japanese people are being told, if they're receiving any truthfulness about the situation. Those within the evacuation zone should have been told to leave immediately.

All we can do from here is offer money and if you believe in a higher power, prayer for all of us living in the fish bowl we call Earth.

[CountAllVotes]

3. you should mail your results to the EPA

and send a copy to Pres. Obama, your senators in Washington and every other lying scumbag politician out there! :mad:

:kick:

[marions ghost]

5. can you keep giving us some updates on that?

Since the governments won't?

[tavalon]

8. I wish I had a geiger counter, that would be more accurate

but yeah, if my dosimeter shows a higher reading, I'll put the information here.

[greiner3]

4. "A 21-year-old and a 24-year-old..."

Sounds like an opportunity for Cameron to make another huge blockbuster out of. Maybe a kick ass game for a console. Certainly a good, and quite a few bad, books about the same.

[Robbien]

6. They attempted to stop the leak with those tiny little polymer balls

Surprise, somehow itty bitty tiny polymer balls failed to plug a hole which is spewing seven tons of radioactive water per hour.

Now the bright idea is to add newspaper and sawdust to the itty bitty tiny polymer balls and drop that mixture down the system.

This is all they can come up with to fight a nuclear reactor meltdown? Tiny polymer balls (used by the diaper industry) and rolled up newspapers?

[nc4bo]

7. Not to sound flippant but sounds like a BP type junk shot.

And we all know how well that worked out.

This is such a sad and scary situation as if earthquakes and tsunamis weren't devastating enough.

:cry:

[marions ghost]

9. All this was preventable

that is what is so insane.

[thereismore]

10. Newspaper and sawdust? Try toilet paper and poo. Plugs my drain pipe everytime. nt

[daleo]

11. That's a pretty big leak

It's likely to get bigger.

[stockholmer]

12. Efforts to Plug Japanese Reactor Leak Are Failing (7 tonnes/hour of radioactive water discharging)

Source: New York Times

"TOKYO — Workers’ desperate struggle to plug a gush of highly contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, using sawdust, shredded newspaper and an absorbent powder, appeared to be failing late Sunday as the radiation threat from the crippled plant continued to spread.

"Water containing high amounts of radioactive iodine has been spewing directly into the Pacific Ocean from a large crack discovered Saturday in a 6-foot-deep pit at the coastal Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. After an unsuccessful attempt to flood the pit with concrete to stop the leak, workers on Sunday turned to trying to plug the apparent source of the water — an underground shaft thought to lead to the damaged reactor building — by plugging the shaft with a makeshift putty: more than 120 pounds of sawdust, three garbage bags full of shredded newspaper and about 9 pounds of a polymeric powder that officials said absorbs 50 times its volume of water.

Although the stopgap measure did not appear to be succeeding, workers would keep trying to stem the leak, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Experts estimate that about 7 tons an hour of radioactive water is escaping the pit. Safety officials have said that the water, which appears to be coming from the damaged No. 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, contains one million Becquerels per liter of iodine 131, or about 10,000 times levels normally found in water at a nuclear facility.............................."



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/asia/04japan.html?_r=1

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sawdust, shredded paper, and powder, ffs, they really are down to the dregs

[jtuck004]

13. There needs to be an international response team, under the UN,

headed by the U.S. Navy and Areva (France), mobilized immediately upon the event of a natural or human-caused disaster involving a nuclear reactor. That is the only way we can guarantee the same resources we would fight a war with. This has become one. Or maybe a tiered world response to any large-scale national disaster, because the size of the problem created by just the quake\tsunami is cleary larger and just as pressing.

The government should have taken the plants over on day 1, and had the backing of the international community, with ships and support underway. Never, EVER, should a company put people in the position of giving their lives to save something. That should be a country's responsbility, and they are abdicating it.

Garbage bags of shredded newspaper and Mr. Putty in a can? Still 165,000 plus people in shelters and not all being given the food they need?

These people are overwhelmed. I wonder now if they will pick up the phone to Fukushima one day and no one answers.

[UpInArms]

14. reminiscent of the bp oil spill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt617zYAbng

[JVS]

15. How big a shamwow can those guys in Germany make?

[DeSwiss]

16. Nuclear junkshot?

Published on Sunday, April 3, 2011 by Kyodo News
Sawdust, Shredded Newspaper, Diaper Chemicals Fail to Plug Leak at Japan Nuke Plant

Engineers put 8 kilograms of the polymeric water absorbent together with 60 kilograms of sawdust and three bags of shredded newspaper into pipes leading to a pit connected to the No. 2 reactor building where a 20-centimeter crack has been found to be leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, the agency said.

However, those materials injected at a point 23 meters away from the seaside pit have not been sucked into the water flow, leaving no impact on the rate of leakage, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the governmental Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Nishiyama said the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. will keep monitoring the situation until Monday morning to examine the effects of the water-absorbing mission. The firm will also try to trace the route of the radioactive water leakage from the pit by draining colored water on Monday, he added.

The utility known as TEPCO deployed the absorbent called ''water gel bag,'' which contains polymeric materials used for diapers, as its efforts to encase the pit's fracture in concrete failed on Saturday.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/03-3">MORE

- When you've got this much nuclear shit spewing out, I don't think diaper absorbent chemicals are gonna be enough.

K&R

[grahamhgreen]

20. It really is! This was their freaking plan? Helicopter water dumps and sawdust?

[Vinee]

17. "high amounts of radioactive iodine has been spewing directly into the Pacific Ocean"

That sounds bad... really REALLY bad in fact.

[Baclava]

18. They're trying to plug it with newspaper and kitty litter?

Unreal.

[customerserviceguy]

19. While this sounds (properly) really bad

Has anyone with any scientific credentials actually done some thoughtful speculation on what this really means? Seven tons is a lot of water, but the Pacific Ocean has a lot more water than that.

Will this simply have possible effects only in the vicinity of the spill, or will it really screw up things on the other edges of the Pacific Rim? It seems to be that, like with the air, there is a significant dilution factor.

[GReedDiamond]

21. "...makeshift putty: more than 120 pounds of sawdust,..

...three garbage bags full of shredded newspaper and about 9 pounds of a polymeric powder."

Who ever said these nuclear guys didn't know what they were doin'?

[suffragette]

22. This is becoming surreal

Sawdust used ineffectively in an attempt to stop a large flow of radioactive water.

Garbage bags and packing tape used as protective gear in a hazardous zone:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110402p2a00m0na016000c.html



And all the while this keeps spreading.

[Selatius]

23. This is starting to remind me of BP's struggle to contain the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Sure, the broken well was finally capped, but the damage left behind was devastating.