• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 2 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 6 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 8 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 10 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
Nickel Prices Expected to Drop Further in 2024

Nickel Prices Expected to Drop Further in 2024

The global nickel market is…

An EU Carbon Tax Will Upend The Global LNG Market

An EU Carbon Tax Will Upend The Global LNG Market

The global LNG market could…

Japanese Ice Wall To Help Prevent Spread Of Radiation

Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) has approved a plan to freeze the soil around the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant to prevent radioactive groundwater from entering the general water supply.

The government in Tokyo agreed to the plan last September, but the NRA only approved it on May 26. Construction of coolant-bearing pipes to create the “ice wall” will begin in June and is expected to be finished by March, 2015. The cost of the project is estimated at ¥32 billion ($314 million).

Under the plan, contractors will freeze the soil around Fukushima Reactors 1 through 4, and around nearby buildings, to a depth of almost 100 feet. The lateral extent of the frozen area will be 1.5 kilometers, or nearly a mile in diameter. The target temperature for the frozen earth is 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (40 degrees below zero Celsius).

The “ice wall” is intended not only to keep more ground water from escaping from Fukushima, but also to keep water from nearby high ground from seeping into the accident scene, becoming radioactive, and eventually leaching into the nearby Pacific Ocean. The nuclear power plant was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Although the Japanese government and the NRA have approved the project, some parts of it still may require the endorsement of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima plant.

Even if approval becomes universal, questions remain about the strategy. Freezing earth previously has been used successfully in building tunnels, for example, but the technique has never been used to contain radioactive groundwater. And no one has ever tried to artificially freeze earth for so long – in this case, perhaps several decades until the Fukushima plant is eventually decommissioned.

Before the NRA gave its approval, other concerns had been raised, including whether freezing groundwater might prevent a spread of the contamination over several years, and what the technique’s effect might be on the immediate area.

Related Article: New Mexican Nuclear Facility Leak “No Threat” to Human Health

In fact, the NRA didn’t give its approval until TEPCO could allay the agency’s concerns that building the “ice wall” would cause the ground around Fukushima to sink hazardously. TEPCO said the surrounding ground is likely to sink no more than 16 millimeters (0.63 inches) in some areas, but that wouldn’t be enough to compromise the ground’s stability.

This evidently convinced the NRA. The agency’s commissioner, Toyoshi Fuketa, concluded, “I think we have been able to confirm today the scale of ground sinking, which is what we have most feared as side effects of building the wall.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Still, Fuketa said other potential problems haven’t yet been addressed, specifically how to accurately assess the level of contaminated water inside the reactors themselves.

The Fukushima accident has been an environmental nightmare. For example, just after the accident, TEPCO pumped water to the reactors in an effort to cool them and to prevent fires. That contaminated water was supposed to have been contained, but TEPCO has acknowledged that more than 440 tons (400,000 kilograms) of highly radioactive water had escaped.

By Andy Tully of Oilprice.com



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment
  • Gepay on May 30 2014 said:
    I have read that 300 tons of water a day has been leaking into the ocean since nearly the beginning of the catastrophe. Only in the last year has TEPCO admitted this. It is believable to me as the ground water has been flowing through the site - especially the contaminated basements all along. When did you learn that all three operating reactors melted down and the core containments breached in the first few days if not the first day? Many people believe that the 2nd part of the explosion at #3 that we've all seen if you were looking, looks to them as a small nuclear explosion. The contaminated fallout leaving plutonium being found kilometers away and the damaging of the health of sailors on the Ronald Reagan out at sea are evidence.
    Nobody knows where the melted cores are because the reactors are too radioactive to even send in robots and find them much less humans. Why do you think there is that giant tank farm of contaminated water - many of which leak? Because the wrecks of the reactors and spent fuel pools need to have water continually cooling them. They try to recycle it but
    much of it is lost as there is groundwater flowing through the system
    Fukushima is the biggest problem on the planet which should have an international effort to fix

Leave a comment

EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News