Fukushima – Thousands Of Storage Tanks Leaking Highly Radioactive Water Into Pacific Ocean

/ AGR Free Press


There are numerous SEVERE problems developing at Fukushima, and the situation there is growing worse with each passing day. After 3/11, 3 reactors melted down, 3 spent fuel pools dried out, caught on fire and unit#3 exploded, spreading radioactive fuel rods for up to 3 kilometers in all directions. Since then, the situation at Fukushima has not only gotten worse, but it is now at the point where even pro nuclear Japanese government officials are calling it an emergency. 


TEPCO has been called incompetent and calls have been made by Japanese political leaders to replace TEPCO, but then, who steps in to fix the mess they created? The problem is, no one knows what to do to ‘fix’ this problem, because these are issues that have never before been faced by humanity. 


Within one year of 3/11, TEPCO had constructed 1,000 high level radioactive liquid storage tanks on site, each of them containing about 1,000 to 10,000 tons of highly radioactive liquid, containing 18 MILLION Bq/liter of radiation. They needed to construct these tanks to contain all of the high level, concentrated radioactive liquid being generated on site due to multiple blown out and melted through reactors.

Each of the storage tanks are over 35 feet tall,… are made of steel plates which are bolted together rather than welded, and have no system available for monitoring the water levels inside each tank. Utility figures estimate that 10 tons of contaminated water leaked from the storage tank each day for the last 30 days. Experts are criticizing TEPCO for not checking the tanks for leaks more frequently.

Since being built, many, most, or possibly all of these tanks have leaked, so they transferred the liquids from the worst leaking tanks to other tanks, which also leaked.

Asahi: ALL radioactive water storage tanks at Fukushima Daiichi leaking? “We are giving priority to the No. 2 tank, whose conditions are worse” April 8, 2013

Since the tanks are BOLTED together, and not welded, what are the odds of most tanks leaking through these bolt holes fairly quickly, especially knowing that these are used tanks to start with, potentially already 50% rusted through? The liquids being stored in these tanks are highly corrosive and degrade the structure of the metal in a number of ways, so the tanks are getting weaker, day by day. At least at Hanford, the tanks were underground and most of them were double walled. Here, all tanks are single walled, made of either bolted metal or plastic. 


August 12, 2013
‘Tremendous Worry’: Emergency operation halted at Fukushima plant — Contaminated water from leaking tank put into another leaking tank April 9, 2013 http://enenews.com/tremendous-worry-emergency-operation-halted-at-fukushima-plant-contaminated-water-from-leaking-tank-put-into-another-leaking-tank/comment-page-1#comment-344656
Since 3/12, the construction of liquid radiation storage containers has not stopped, and it is estimated there are now the equivalent of 2,000 or more large temporary storage contains on site at Fukushima in various forms, such as plastic bladders, metal tanks, plastic tanks and more, each containing 10,000 tons or more of highly radioactive water. This type of high level radiation storage operation has never been done before, especially using temporary storage tanks designed to last only a year or two. 
Many, most or all of these plastic and metal tanks are presently leaking, since they were ‘temporary’ and were not warrantied. These storage tanks were built to last no more than one year. Many if not all these metal tanks were ‘recycled’ from an abandoned business, and the same may be true for the large plastic bladders. The workers are losing faith in the storage containers as any kind of solution, but they have no place else to put this deadly dangerous radioactive liquid. 
Everyone has to believe the organization that created the whole problem in the first place.. If they report no leaks and someone else says every tank in the place is leaking, who do you believe?
“Losing faith” in leaking Fukushima tanks — But we don’t have anywhere else to put the radioactive water
As time has passed, TEPCO has created larger problems, by substituting large plastic holding ponds to hold the radioactive liquid. These plastic bladders are cheaper than metal tanks, but they are also not as durable as metal tanks. Now reports are coming out that all of these plastic bladder containers are leaking radioactive water. They are so large, that there are not sufficient metal tanks to transfer the radioactive liquids from the leaking bladders into them. So the leaks continue to get worse and more numerous. 
Report: All 7 Fukushima in-ground storage ponds leaking radioactive water April 13, 2013

As recently as 8/20/2013, just ONE of the 1,000 metal water tanks had leaked 300 TONS of highly radioactive water, before the leak was discovered. According to Asahi, “the water has a concentration of 80 million becquerels per liter, which translates into 24 trillion becquerels for 300 tons.


A TEPCO employee on the morning of Aug. 19 found water flowing out from valves on the barrier. The leak created two puddles of a combined 120 liters outside the barrier.”

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201308200059

“The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear plant said Saturday that deteriorated seams and a possible contortion of a reassembled storage tank might have caused a massive contaminated water leak that has triggered fears over the plant’s radioactive water management…Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that after the foundation of the tank, which was storing radioactive water, partially collapsed two years ago, it was moved and reassembled..” 

According to this article, the seams of these metal storage tanks are made of RUBBER. Are rubber joints a good idea for storing high level nuclear waste in tanks that seem to collapse for no reason other than just sitting there? 

Also, there were no reports of a storage tank collapsing two years ago, and it must have had radioactive water inside of it back then also, correct? Why would an empty tank have a foundation tank collapse? That would make no sense whatever. 

Whatever happened to the 1,000 to 10,000 tons of radioactive water in the OLD tank with the collapsed foundation? Also, notice in the picture of the tank farm at the link above, that there seems to be a lot of liquid running off of the corner of the tank farm. See the large blue tarp going off into the woods, which seems to be a like a drainage channel? What is the blue tarp’s purpose? Why does it look like a pillow on the downhill side of it? 


This story is telling us that not only was there a MASSIVE leak from one of these metal tanks, but the leak was not contained. No one is checking on these tanks, because it took around 30 days to ‘discover’ the leak. This highly radioactive water went down into the groundwater,  up into the air, but it also went out through a valve that is supposed to be kept in a closed position to contain leaking water. Why would someone have turned this valve to the open position and then not check on it until 30 days afterwards?

But it gets even worse. FOIA documents prove that TEPCO has been intentionally dumping radioactive water into the Pacific ocean, on a fairly routine basis, without disclosing this fact to the public. Some of these dumpings consisted of as much as 10,000 TONS of radioactive water.

FOIA Proof That TEPCO Has Been Regularly Dumping Highly Radioactive Water Into The Pacific Ocean; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/07/foia-proof-that-tepco-has-been.html

As these highly radioactive liquid leaks and intentional (but secret) radioactive water dumpings continue and get worse from these seemingly highly fragile, rubber sealed single wall storage tanks and pits, more and more of this highly radioactive liquid goes into the groundwater and into the Pacific ocean.

Where will mega nuclear disaster that seems to be spiraling downwards into chaos stop? How much worse will it become? When will TEPCO and the Japanese government start taking this situation seriously and do things right, instead of using duct tape, baling wire, recycled tanks, and temporary rubber seals?


Fukushima – Thousands Of Storage Tanks Leaking Highly Radioactive Water Into Pacific Ocean via @AGreenRoad

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