nuclear-news

Problem of the Fukushima ice wall against radioactive leaking – it doesn’t work

Fukushima ‘ice wall’ can’t get cold enough to stop radioactive water flow  Dr Leonard Coldwell  Jul 09, 2014 A Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) project to freeze radioactive water to prevent it from further contaminating surrounding areas and the Pacific Ocean has hit a major snag: the water won’t freeze. ……. Not freezing, and behind schedule

Recently, TEPCO launched two related programs to contain existing contamination and limit the flow of new water into the contaminated area. Both consist of digging trenches for pipes, then filling the pipes with an aqueous solution of calcium chloride cooled to -30°C (-22°F). The goal of the first, smaller project is to freeze 11,000 metric tons of radioactive water that has pooled beneath two of the failed reactors.

This project is widely seen as a pilot project for the much larger, more ambitious plan to use pipes to actually freeze the soil and create a 1.4 km (0.9 mile) “ice wall” to prevent more groundwater from infiltrating down into the underground reactors and becoming radioactive.

But on June 17, TEPCO announced that even the smaller project was having difficulties.

“We have yet to form an ice plug because we can’t get the temperature low enough to freeze the water,” a company spokesperson said.

The company also said that fluctuating water levels were making it difficult for the water to actually freeze.

“We are behind schedule, but have already taken additional measures, including putting in more pipes, so that we can remove contaminated water from the trench starting next month,” the spokesperson said.

Cleanup plagued with gaffes and errors………. http://drleonardcoldwell.com/2014/07/09/fukushima-ice-wall-cant-get-cold-enough-to-stop-radioactive-water-flow/

July 19, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2014