Blah-blah-blah... it's old news - it happened on Monday, so I assume you already know... but, in order to pump out more of the radioactive water from the Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear facility in Fukushima-ken (Province of Fukushima), they had to empty their storage vessels first.
After the facility was damaged by the March 11, 2011 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, the plant nearly went into a nuclear meltdown as the nuclear rods began to heat up thanks to a lack of power to the cooling generators.
To keep the rods from melting, salt water from the nearby ocean had to be dumped into and atop it. This is the water that is radiated.
Now... while things are under more control at the nuclear facility, there is still the urgency to get rip of this now-radiated water as there is still a lot more water to be cleaned up.
Since there is a limited amount of storage space for the radiated water, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) has a simple plan... dump the radiated water back into the Pacific Ocean from whence it came.
So... the plan is to dump 11,500 tons of radioactive water. Of course, it's only mildly radioactive water, and will dissipate quickly without any long-term affects to the area or to local marine life.
Hopefully.
This water is some accumulation from the pits under Reactors No. 5 & 6 at Dai-ichi. By dumping this water, it will free up space for the 10,000 tons of more highly radioactive waste water that was in Reactors No. 1-4 - especially No.2.
So... the deed was done on Monday, April 4, 2011.
Yukio Edano, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, explains, "The measure was to prevent highly radioactive water from spreading. But we are dumping radioactive water, and we feel very sorry about this."
Reactor No.2, was discovered last week to have a crack in its pits, leaking radioactive materials into the surrounding water and earth. While dangerous, it is not a nuclear emergency.
Attempts to plug the crack with concrete failed, as did attempts of using a melange of sawdust, shredded newspapers, polymers and cement. Next attempt involves a liquid glass.
(Ed. Note: I always though glass was a liquid! - but apparently I was wrong!
Glass is an amorphous solid. There is a fundamental structural divide between amorphous solids (including glass) and crystalline solids. Structurally, glass is similar to liquids, but it is not a liquid.)
Andrew Joseph
PS: you know what's really sad? I didn't have to look up most of the information contained in this blog. I just knew it! I guess my subscription to Popular Science and Design engineering is paying off!
After the facility was damaged by the March 11, 2011 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, the plant nearly went into a nuclear meltdown as the nuclear rods began to heat up thanks to a lack of power to the cooling generators.
To keep the rods from melting, salt water from the nearby ocean had to be dumped into and atop it. This is the water that is radiated.
Now... while things are under more control at the nuclear facility, there is still the urgency to get rip of this now-radiated water as there is still a lot more water to be cleaned up.
Since there is a limited amount of storage space for the radiated water, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) has a simple plan... dump the radiated water back into the Pacific Ocean from whence it came.
So... the plan is to dump 11,500 tons of radioactive water. Of course, it's only mildly radioactive water, and will dissipate quickly without any long-term affects to the area or to local marine life.
Hopefully.
This water is some accumulation from the pits under Reactors No. 5 & 6 at Dai-ichi. By dumping this water, it will free up space for the 10,000 tons of more highly radioactive waste water that was in Reactors No. 1-4 - especially No.2.
So... the deed was done on Monday, April 4, 2011.
Yukio Edano, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, explains, "The measure was to prevent highly radioactive water from spreading. But we are dumping radioactive water, and we feel very sorry about this."
Reactor No.2, was discovered last week to have a crack in its pits, leaking radioactive materials into the surrounding water and earth. While dangerous, it is not a nuclear emergency.
Attempts to plug the crack with concrete failed, as did attempts of using a melange of sawdust, shredded newspapers, polymers and cement. Next attempt involves a liquid glass.
(Ed. Note: I always though glass was a liquid! - but apparently I was wrong!
Glass is an amorphous solid. There is a fundamental structural divide between amorphous solids (including glass) and crystalline solids. Structurally, glass is similar to liquids, but it is not a liquid.)
Andrew Joseph
PS: you know what's really sad? I didn't have to look up most of the information contained in this blog. I just knew it! I guess my subscription to Popular Science and Design engineering is paying off!
