Radioactive water flowed via cables (Kashiwazaki-Kariwa update)

[jpak]

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707240125.html

Radioactive water that leaked into the sea from a quake-hit nuclear power plant likely flowed along electric cables protruding from a damaged floor before reaching drainage ditches, the plant's operator said Monday.

The July 16 earthquake rocked a storage pool containing about 2,300 kiloliters of water and spent nuclear fuel on the fourth floor of the No. 6 reactor building of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).

<snip>

An estimated 1.2 cubic meters of radioactive water flowed into the sea, but the company said it is still not certain about the total amount of water that flowed from the pool.

A "considerably large amount of water" must have spilled out, a TEPCO official said.

<more>

[JuniperLea]

1. History shows again and again...

How nature points out the folly of man...







Not meaning to be flippant, but this is just too freakishly like life imitating art.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Pretty weak, though, as radioactivity goes

The water was very weakly radioactive. Less radioactive than the seawater it went into.

This is not to say that reactors -- and Tepco -- should not be held to exacting standards. But the actual numbers don't support the fear.

--p!