Nuclear crisis minister wants underground barrier built quickly
In this June 12, 2011 photo released on July 5, 2011 by Tokyo Electric Power Co., masked workers in protective outfits prepare to drop one of sliding concrete slabs into a slit of the upper part of the sluice screen for Unit 2 reactor at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in their effort to decrease the leak of radiation contaminated water to the ocean. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of the ongoing nuclear crisis, suggested July 11 that the government should push ahead with the construction of an underground barrier to block the flow of highly contaminated water from the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant as soon as possible.
Construction of such a barrier will cost more than 100 billion yen, according to some estimates. Hosono suggested that the government should help the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), with the project.
"Can a private company such as TEPCO handle this itself? I think the government should move into action, even if that means going a step ahead," Hosono said.
Contaminated water has leaked from reactor and turbine buildings at the crippled nuclear plant. To stop this water from spreading through underground water and flowing into the sea, TEPCO plans to construct underground walls extending to a depth of 30 meters. Under its roadmap for bringing the nuclear crisis under control, which was revised in June, consideration of the best way to block the flow of contaminated water, as well as selection of a solution and construction, had been deemed "mid-term issues" after Step 2 of the roadmap that began in July and continues for three to six months.
"Construction of a barrier is an important process. We finished considering plans at an early stage of Step 2, and have started considering whether we can quickly begin construction," Hosono said.
In this June 30, 2011 photo released on July 5, 2011 by Tokyo Electric Power Co., sliding concrete slabs, seen above orange floats, are all set in the upper part of the sluice screen for Unit 2 reactor at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in TEPCO's effort to decrease the leak of radiation contaminated water to the ocean. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
The minister's comments, made at a meeting of the House of Representatives' special committee on restoration following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, came in response to an inquiry from Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Masayoshi Yoshino.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110712p2a00m0na005000c.html
GE Pays
:
Just send the bill to the responsible parties TEPCO, GE, Toshiba, Hitachi, Siemens, Areva et al.
Is product liability a part of Japanese Law? If not, they need to catch up on things PDQ, and get with the program.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant complex is a classic example, of willful and knowing, defective design by General Electric. The UCS testified about the Mark-1 housing defects, before the US Congress, decades ago.
product liability exists
product liability exists here, but the taxpayers picked up the bill for most of the BP disaster. Not to mention the ongoing price the people on the Gulf Coast are paying in terms of a totally degraded ecosystem.
We need to stop allowing these destructive practices if the responsible parties cannot afford to pay to solve them.
The only "socialism" we have in this country and the world is for corporations. They reap the profits, and we pay all the costs.
Legal
Funny laws for Japan GE is protected from liability But Japan isn't!
Dray says that any potential GE liability in this incident appears limited by something called “Channelling law.”
Channeling law is the long-standing nuclear industry practice that assigns the liability for damages from a nuclear failure on plant operators, regardless of fault for an incident. Channeling law is applicable in Japan, and protects equipment suppliers and the designers of nuclear facilities from liability. According to Japan’s Law on Compensation for Nuclear Damage and Law on Contract for Liability Insurance for Nuclear Damage, power plant operators must provide 120 billion yen ($1.2 billion) of coverage and the government provides coverage beyond .
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/03/14/japan-earthquake-ge-and-the-n...
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105300181.html
"Because Japan has not signed the convention, if any damage from water contaminated from the radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant were to arise in the fishing industry of another nation or if rubble from the tsunami after the Great East Japan Earthquake were to become contaminated with radiation and drift ashore at another nation, victims in those nations would be able to file lawsuits in their own nation."
Piercing the Veil
:
Similarly, BP is nominally limited, by statute, to $75M damages for the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gross negligence, willful misconduct and criminally negligent homicide nulify that protection.
Plus the federal fines for the oceanic oil spill will run into the billions $B.
Plus, the responsible parties are in jeopardy of imprisonment on felony charges.
In any event, BP quickly agreed to a $20B 'trust fund' to compensate the victims.
: What kind of massive
:
What kind of massive bribery, blackmail, extortion and wetwork is occuring on both sides of the Pacific?
This is a multi-Trillion dollar nuclear disaster. The widening destruction of land, air, sea, ground-water and human mobidity are staggering.
I'll wager that GE, Toshiba, Hitachi, Siemens and Areva are making some politicians fabulously wealthy.
No other way could GE, Toshiba, Hitachi, Siemens and Areva 'skip town', with this kind of paper hanging. TEPCO and the Japanese government are on the hook. The other players should be frog-marched to the same gallows.
Productivity
Industry is financed by either government or private finance. If private sources capitalize or finance the industry, production or service it must return a profit. In cases where the resource, service or potential production is fixed or relatively constant such as a reservoir, hydroelectric resource or generally used service the net cost, that is including profit, is of course greater, with no possible increase of value, if privately financed.
Capital will always seek expansion and expansion of profit.
We must start limiting private and corporate interest were the cost to the public would be in excess of a public work, or when or where the public interest is adequately served by private enterprise.
Mixing private capital with nuclear energy, no matter how well regulated should have always been a non-starter.
Industries that have the capacity to warp and destroy life over vast areas perhaps should exist, if at all, in only one place and absolutely with no profit component.
And yes, I AM a NIMBY.
Productivity
.... where the public interest is inadequately served by private enterprise. (for example were profit before public safety presents such dire possibilities)
People keep mentioning
People keep mentioning Siemens and the guys have nothing to do with this.
industry compliant with state sponsered terror
BTW creating a worm that can destroy a reactor that requires a compliant vendor (Siemens) is a crime committed or abetted by the vendor. Did the worm have a part in the debacle ? I don't know. Jim Stone thinks so.
What a monumental mess ...
What a monumental mess ... and yet nothing about this catastrophe will deter the nuclear spin doctors from defending their toxic, cancer-causing industry...
Arnie gunderson
Was stating this was a priority months ago to bad work didn't start then! it seems tepco is busy with water treatment.maybe the gov should join in this will be the third catostophic release first air ,sea,now groundwater lovely.
I might add that among all
I might add that among all the bad news, the water treatment has gone quite well, thank goodness. Pretty impressive set up, and unprecedented in scale.
More on h20 treatment according to tepco
Treatment of contaminated water gets on track at Fukushima I NPS
Jul. 12, 2011
Lowering of the level of contaminated water is an urgent task for curtailment of the diffusion of radioactive material (photo provided by TEPCO).
TOKYO --The water contaminated with radiation that has accumulated in plant buildings has been one of the biggest issues at the Fukushima I nuclear power station (NPS) owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. (TEPCO), and operation of the treatment system to purify this water is beginning to get on track. In units 1-3, fuel has apparently melted down inside the reactors, and crews hope to inject the purified water into these units for stable cooling without an increase in the total amount of contaminated water.
At present, about 400 tons of water is being pumped into units 1-3 every day. The amount is being held to the minimum requisite in order to prevent the contaminated water from increasing, but more than 100,000 tons of contaminated water is still standing in the reactor buildings and other facilities.
http://www.shimbun.denki.or.jp/en/news/20110712_02.html
The treatment system was placed into operation in mid June, but it continued to experience various troubles initially. It is now delivering the anticipated decontamination performance, according to TEPCO.
The treated water began to be injected into the reactor units in late June. This process likewise was plagued with difficulties at first, but has been proceeding fairly smoothly since the start of July. If the operation remains smooth, TEPCO expects to lower the amount of contaminated water to the targeted level around mid August. This will enable it to avoid the risk of an overflow of contaminated water from the buildings.
Four months have passed since occurrence of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and efforts aimed at putting an end to the catastrophe are graduating from the level of emergency evacuation initiatives to medium- and long-term steps.
You can say whatever you
You can say whatever you want about the Japanese, they were caught with there pants down, they don't know how to improvise and innovate on the go when the situation requires it, but once they have a plan to follow they are pretty impressive.
Concentration of radiation makes u think
Any one read anything on a plan for the concentrated filters -will they be turning this concentrated waste into glass form I can't imagine how radioactive the filter media will be and how man could deal with this .
Curiously, why is TEPCO
Curiously, why is TEPCO still handling things largely on its own? Shouldn't a world-class task force be on site providing expertise and manpower?
"Construction of such a
"Construction of such a barrier will cost more than 100 billion yen,"
If TEPCO is largely on its own we must remember that it is still a corporation functioning to cut costs at every available opportunity. Given the circumstances, is this as it should be?
Finances and it's role
Great point .U would think tepco would or should have unlimited resources to clean up there mess.I do recall reading how the japanese gov was forcing banks to loan free money ( zero intrest) to tepco .strange to think of the financial aspect as u stated there still a publicly traded company with $$$ interests .strange that Tokyo isn't more involved as in the case of when the Russian gov took charge of Chernobyl .