nuclear-news

Construction is scheduled by Tokyo Electric Power Company, the Japanese utility that owns the failed site, to begin on the complicated system within days.

It was September of last year when the Japanese government released plans for an underground wall based on technology first tested in the 1990s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with encouraging results…….

“It’s just sometimes it’s the only scenario that will really work,” said Sopko. “When nothing else will work, it just jumps out at you and says, ‘Wow, it’s a freeze job.’”

To build the wall, 1,073 pipes will be sunk about three feet apart into the ground to a waterproof rock layer (a depth of about 90 feet). The pipes will then be filled with brine (concentrated salt water) and circulated through the pipes. Using 14 400 kW refrigerating units, the brine will be cooled to -40 degrees Fahrenheit, which will freeze the ground around the pipes……..

Critics say Fukushima is a stark reminder that there are safety issues still outstanding for the nuclear industry and the consequences of these disasters have not been properly addressed.

In the U.S., politicians are starting to turn up the heat on regulatory agencies to submit plans to prevent a Fukushima-like incident from occurring in the United States.

One year after calling on regulators to issue a progress report on their efforts to implement a range of safety measures identified in the aftermath of 2011 calamity, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., renewed her call for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, to speed up its review of nuclear plant vulnerabilities to seismic activity both in her home state and across the western part of the United States.

To date, the NRC has taken nearly three years to assess the risks and has stated that it may take an additional three years to complete the process.

“This is an unacceptable delay – earthquakes will not wait until after the paperwork has been completed,” she said during opening remarks at a hearing on the issue.

Boxer is the chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

She warned that it will be another three years at least before some 60,000 Fukushima-area residents can return to their homes. There are other complications……..http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/super-cool-plan-to-save-japan-from-radiation/