5.5 tons of radioactive water leaked from Fukushima nuclear plant

5.5 tons of radioactive water leaked from Fukushima nuclear plant

TOKYO -- Approximately 5.5 tons of water containing radioactive materials have leaked from an equipment at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, local media reported Wednesday.

At about 8:53 am local time on Wednesday, workers discovered water leaking from the outlet of a device used to purify nuclear-contaminated water during the inspection of the equipment, Fukushima Central Television reported, citing the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

TEPCO estimates that the amount of water that leaked was approximately 5.5 tons, which may contain 22 billion becquerels of radioactive materials such as cesium and strontium, the report said.

Most of the leaked water appeared to have seeped into the soil, but monitoring of a nearby drainage channel did not show any significant radiation level changes, it added.

TEPCO has made the area where the water was leaked a no-go area.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202402/07/WS65c35af9a3104efcbdaea423.html

Latest Fukushima leak exposes failures in nuclear crisis management

The leakage of about 5.5 tons of water containing radioactive materials from the plant also highlights the need for international supervision of Japan's controversial discharge of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean.

It is estimated that 22 billion becquerels of radioactive materials such as cesium and strontium are contained in the leaked water, and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), claimed on Wednesday that monitoring of a nearby drainage channel did not show any significant radiation level changes.

This begs the question: What constitutes a "significant" level?

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The leak on Wednesday stemmed from a valve left open during cleaning operations, while the October incident resulted from a loose hose channeling contaminated solutions. In August, TEPCO attributed a leak to cracks approximately four centimeters in length found in a hose.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202402/12/WS65c9eda7a3104efcbdaeab75.html

From what I understand a few years back they (Tepco et al) installed a frozen underground wall around the station. This saw some issues at first with not all of the elements freezing properly, but I believe they managed to get this sorted at some point after. Since then I have heard nothing really about the ice wall, so I honestly don't know. Doing a short search yielded nothing about the ice wall, so I am really unsure about it. I should look harder and see if I can find out what happened, if anything.

Regarding the rest of the plant..... It's a mess. A real terrible mess. The concrete around the base of the reactor pedestal (unit 1) has melted or simply rotted away leaving parts of the pedestal just resting on the steel rebar, which will rust through in time, and probably cause the reactor to tumble down into the basement, or something. Use your imagination as to what could possibly happen if the pedestal gave way. The plant is still leaking like a colander with many becquerels of isotopes leaking out to sea, as well as the planned waste water releases. Apparently the staff are unhappy and fed up with the work. I am assuming that is one of the reasons for the many human mistakes that keep happening there, such as this last spill - they left the taps open! The incompetence is bewildering!

I have attached a PDF that is an 11th year report of the site and that will fill you in on all the details. Also check out  https://simplyinfo.org/  as there is lots and lots of information on Fukushima Diiachi from the start of the disaster right up to present. The attached PDF was taken from that site (in the spirit of getting the info out) so full credit goes to them. Their version is very slow and cumbersome so I made it into a PDF for ease of reading.