TEPCO takes on challenge of making space for Fukushima nuclear debris

While tainted water just can be throw at the ocean,

for contaminated debris fortunately can't be put into ocean.

Good news for people around the world, especially people who live around Pacific ocean.

It will take decades to remove the melted cores if ever. There is a major problem in Japan to find sites for storing nuclear waste from this disaster and also from about 20 reactors being decommissioned.

The Fukushima melted cores will be radioactive for tens of thousands of years.

@wallace 2**(10000 / 30) = 2.204611e+100. Cesium 137 has the longest half life (30 yrs) of the radioactive elements released. So in ten thousand years it will be about 1 / 200 billionths as radioactive as it is now. On the other hand, in 150 years it will still be 1/32 as radioactive as it is now - which is still lethally dangerous. Exponential decay and exponential growth both share that anti-intuitive "exponential" property.

Some of the most hazardous isotopes, like cesium-137 and strontium-90, have half-lives of about 30 years, meaning their radioactivity will drop significantly over a few centuries. However, other isotopes, such as plutonium-239 (with a half-life of about 24,000 years), will remain hazardous for tens of thousands of years.

There are hundreds of spent nuclear fuel. Thousands if you include the decommissioning reactors.

sakurasukiToday 07:46 am JST

While tainted water just can be throw at the ocean

By "tainted water" I assume you're referring (as you do, over and over again) to TEPCO's treated water release, which the IAEA has repeatedly stated is "consistent with international safety standards," and will have a "negligible impact."

The IAEA has tested every release for a year and a half and found zero problems.

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/tritium-level-far-below-japans-operational-limit-in-tenth-batch-of-alps-treated-water-iaea-confirms

kappa ko-hiToday 09:52 am JST

Cesium 137

This is reduced to safe levels by ALPS. You can see the actual data here.

https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/hd/decommission/data/index-e.html

Why not go with a Soviet solution of covering the melted-down reactors in a concrete dome?

The_Beagle

Why not go with a Soviet solution of covering the melted-down reactors in a concrete dome?

That was investigated by TEPCO. Chernobyl and Fukushima are very different nuclear disasters and very different types of locations.

Basically, a tunnel would have to be built under the reactors to collect all the leaking cooling water and prevent it from contaminating underground water and from reaching the ocean. That would be a very dangerous construction. The rectors with melted fuel would still need cooling water. That does not apply at Chernobyl.

I cant begin to imagine when this is going to be completed (at least to the point where the danger is limited properly) but 14 years to begin just to make the space for storing the material does not make me very optimistic about it.

virusrex

I cant begin to imagine when this is going to be completed (at least to the point where the danger is limited properly) but 14 years to begin just to make the space for storing the material does not make me very optimistic about it.

It won't happen in your lifetime. There is no urgency since it will be decades before the molten fuel can be removed.

TEPCO had more important problems to deal with like reducing the radiation around the site.

There is a spent fuel storage facility on the dock where dry casks house spent fuel is kept. It withstood the earthquake and the tsunami.

They just pretend as if reactors-decommissioning is according to own optimistic schedule.

Melted nuclear debris are too much strong radiation, no one knows even that continuously taking out it is possible or not.

But, They even spread radioactive contaminated water or contaminated soils toward ocean or nationwide to make "space" where will be not used.

They already repeat failures such as "frozen wall" that could not shut underground water flowing into reactors after all despite spent huge taxes or "ALPS" that cannot filter many kinds of radioactivity not only tritium.

Aoi AzuuriToday 03:14 pm JST

They just pretend as if reactors-decommissioning is according to own optimistic schedule.

The schedule is periodically reviewed by outside experts.

It can (and almost certainly will) change, just like any other large-scale project - especially one without any precedent.

But, They even spread radioactive contaminated water or contaminated soils toward ocean or nationwide

How exactly? And now, or 14 years ago?

The IAEA is happy with TEPCO's plan, and monitoring has shown zero problems.

to make "space" where will be not used.

No idea what this is supposed to mean.

They already repeat failures such as "frozen wall" that could not shut underground water flowing into reactors

It was designed to reduce, not completely eliminate, the groundwater inflow/outflow. And it does that.

"ALPS" that cannot filter many kinds of radioactivity not only tritium

It filters the other (62) potentially-hazardous radionuclides apart from tritium, and the tritium is dealt with via dilution.

The plan is good enough for the IAEA. No idea what your credentials are.

The IAEA is happy with TEPCO's plan, and monitoring has shown zero problems.

Yes of course if the IAEA says everything is fine then it must be so lol

LegrandeToday 10:02 pm JST

Yes of course if the IAEA says everything is fine then it must be so lol

They are the best-placed organization to make the call. If you don't trust their expertise, or think they're lying or something, that's up to you.

But you may also note that even virulently anti-Japan countries like China have found no problems either. They have presented zero scientific evidence for their seafood ban.