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After admitting that between 300 to 600 tons of coolant water is leaking into the Pacific Ocean every day, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has decided to surround the crippled nuclear power plant with a 1.4 km long ice wall that will cost between $300-$410 million.
According to Engineering.com, sink pipes with constantly cycling coolant will surround reactors 1 through 4. Estimated time to completion is one to two years.
Ground freezing is used in mining. Cameco used freezing on its Cigar Lake mine to contain underground water, but nothing has ever been built on this scale. If completed the Fukushima artificial ice wall would be the world’s largest.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the leaks an “urgent problem.”
The expensive ice wall will be a drop in the bucket compared to what Japanese taxpayers have already spent. To date the cost of cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear disaster is US$112 billion.
Image of Fukushima nuclear power plant by Kawamoto Takuo
9 Comments
Yrusoslo
Nukes need to be built partly below sea level protected by a retaining wall. That way, in emergencies cooling water can flood critical parts of the reactors before they become uncontrollable by breaching the walls.
Yankee9204
Good idea, as long as you keep BP and Haliburton out of the nuclear energy industry.
JH
Nukes should be built in countries without corrupt political patronage, or where regulators and inspectors do not look the other way or are blind (drunk) after lunch..
You know, just like the nuclear toxic zone of Wall Street Banks, where there is no political patronage and where regulators and inspectors do not look the other way and everything is wonderful.
(I laid the sarcasm on pretty thick, but I think I got away with it).
Stevil
Yeah, I actually agree and all, but what exactly does Wall Street corruption have to do with nuclear meltdowns?
“Yeah, millions suffered from the meltdown, countless people died from radiation and the tsunami slurry and so forth. Shame, that. And for sure, the cost to the already suffering Japanese economy is staggering. But hey, lookit us!” *jumps up and down* Wall Street totally screwed us! See how this relates to us? How it’s all about us?!
Seems in poor taste, don’t you think? =/
thecrud
It is OK Japan you can sell your fish to Americans. And by American fish for you to eat. No will check it they glow in the dark.
And hey you know what gos around.
Odo Shortwick
They already froze the ground to attempt to stem the flow of water from the NPP into the ocean. Instead of helping, it’s causing more damage. With the amount of water that is falling from the rainy season, the back-up behind the frozen ground is causing the ground around the NPP to turn into a swamp. The concern now is the ground beneath the reactor chambers may become too soft causing the structures to collapse. Currently the spent fuel pools are full of radioactive fuel rods, if those dump out onto the ground it will make the 3/11 disaster look like training exercise.
There is only going to be one way to get this ongoing ecological disaster to stop. Japan is going to have to swallow it’s pride, kick TEPCO out, and ask the other governments for assistance. Get a large trained team in there with proper radiation protection and build a containment. Unlike Chernobyl a sarcophagus isn’t going to work. The corium has breached the containment and the building itself, so they’ll have to excavate the entire area to find it. That will require removing the stored fuel in the SFPs, razing the buildings and digging down deep.
Just leaving it all there, or covering it all in concrete like what they’re thinking about doing now, won’t be sufficient. The entire area will consistently spew off radiation into the surrounding ocean, poisoning the rest of the planet until it’s contained. It’s NEVER going to be cleaned up. The area is a complete loss, all we can do at this point it stop it from spreading.
Jeor Mormont
The cold winds are rising. When dead men and worse come hunting in the night, do you think it matters if your reactors are leaking?
Grenn
I am the sword in the darkness
Mahhn
fucking idiots are letting the planet die for the sake of greed