Thursday, April 7, 2011

What to do with the 57 million gallons of radioactive water Fukushima?

57 million liters of radioactive water accumulated in the Fukushima central to which is being used by hundreds of liters of the plant workers poured into the reactors in an attempt to cool your core. But what can you do with them? After the technicians managed on Wednesday to close the leak which were filtering liters of sea water, the problem arises now in Fukushima is where they are going to stop those who are still accumulating.

As reported in the journal 'Los Angeles Times, the water used to try to cool the reactors and dangerous fuel rods is seeping through cracks in the floor, through tunnels and passageways of the lowest levels , which is building a sea of deadly waste. The problem: nobody knows what to do with them.

"There is no precedent similar to this that can help find a solution," the paper says Robert Alvarez, former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. The high level of radioactive substances in the water must be safely stored, processed and solidified. A job that experts say will almost certainly be conducted in a complex designed for it.

In addition, the process of cleaning the water could take years, even decades and cost could run into tens of billions of dollars. The immediate issue facing the Japanese is how to store all this water, taking into account that storage tanks are almost full. With this, TEPCO is considering taking on barges and tanks around 9 million liters of radioactive water.

Japan also has asked Russia to send reports to a floating plant waste treatment Suzuran call that was used to dismantle Russian nuclear submarines in the Pacific port of Vladivostok. The Suzuran was built in Japan ten years ago. However, even using barges and tanks to store water temporarily creates a future problem that goes through how to dispose of contaminated containers.

U.S. and Japanese experts say the key to solving the problem is to reduce the volume of water by the concentration of radioactive elements that can be solidified in a safer place. But do not waste experts disagree on how. Difficulty concentrating and solidifying contaminants depends on the amount of radioactivity in the water, the type of isotope and if the work can be done in Fukushima.

Most experts agree should be stored in a container of concentrated liquid. However, others consider this option very dangerous because over the years at the end would leave radioactive materials into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Japanese government indicated on Thursday that the current study expand the evacuation zone 20 km to 30 km around the center of Fukushima because of the danger of radiation exposure over long periods of time.

Japanese government spokesman, Yukio Edan, said authorities are considering ordering the evacuation of some residents of between 20 and 30 km around the plant, which now only remain on guard advised. Edan suggested that the Government could change the limit values with ordering an evacuation, as those guidelines "are set assuming an accident that releases a high level of radiation in a short space of time." Japan's government has asked experts to consider measures to avoid risk to the population of prolonged exposure, because the Fukushima Daiichi crisis still has no overtones of end soon because of the difficulties to contain radioactive leaks.

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