Growing problems at Japan’s nuke plant

by David Safier

The problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant have moved down the news food chain, but they continue to grow.

There was this disturbing passage in an article in today's Star:

A TEPCO spokesman said Thursday that radioactive contamination in groundwater nearly 50 feet under one of six reactors had been measured at 10,000 times the government standard for water at the plant. It was the first time the utility has released statistics for groundwater near the plant.

TEPCO did not immediately explain the health risks if that water were to get into the environment or say if that was a possibility, although spokesman Naoyuki Matsumo said the drinking-water supply has not been affected. Still, elevated levels of iodine-131, a radioactive substance that decays quickly, were another sign that radiation continues to leak at the plant.

If I read this correctly, the contamination in the water will dissipate reasonably quickly. But if the contamination has reached 50 feet below the reactor, that speaks of a serious leakage problem.

And this in a NY Times article:

On Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said a soil sample from Iitate, a village of 7,000 people about 25 miles northwest of the plant, showed very high concentrations of cesium 137 — an isotope that produces harmful gamma rays, accumulates in the food chain and persists in the environment for hundreds of years.

The cesium levels were about double the minimums found in the area declared uninhabitable around the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine . . .

Twenty-five miles away, the levels are twice what was found in areas declared uninhabitable around Chernobyl.

Nuclear contamination is a gift problem that just keeps giving growing. There's the immediate problem from an accident. There's the long term contamination of the area. And there is the problem that hasn't gotten much press. How do they entomb the damaged reactors, and how long will they remain hot?