Fukushima radioactive water leak an ’emergency’

Aerial photo taken on 9 July 2013 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuyama, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan BBC News

Japan’s nuclear watchdog has said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is facing a new “emergency” caused by a build-up of radioactive groundwater.

A barrier built to contain the water has already been breached, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority warned.  

This means the amount of contaminated water seeping into the Pacific Ocean could accelerate rapidly, it said.

There has been spate of water leaks and power failures at the plant, devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), has been criticised heavily for its lack of transparency over the leaks.

‘Weak sense of crisis’

Tepco admitted for the first time last month that radioactive groundwater had breached an underground barrier and been leaking into the sea, but said it was taking steps to prevent it.

However, the head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority task force, Shinji Kinjo, told the Reuters news agency on Monday that the countermeasures were only a temporary solution.

Tepco’s “sense of crisis is weak,” Mr Kinjo said. “This is why you can’t just leave it up to Tepco alone”

“Right now, we have an emergency,” he added.

If the underground barrier is breached, the watchdog warns, the water could start to seep through shallower areas of earth.

Once it reaches the surface, it could start to flow “extremely fast”, says Mr Kinjo.

Contaminated water could rise to the ground’s surface within three weeks, the Asahi newspaper predicted on Saturday.

The contaminated water is thought to have come from the 400 tonnes of groundwater pumped into the plant every day to cool the reactors.

Tepco ‘in trouble’

Tepco admitted on Friday that a cumulative 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium may have leaked into the sea since the disaster.

It has been clear for months now that the operators of the Fukushima plant are in deep trouble, says the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.

The only course of action, he continues, is to pump water out. But this has to be stored, and more than 1,000 giant holding tanks surrounding the plant are nearly all full, he adds.

Tepco said on Monday it plans to start pumping out a further 100 tonnes of groundwater a day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23578859

One thought on “Fukushima radioactive water leak an ’emergency’

  1. This isn’t an “emergency”; it’s mass-murder. They’ve had more than a year to clean this up, but instead they spent that time shoveling bull, in the same way they dealt with the immigration (southern invasion) problem.

    And just as they want the wet-backs here to dilute our sovereignty, they want you dead from radiation so there’s no one left to stop them.

    The Fukushima disaster was caused by the Stuxnet computer virus, and the Stuxnet virus was created in Israel, of course. (who else would intentionally try to cripple safety systems in nuke plants?)

    So when radiation sickness starts causing your hair to fall out of your head in clumps, look to the nearest yarmulke-wearing Jew bastard you can find, and if you can get past the stench, thank him for killing you. And while you’re at it, you can thank him for the deadly vaccines, the crashing economy, the lying news, the corrupt politicians, and the end of freedom.

    Just remember that there’s a Zionist Jew behind every problem our society faces today, and also remember that I’m not an “anti-Semite”. I”m just someone who knows the whole story. I used to like Jews, until I discovered that they’re doing everything they can to kill me because I’m a gentile.

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