Gov't to spend Y47 bil on Fukushima water crisis, including ice wall

Yeah, it's "under control" alright! Now, will this money actually go towards the problem or will it be silently sent to build more highways in Okinawa and contact lens manufacturers in Nagoya?

This is clearly yet ANOTHER bout of lip service, and that's all.

Nor do they clarify who will eventually foot the bill.

Well, that is pretty damn obvious! The consumer will, of course! We already have had a 10% increase in electricity tariffs and now the Gov is gonna use public funds to support these incompetent fools of TEPCO. I wonder how he will integrate this into his three arrow Abenomics? Of course, TEPCO should be footing the bill, but they will only increase electricity prices to compensate for it.

I'm sure the timing of a few days before the Olympic vote is not a coincidence either. But, it is too little too late Abe-san! The votes are already in.

Let's see what big name contractors win the 'tender', and what Amakudari directorships they have.

TEPCO is storing enough contaminated water to fill more than 130 Olympic-sized swimming pools

Surely Tokyo Domes are the appropriate unit of measurement?

You know, if and when Japan gets the Olympics Abe is going to stop saying it's for public morale, will save the people of Tohoku (who have yet to be saved), etc., and will claim it is all because of his 'Abenomics', which is a proven failure.

The video you've been waiting for from Patrick Flanagan about Fukushima. Please rate on the page and share .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzSDP5ZWJ4I

You cannot remove all the radioactivity, you can filter out the solids, you can distill to remove dissolved isotopes, but water is unfortunately composed of oxygen and hydrogen.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, chemically it is exactly the same as hydrogen and as hydrogen migrates from molecule to molecule some of the tritium left after the explosion will combine with oxygen in the water, replacing ordinary hydrogen atoms. There is no way to separate the radioactive water from normal H2O (not without serious kit such as industrial centrifuges to separate out the slightly heavier water molecules. As there are also radioactive isotopes of oxygen they may also add to the problem.

As far as tritium is concerned, google for "tritiated water" to see how hazardous it is.

The kickback of labor costs is rampant. The amount of money is not the problem but lies with the site foreman. Those with vested interests carry it out for their own profit. The Japanese government. the officials spend the tax money like water.

To all the expert cynicists going on about the timing of the government response I give you this: TEPCO doesn't want the Olympics; it means less money will be available for them.

I was just wondering how much that leave for the Olympic budget that some here keep insisting Japan has in spades over the other two choices.

smithinjapan

You know, if and when Japan gets the Olympics Abe is going to stop saying it's for public morale, will save the people of Tohoku (who have yet to be saved), etc., and will claim it is all because of his 'Abenomics', which is a proven failure.

Please show fact to back your claim of "proven failure" , where is this proof you talk about ?

Figuring out who to bill for the costs can come later

Of course, no need for wondering. Money is from us, the working taxpaying people in Japan. Pay to TEPCO for stealing and paying a big bonus. We are always like a open wallet!

StormR,

Please show fact to back your claim of "proven failure" , where is this proof you talk about ?

Seriously, you can't be this naive, can you? Defend at all cost and all that...?

Gotta love this place. Promise money (a shitload) but no details. Fool the Japanese public, no chance of fooling the outsiders.

no details. Fool the Japanese public, no chance of fooling the outsiders.

You just need to read the article.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a separate news conference that the government would spend a total of 47 billion yen, including 21 billion yen in emergency reserve funds from this year's budget. Scientists will freeze the soil around the stricken reactors to form an impenetrable wall they hope will direct groundwater away from the plant. This will entail burying pipes vertically and passing refrigerant through them. Officials estimate the whole project will take two years and cost around 32 billion yen. The remaining 15 billion yen will be used to improve a water treatment system meant to drastically reduce radiation levels in the contaminated water.

Calling this a "water crisis" could be just "watering" this down: http://rt.com/op-edge/fukushima-radiation-threat-level-288/

This freezing method is precedented; it was tried during the project to correct the tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=5539&page=171

The amount of radiation expected to reach Canadian and U.S. coastal waters in the years ahead is projected to be well within safety limits for drinking water as it will have been greatly diluted...

...as opposed to the overhype by their media.

When is the IOC vote? Ahh... Wiat, we'll sort it out! Look at all this CASH!

USE a proven and tested technology. Concrete. Steel. Embed Dramix-style LEAD fibres in it too. Nessie: You freeze the ground temporarily, typically until you can get a concrete / steel tunnel or box in place. You don't attempt it for 100 years, its insane.

"The announcement comes just days before the International Olympics Committee decides whether Tokyo - 230 km from the wrecked plant - will host the 2020 Olympics and the government is keen to show the crisis is under control."

So this implies the government would be indifferent to the Fukushima situation if Tokyo were not in the running to host the Summer Olympics. Just how stupid does Abe think his fellow countrymen are? Very stupid, it seems.

TEPCO confirms a groundwater flow and leakage problem what last week? Tohoku has been pretty much taken out of the Olympic picture due to this power plant mess. The government wants the Olympics and moved swiftly. You can insert all kinds of theories in between.

The video you've been waiting for from Patrick Flanagan about Fukushima. Please rate on the page and share .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzSDP5ZWJ4I

Sigh. I try to educate all my family and friends back home about the FACTS about Fukushima, but when videos and websites like this one above shows misinformed things, it really annoys me. The FIRST image on that video, the map of the world with all those colours, has NOTHING to do with radiation, it is a map of the TSUNAMI

Daijoboots,

"I want to believe", right?

@Daijo: Knox has used English, perhaps what you're missing is the cultural context of how the words refer to your post, long explanation short, Knox is using sarcasm. and, if I may add, very well.

The video you've been waiting for from Patrick Flanagan about Fukushima. Please rate

Laughable. One minute in and the "doctor" is pushing his company and the drugs oh so necessary for everyone in the U.S.

Wanna fix the problem , easy just blow the thing to bits and spread it every where wont matter now it is too late. Irreparable Damage has already been done

Gosh, I hope the other nuclear plants in Japan can prove their safety soon so they can be restarted.

No, wait, they'll never be able to prove their safety because they are so inherently dangerous! Dang!

This freezing method is precedented; it was tried during the project to correct the tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

It's also used in Tokyo Aqua Line Expressway tunnel to prevent the afflux of underground water. The novelty is that it was never used in such big scale project.

@the_odeman

Yes, it was disheartening watching the drivel in that YouTube video. I've been searching for some actual facts regarding conditions at the plant, likely outcomes, possible approaches for dealing with the problems, but haven't found much. Do you have some links you could share?

"the gov has money"

Only because they can print it and continue to delay paying off their record debt. .

Daijoubutsu: "TEPCO doesn't want the Olympics; it means less money will be available for them."

The government does, and the government owns 51% of TEPCO even though they never fulfill any of their pledges, therefore, TEPCO does. So you are wrong, wrong, and wrong.

StormR: "Please show fact to back your claim of "proven failure" , where is this proof you talk about ?"

Seriously? Even the BOJ won't support claims the economy is improving, while it is a well acknowledged fact Japan, leading debt of all leading nations, is going to spend more than ever in history to try and pay off interest on what it's borrowed. You need a Wiki?

Only the USA has the power to pressure Japan into doing the right thing! That is letting the rest of the world, the IAEA come into FUKUSHIMA and get the idiots, useless bumbling fools from Tepco the hell out of the way to clean that mess up! ONLY THE USA!!!

What is the point to freeze the ground if this is to release soon the taint water in the ocean through pipes as stated by NRA...???

Am I missing something???

＞What is the point to freeze the ground if this is to release soon the taint water in the ocean through pipes as stated by NRA...???

NRA didn't say anything about releasing the water without it's purification beforehand (it seems like you're just trolling). Frozen ground shield is there to prevent the water coming from mountain side (1000 tons of water a day) from contact the area under the plant on the one side and to preventing the water under the plant from going into sea on the other side. There are walls in the ground under the plant built at the time of construction of it but the groundwater level rose some 60 cm above it, thus it could contaminate the land around and sea, and they had to lower it and succeeded few some two weeks ago.

I have followed the Fukushima issue since hour ZERO and every official communication has been lie from this time. It is just impossible to cope with Fukushima. This is a too big event to deal with. But J-gov and TEPCO are doing such childish PR that nobody can trust anymore.

The ocean in front of the nuclear plants is literally boiling and steaming. Story and pictures at BBC here.

http://enenews.com/bbc-website-links-to-report-about-pacific-ocean-boiling-in-front-of-fukushima-daiichi-photos

This is an epic unmatched environmental catastrophe not just for Japan, but for the world. It's imperative that North American countries get involved in pressuring Japan, and literally force their way into the disaster site - do something other then just leaving it all up to the Japanese who won't admit they can't handle the situation other then try to down play it.

The ocean in front of the nuclear plants is literally boiling and steaming. Story and pictures at BBC here.

The story and pictures are not from the BBC, it's a search engine link to an article at Voice of Russia. There is no reporting by the BBC.

The pictures show mist over the sea. The weather over the whole of Japan has been very unsettled the past few days.

The situation at Fukushima is already dire enough (and worse than TEPCO is owning up to) without making unsubstantiated claims about the sea 'literally' boiling. It isn't.

The people who and countries that depend on the Pacific Ocean for their livelihood and their lives, are all doomed. I hate to be in places like Philippines, Thailand, Hawaii, and California, where the Pacific Ocean makes up for the majority of their economies. Not only they are facing wipe downs in fishing, but they are also facing total collapse of tourism.

Yet all the governments and the press are being strangely quiet, while they let Japanese government with TEPCO, ruin earth's ecology.

Why isn't the UN getting involved and do something?

The people who and countries that depend on the Pacific Ocean for their livelihood and their lives, are all doomed. I hate to be in places like Philippines, Thailand, Hawaii, and California, where the Pacific Ocean makes up for the majority of their economies. Not only they are facing wipe downs in fishing, but they are also facing total collapse of tourism.

Houndreds of nuclear bombs were detonated in Pacific or on Pacific. Are those dangerous? Would you like to live on the shores of nuclear dump? And had the whole world collapsed?

"Ice wall" ? Didn't work in Game of Thrones.......

So you are wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Read the first part of my sentence again smith. And thanks for replying!

TEPCO's leadership has proven completely inept, to have a rotten corporate culture that cuts corners around safety all the time. The main reason the crisis exists at all is the total lack of readiness at the plant for emergency situations. With the recent leaks that TEPCO either wasn't aware of (incompetence) or hid (which is nothing short of criminal) there can be no question that TEPCO has to be nationalized.

You can't just dump the responsibility at their feet, not that they don't deserve to pay, they do, they do a lot. But you can't trust them to do the right thing, and the consequences of failing to react quickly and competently to any development would be disastrous. Failure is not an option, the only way of preventing failure is to take the crisis away from the hands who created it and let it get worse because of incompetence.

So nationalize TEPCO, take over the efforts to contain the crisis... but if you can get the evidence, sue those responsible for gross negligence or whatever the legal term is in Japan.

Measurable radiation from water leaking from the facility is confined to the harbor around the plant, Motegi noted, and is not an environmental threat to other countries because the radiation will be diluted by the sea.

Yes. Let's put this into "perspective" once again for TEPCO has in the past, purposely released contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. Let's once gain, review what the experts had to say when they did this.

"To put this in perspective, the Pacific Ocean holds about 300 TRILLION swimming pools full of water, and they are going to release about five swimming pools full," said Timothy Jorgensen, chair of the radiation safety committee at Georgetown University Medical Center. "So hopefully the churning of the ocean and the currents will quickly disperse this so that it gets to very dilute concentrations relatively quickly."

Even the term "drop in the bucket" is an exaggeration.

The people who and countries that depend on the Pacific Ocean for their livelihood and their lives, are all doomed. I hate to be in places like Philippines, Thailand, Hawaii, and California, where the Pacific Ocean makes up for the majority of their economies. Not only they are facing wipe downs in fishing, but they are also facing total collapse of tourism.

That's fear-mongering. Even if a catastrophic leak occurred that reached the pacific, dumping the reactors content directly into it, the weight of the radioactive particles would pull most of it down on the sea floor near Fukushima. A disaster for the ecosystem of the coast of the area, but not for the whole world. The particles that would be swept away in the ocean would be severely diluted by the time they reached any other country, the impact would be insignificant increases in radioactive isotopes in seafood and the like. Nothing able to "doom" any country.

I remember people like you back in 2011 talking about the clouds of death of Fukushima that would soon rain cancer down on the West Coat. They came and went, and nothing happened.

The situation is serious, but that doesn't give people the right to invent doomsday scenario based on nothing at all and exaggerate the risks.

I wonder where all that money is coming from????

I wonder where all that money is coming from????

From reserve budget. Suge secretary said: 'This is an urgent problem so we decided to do it even using reserve budget'.

Money, money, money... ¡to resolve problems!

I, for one, am very glad the government are getting involved.

TEPCO are nowhere near competent or accountable enough to deal with this crisis themselves.

BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23940214

I wonder where all that money is coming from????

Raising power rates by 10% (government now owns tepco), doubling the sales tax

It is very strange for me to host Olympic in Tokyo, while we are still suffering from the remnant of radio active substances. Where did slogan " Ganbaro Nihon" means "Japan keeps up" go. I know that Japan try to make image of Japan from oversea clean. However, what we need is not clean image. We need to act to help or compensate for those who lost their way of life. Fortunately, I didn't get any damage from disaster. However, tell me how do you feel if you were the victim, when you watched olympic would be held in Tokyo in TV. Presumably, the building cost is pretty high. Can you still merely cheer the player up? Do we forget about something important recently? We need to cheer not the player but rather the victim who had no choice but to give up their dream and way of life.

joumultiup: Exactly, all this money spent on hosting all the international athletes but no money to get people out of temp shelters and gyms across the nation.