A crack in a maintenance hole was found over the weekend - final confirmation that the radioactivity continues to spill into the environment. This leakage is a symptom of the main difficulties in the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex: radioactive water is pooling around the plant and preventing workers from powering up a cooling system that will stabilize the reactor overheating.
Government officials acknowledged Sunday that likely will be several months before the cooling system completely restored. And even after that happens, there will be years of work ahead to clean up the area around the complex and find out what to do with it.
Until all the contaminated pond water is pumped into storage tanks and cooling system was restored, improvised methods of water pumping into the reactor and allowed to spray wherever it can be the only way to lower the temperature and pressure in the reactor core, where the rod material fuel continues to produce large amounts of heat, although nuclear reactions have stopped.
"We have to keep putting water into the reactor to cool the fuel to prevent further damage, although we know that there are side effects, which is a leak," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Safety of Nuclear and Industrial Agency,. "We want to get rid of stagnant water and decontamination place so that we can return to our main task to restore a sustainable cooling capacity as quickly as possible."
The emergency system is also difficult for the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. 's other objectives: containing the spread of radiation.
Radioactivity has been spewing from the plant since March 11, when an earthquake measuring 9.0-partum large tsunami that devastated large patch of northeast coast of Japan. Up to 25,000 people are believed killed in the disaster, and tens of thousands homeless. Thousands forced to flee 12 miles (20 kilometers) radius around the plant because of radiation.
Over the weekend, a crack (20 centimeter-long) 8-inch-long was found in a maintenance hole, sending a flow of water into the sea. This area is normally blocked by a sea wall, but gaps are also found outside the barrier on Monday.
While radioactivity quickly diluted in the ocean, a government spokesman said Monday that the thin volume of contamination concerns. It is unclear how much water is leaking from the pit so far.
"Even if they said the contamination will be diluted in the ocean, the longer this continues, more radioactive particles would be released and the greater the impact on the sea," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. "We strongly urge TEPCO that they should take immediate action to deal with this."
The operator said Monday it was ordering a fence that is usually used to contain oil spills. The screen is not designed to trap radioactivity but may reduce water flow and thereby reduce the spread of contamination, TEPCO said Teruaki Kobayashi manager. It is unclear when they would arrive.
Meanwhile, the company has been trying to close the leak with concrete and then by injecting a mixture of polymers, sawdust and shredded newspaper much a system of ditches, close to where they believe the source.
The failure of these efforts seem to signal that officials are targeting the wrong channel to pit maintenance. Then, the workers threw a few pounds (kilograms) of white milk bath salts into the system, to see if they could track the path of water.
The dye has not hit the ocean.
"Maybe there are other sections that water may travel. We must watch carefully and contain as quickly as possible," Nishiyama said.
Before restoring the cooling system, workers must clean up the plant from a pool of radioactive water that had collected under each of the three reactor turbine building problematic 'and had spilled into the various trenches around the complex. TEPCO has proposed pumping into tankers, barges and are now considering sending it to a storage facility on the site.
Work on the problem continues to make progress, even as workers tried to stop the latest leak, Nishiyama said.
Source: news.yahoo.com
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