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TEPCO’s plan for diverting Fukushima water into Pacific Ocean

Fukushima Fishermen Ruined by Tepco Now Key in Radiation Fight, Bloomberg, By Yuriy Humber, Chisaki Watanabe & Masumi Suga – Aug 29, 2013
 Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) ruined the livelihoods of the commercial fishermen that trawled the seas off Fukushima prefecture when its leaking reactors poisoned the fishing grounds. The utility now needs their help.
At issue is a series of wells and pipes built by Tokyo Electric to alter the course of groundwater flowing from the hills behind the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station. The bypass, which is ready to operate, will divert water away from the plant’s damaged reactors and into the Pacific, thus reducing contamination, Tokyo Electric says. The utility must first get the approval of the 1,500 members of Fukushima’s fishing cooperative and others in the area to begin using the bypass. With Tokyo Electric’s history of falsifying safety reports, hiding accidents and ignoring warnings, fisherman aren’t convinced the system is safe.
“We have yet to reach a conclusion” on whether the cooperative will agree to Tokyo Electric’s bypass plan, Tetsu Nozaki, chairman of the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations, said yesterday in Tokyo. “We will make a cool-headed decision.”
The three-month impasse has implications beyond Fukushima and Japan because it’s holding up the bid to reduce the 300 metric tons of radioactive water gushing into the Pacific each day.
More than 330,000 tons of water with varying levels of toxicity is stored in pits, basements and hundreds of tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant 220 kilometers (137 miles) northeast of Tokyo. The water is the result of efforts to keep the reactor cores from overheating and groundwater pouring into the facility, wrecked by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Consensus Sought
Some of those tanks are vulnerable to leaks, Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, said last week. Moreover, the groundwater seeping into the Fukushima plant is mixing with radioactive water, getting contaminated.
Estimates say about 400 tons of groundwater flows down the hillside each day. The bypass would reduce that by about 25 percent, piping the water from the plant and into the ocean before it gets contaminated.
“We want to reach a consensus soon,” Yoshihisa Komatsu, an official at the Fukushima fishing cooperative, said by phone Aug. 28 in reference to the bypass talks. “But some members oppose it so we are caught in the middle.”…… .http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-29/fukushima-fishermen-ruined-by-tepco-now-key-in-radiation-fight.html

August 30, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013