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Page added on August 3, 2013
Huge leak of tritium feared in Fukushima
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday that an estimated 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of tritium from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean since May 2011.
The utility reported the estimate Friday to the Nuclear Regulation Authority after recently admitting that toxic water from the emergency cooling system set up after the nuclear crisis began on March 11, 2011, is leaking into the sea.
Nevertheless, Tepco said the size of the release is roughly in the allowed range of 22 trillion becquerels a year but acknowledged it didn’t take place in a controlled manner. Tritium has a half-life of about 12 years.
Since it doesn’t know when the leak began, the utility has assumed the beginning was in May 2011, after it attempted to stop the toxic water from entering the ocean when it was discovered in April 2011.
The constant injection of water that is needed to keep the damaged reactors cool after the core meltdowns of March 2011 are generating a new radiation crisis at the plant that officials appear unable to solve without tainting the ocean and marine life.
6 Comments on "Huge leak of tritium feared in Fukushima"
Plantagenet on Sat, 3rd Aug 2013 11:38 pm
Fukushima is an excellent example of why engineers should never be put in charge of projects. The engineers ignored scientific worries about the safety of the nuclear plant site right up to the day that the scientists were proved right — tragically right—by the damage the earthquake and tsunami wreaked upon the plant.
peakyeast on Sun, 4th Aug 2013 12:03 am
Engineers do great jobs. But they have to do what they are ordered to do – which very often comes from political and financial decisions further up.
Most engineers are wage-slaves as most of other people and have little impact on decision making.
If the engineer is ordered to design it to a certain safety level which is chosen from a risk and financial analysis then he does that.
I myself have designed and engineered apparatuses for ATEX zones – and In one of the projects where I worked as a consultant for Siemens AG the best design got scrapped because it didnt “look” right to the managers. Instead we had to make a crappy expensive design that looked the right way.. Fucking crazy, but thats how things can be for an engineer.
BillT on Sun, 4th Aug 2013 2:00 am
It’s ALL about money and nothing else. ‘Profits’ are killing the world and you.
Norm on Sun, 4th Aug 2013 7:17 am
isn’t plantagenet one of those republicans hanging out at the peak oil site? what a silly thing to say, that engineers cause the problems. no its not the sensible rational cautious engineers, its the republican fraternity boy business majors, who spent their 4 years of college partying all night then throwing up into a wastebasket. go blame them, not the guys who sat studiously 4 years studying with calculators slide rules and pocket protectors.
Norm on Sun, 4th Aug 2013 7:19 am
kinda funny the author’s tunnel vision on tritium. have any of these people ever seen a periodic table? dont they know what are ‘actinides’ ? you can pick from a whole lot of things on the periodic table, and start worrying about it. who cares about the Tritium, that one sounds like the least of the problems.
Kenz300 on Sun, 4th Aug 2013 10:22 pm
TEPCO and the government of Japan have not been open and honest about this disaster from day one.
There needs to be an international panel of experts involved in monitoring the progress of the stabilization and clean up.
Independent world wide media needs better access.
This disaster has world wide implications.
Nuclear energy is too costly and too dangerous. The sooner we shut down the remaining nuclear reactors the better.
New Solar Homes: Japanese Homebuilders Helping the Fight for Energy Independence
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/07/new-solar-homes-japanese-homebuilders-helping-the-fight-for-energy-independence