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Fukushima radioactive groundwater readings rocket

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But don't worry, it's perfectly safe to start up all the other reactors?

13 ( +14 / -1 )

B-b-b-b-b-but PLEASE let us restart the other reactors on fault lines without us meeting safety guidelines! I mean... we REALLY want to make a profit this year!!

"TEPCO said last month that the company believed the groundwater was largely contained by concrete foundations and steel sheets."

So, in other words, it's already been leaking out for months and is not contained in the least. I reckon at least a couple of years before they admit people have been consuming products which will give them cancer, and anything caught off the Eastern coast of Japan down to as far as Wakayama cannot be eaten for the next few centuries.

Don't eat the seafood that has no prefecture-specific label on it, peeps! if it merely says "made in Japan" or "Pacific Ocean", it's likely to come from somewhere where clearly labeling it would reduce if not halt sales completely.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Sounds like the nuclear material has now melted though the concrete containment at the base of the reactor and is now into the soil / water.

Anyone surprised by Tepco not know what the hell is going on with anything?

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Although the radiation leaks from the nuclear accident are not officially recorded as having directly killed anyone, the natural disaster that caused them claimed more than 18,000 lives and was one of Japan’s worst ever peacetime tragedies. Ok JT. We get your POV. You do not have to end every article about Fukushima with this same statement.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Great. A good idea to grow rice there like some farmers started doing a while ago, then. We have to understand the importance of furusato...

Bring in competent people, contain it as beat as possible and shut the whole area down for a good while.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Great! Hats off to TEPCO. Beginning to doubt they are even capable of measuring the amount released let alone do anything about it. As a wise woman once said "Fantastic" but Judge for yourself.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Seems as if we are sitting in a nuclear cesspool.

The crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is in all kinds of meltdown, five local governments are seeking the early restart of five nuclear power plants and Japan is wagging its finger at nuclear-armed China.

TEPCO had better get control of the situation at the Fukushima plant or something wild might happen.

Before restarting those nuclear power plants in the five local areas, guarantees should be set in place to ensure that more nuclear accidents do not happen.

And in the story that appeared above this one when it was printed, it was stated that Japan is considering increasing its military defense system. In that story, Osaka University professor Kazuya Sakamoto, who sits on a panel advising Abe on security policies, said, "The balance of power will be lost if we don't start considering striking back when attacked." Such moves, Sakamoto added, should not unnerve China, with its arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Let's hope Japan's military intentions do not unnerve China ... 'cause we in Japan have got enough problems locally with our TEPCO-controlled nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, those radioactive groundwater readings at the Fukushima plant mentioned in the above article are apparently continuing to rocket sky high ...

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Smithinjapan, you are on the ball. We will have no idea about food contamination. They have planted rice just 15 km from the site, and intend to sell it? They are still fishing along the coast.

Madness it seems knows no bounds.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I believe this disaster is worse than Chernobyl (that reimains still dangerous as well). But humanity continues to use nuclear power. They say it's clean power. How they can't understand that when a disaster happens, you lose a piece of our Earth for thousands of years, is surprising. It's different from other forms of pollution for this reason. If I think that in France, near my country, Italy, there are more than 50 reactors, like in Japan, I have the nightmares. And France isn't the only country close to my country with nuclear reactors. It's useless to be without nuclear power like Italy, when your neighbours have tons of reactors.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Meltdown core now leaching through to groundwater. The area (and an expanding radus) will be uninhabitable for hundreds of thousands of years.i

3 ( +4 / -1 )

With high level of Tritium in the water, it will soon be possible to glow in the dark.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

MELT THROUGH it has been and always will be a MELT THROUGH. Certainly for Unit 1 and 2. The Corium mass sat on their mats have eaten through? Very possible.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Cesium137/134, tritum , strontium90 , do you get the picture ? Tepco is always keen to release levels of isotope with very long half life (many years) so we have no way to tell what is happening currently, they will BS us that those are isotopes from 3/11. TEPCO did not change, will not change, hiding and covering up.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I learnt to face stoically a natural disaster in Japan. Most likely my best ever life experience was on 3/11 with all this so sincere solidarity from the Japanese population. But as of 3/15, it started to become a nightmare because of the hypocritical Fukushima play down. With family we managed it for 2 years, but now it is over. We do not trust the J-gov to fix it and have decided to leave the country. Good luck and stay strong against the N-village.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Maybe if they released their I-131 levels daily at the plants we will all understand that there is actually some recent nuclear fission in progress, just saying...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Last straw. Leaving Japan in September. These idiots have destroyed what was once my favorite country to live in. Such a waste. RIP to Yoshida, who was in charge of Fukushima and died of cancer, brain hemorrhage, and paralysis today. And TEPCO has the gaul to say it wasn't radiation related.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

You know how serious the problem is when NHK morning news dedicated close to a minute on the subject. The general morning news (Not BS) started their broadcast at 7:00 and went to 7:01 talking about the radiation leak. From 7:01 we got down to the serious news that is "It's hot". That's right! We are in the middle of the summer and "It's really hot". The next 7 minutes were taken on explaining how hot it is, and how to deal with it. NHK in it's great paternal way trying to give us only the news that we can understand.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The TEPCO CEO's must be scratching their heads, why does ignoring the problem not make it go away? it usually works.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

let us atleast be thankful that they dont intend to copy chernobly`s sarcophagus method.. otherwise people will complain about rain water entering through the holes in the roof, becoming radioactively contaminated and seeping through the ground and entering the underground water streams, entering the sea and contaminating the ocean.

unless its already happening..

otherwise non-landlocked nations fishing in regions that have become radioactively contaminated (thanks to the ocean currents), might sue the Japanese taxpayer..

They say, the cost of building a nuclear powerplant, costs that includes bribing officials and local residents (schools, hospitals, day-care centers, etc) takes 20 odd years to pay off.. once its powered-on.. then all the years after its free money... but one accident.. condemns not only a community, region, nation.. but humanity as a whole.. and the countless generations to come..

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Onniyama

The WHO's prediction of 4,000 future cancer deaths in surrounding countries[142] is based on the Linear no-threshold model (LNT), which assumes that the damage inflicted by radiation at low doses is directly proportional to the dose.[143] Radiation epidemiologist Roy Shore contends that estimating health effects in a population from the LNT model "is not wise because of the uncertainties".[144] - WIKI / Chernobyl (from 1986 ~2004).

Union of Concerned Scientists the number of excess cancer deaths worldwide (including all contaminated areas) - 27000 deaths using same LNT model.

Greenpeace - 1990~2004 / 10~200k (Belarus, Ukraine, Russia.)

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment ( Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2009/ 2007 translation of Russian publication.)

"It presents an analysis of scientific literature and concludes that medical records between 1986, the year of the accident, and 2004 reflect 985,000 premature deaths as a result of the radioactivity released."

all above info - wiki. .. and thats chernobyl.. not fukushima which is located next to the sea.

Yet, governments will only accept WHO`s estimates.. 4000 dead from 1986.

NO OFFICIAL number will ever be published.. well not until those responsible of their inept safety mentality is all but gone from this world.. therein lies the irony.. no one can take responsibility. So the media and social mentality to highlight black sheep within its flock can never occur.. allowing once more for the population to rely on nuclear power..

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It will take many many cancer illnesses & perhaps deaths before any real debate on whether nuclear power start-ups should begin...I'm afraid..

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Japantoday: a meltdown would never contaminate the groundwater because the corium would still be in the confinement. This is a proven and undiscussed melt through. The technical word exists, thus please use it!

The only pending question is: "is it only a melt through or a Chinese syndrome?" These analysis of the ground water let definitely open this hypothesis.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So let's start up some more reactors. Don't worry the experts are in charge.

Let's see who people vote for in the coming election. Will they vote for the LDP, which is a vote for nuclear power and the possible destructions of a few more prefectures or against them and nuclear power. I fear they will vote for the LDP and disaster.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I think the real reason behind nuclear power, is that you need reactors to produce nuclear weapons.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Probably not confined to just groundwater.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I worry, a little, every time my wife eats sushi. I'm so glad I don't like fish very much.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Welcome to the future news. We will see these for a years coming.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How are the sales of rad counters doing by the way? The only way to deal with this situation is to arm yourself and your family. The government and TEPCO cannot be trusted to find out concretely what is happening underground. Would love to see what people would do if I were to take a small handheld rad counter into the local supermarket and go around meauring various vegetables and rice. Bet I would be asked to leave in short order by the management. Arm yourself, people!!! Don't be victims.......

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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