Saturday, September 7, 2013

Contaminated Water Leak...

Hello readers! I have a very interesting post for you today, so get your snacks ready!

     An earthquake in March 11th, 2011 caused  fuel-rod meltdowns at 3 nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan. Basically, this made the area around the nuclear reactors extremely radioactive, such as the sky and the sea next to it. A company called Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Co) has been trying to control the situation since then. They have been pumping large amounts of water over the reactors to cool them down. Then they take that water and store them in tanks over the ground since that water becomes radioactive. But recently, one of the tanks leaked over 300 tones of contaminated water due to structural issues. This leaked water has been mixing with the sea water, and when radiation tests were performed around the tanks, the radiation readings were around 2,200 millisieverts. That is enough radiation to kill a person within a few hours.


Fukushima Nuclear Plant

     Now what the Japanese government is proposing, is to spend about half a billion US dollars to try and stabilize the nuclear plant area. They are also going to use some of that money ($330 Million) to build a 1.5 kilometre ice wall which will prevent the contaminated water from the sea to spread. Some people say it's a crazy idea and how it will never work; but experts on this subject say it's not too far-fetched and it could work, even with all the potential obstacles.

     If the ice wall project starts now, it should be completed by March of 2015. The wall will surround 4 reactor buildings with a system of pipes which carry a coolant of -40 degrees. The pipes will freeze the soil around it, creating a frozen "wall' of soil which will block any contaminated water out into the sea.

This is extremely interesting news, you can read more about it here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/cold-feat-how-japan-plans-to-contain-fukushimas-nuclear-contamination-by-building-a-14-kilometre-ice-wall/article14117977/?page=all

     I basically summarized what I read in the newspaper, so you can read a much more in-depth article by clicking the link provided above. I want your opinion on this matter, do you think the ice wall is a good idea? Feel free to leave your opinions in the comment section below, and as always, thank you so much for reading my post! Have a great day!

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