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Water cleanup system shut down at Fukushima nuclear plant

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A system to clean massive amounts of contaminated water at the site of Japan’s nuclear disaster was shut down Saturday, just hours after it began full operations, because a component filled with radioactivity much more quickly than expected.

Tokyo Electric Power Co, which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is investigating the cause and isn’t sure when it will restart the system

Obviously, the highly radioactive water is highly radioactive ergo that cartridge would fill up quicker. Just buy more of those radioactive absorbing Cartidges and finish the job.

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"The system was suspended in early Saturday when workers detected a sharp radiation increase in the system’s cesium-absorbing component, Matsumoto said. Radioactivity in one of 24 cartridges, which was expected to last for a few weeks, had already reached its limit within five hours, he said."

Wow... sounds like they didn't quite, once again, expect the worse nor prepare for it. I know there needs to be a certain amount of trial and error in unprecedented events/incidents, but come on!

And now we're back to the 'is it safe and is it worth it'. This is going to cause even more problems yet, and if it DOES overflow who knows what the effects will be. Start working on eliminating nuclear power NOW (doesn't mean the deadline need be tomorrow).

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TEPCO will fix the problem..We have to wait for them.

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TEPCO will fix the problem..We have to wait for them

It's just a cartridge that needs to be replaced, TEPCO should have a set number on hand already, like ink toner cartridges for a printer in an office. You don't just buy one cartridge, a case of cartridges makes sense. It should have been replaced and the machine doing it's job without all of this STOPPING the machine for however long. What 10 minutes tops to replace a cartridge right.

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So many mistakes, What are they doing clogging a filter "because the levels were higher than expected" ??? So they actually did not know the LEVELS. Was the man who's responsibility it was.....busy? The story appears to be different on BBC or they could be reporting on yet a new story? These filters were designed to work in worst case....and they jam after a few hours. Got to ask exactly how out of control is it when the emergency equipment fails.

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What a disaster

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Honestly, can this company get anything right????

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It also wouldn't surprise me if they didn't order any backup cartridges, because they expected them to last a few weeks

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Have people noticed that the apologists have slipped off? Away, gone, vanished. Maybe they decamped and got real about this catastrophe. Dead ending, ad-hoc, make it up and not systematic in anyway. It continues.

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Have people noticed that the apologists have slipped off

tepco PR staff only work Mon - Fri :)

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Have people noticed that the apologists have slipped off? Away, gone, vanished. Maybe they decamped and got real about this catastrophe. Dead ending, ad-hoc, make it up and not systematic in anyway. It continues.

And yet the anti-Tepco apologists are still in full swing ;-)

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Have people noticed that the apologists have slipped off? Away, gone, vanished. Maybe they decamped and got real about this catastrophe. Dead ending, ad-hoc, make it up and not systematic in anyway. It continues.

YingYong - what u call "apologists" are what people with spine call "people with backbone". I doubt they have slipped off but like me have simply grown tired of your histrionics every time Fukushima is mentioned. Your delight in bad news and fear-mongering are truly embarrassing.

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Your delight in bad news and fear-mongering are truly embarrassing

hoerfella -- actually, agree with you on that. But his "delight" in TEPCO's seemingly unabated string of problems/disappointments is certainly no less annoying than the constant "rose-colored" assurances it is not as bad as it looks from the apologists -- despite three months of evidence to the contrarary. IMO, this is unlikely to turn into a flat-out disaster again, mainly because all the horrible things that one could imagine have already happened. Not because of anything positive TEPCO has done. And anyone who takes consolation in that, and feels things still cannot get worse, as this water continues to spread and pollute, is way off target, and simply ignoring the fact that this is a job for men, not boys. And TEPCO is way over-matched.

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The water treatment system is to be eventually connected to a cooling system so the treated water can be reused

How in the WORLD is TEPCO planning to reuse 105,000 tons of treated water? I bet they are still pouring water into those reactors. TEPCO is Stuck on a very very bad idea in terms of adding water to those reactors, cause look at the cleanup from this idea of there's 105,000 tons of water and counting. The water is toooo contaminated for them to even clean, much less reuse. What's next are they going to ship the treated water to the major cities water treatment facilites and add it to the drinking water?

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I hope but doubt there is a plan B!

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What's next are they going to ship the treated water to the major cities water treatment facilites and add it to the drinking water?

@Utrack - well I certainly understand your frustration, but thinking out loud like that is a bit reckless, wouldn't you say? Mind you, the actual plan might not be so clever either - I remember reading that some of the water will go into a recycling process under construction whereby the water used to cool the reactor will be filtered (radiation removed) and sent back round to cool the reactors again. As for the huge amount of water they won't need, why they're going to " clean it " and dump it out in the sea.

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@ hatsoff

What's next are they going to ship the treated water to the major cities water treatment facilites and add it to the drinking water?

I was stating the Unthinkable, just like everything else TEPCO has done.

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Utrack:

" You don't just buy one cartridge, a case of cartridges makes sense. It should have been replaced and the machine doing it's job without all "

...except the "cartridges" you are talking about here are the size of trucks. I don´t know where some of you get the cute idea from that you can compare this with an office printer cartridge...

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The bad and good speak for themselves. The good seems to be on the up. Let's hope it applies to a wider belief in self. Good night.

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Good Night YongYang.

I Hope tomorrow there is better news.

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Everytime TEPCO touches something, I hear "Entry of The Gladiators" playing in my head. These guys are clowns!

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The equipment combines a series of cylindrical containers (90 centimeters in diameter and 2.3 meters in height) filled with zeolite, a mineral that absorbs cesium. Radioactive water is carried through pipes linking the containers.

TEPCO planned to replace cartridges whenever radiation levels in excess of 4 millisieverts per hour were detected

excerpt from: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201106181457

The article shows a picture of the cartridge in question . It's Big but that's not a problem since they are to be replaced anyway all I can gather is it's the cost that is the question since they will be replacing this cartridge more often then they originally intended too.

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http://pureeffectfilters.com/anti-rad.html

I found a home water filtration device for home use that has a anti-radiation filter. Pure Effects is the co. name

excerpt from webpage:

There have been significant developments in the world since the Nuclear Disaster began in Japan, and as a consequence, there has been a growing demand for a natural, effective, and inexpensive solution to remove various radionuclides (Radioactive particles) from the drinking water supply. PureEffect is pleased to announce the coming addition to our advanced filtration technology: ANTIRAD-Plus.

ANTIRAD-Plus is an extremely effective Proprietary combination of Natural Zeolites, Advanced form of Activated Carbon and KDF Media. The key ingredient, a Zeolitic Mineral, has a very high affinity for cat-ions or positively charged particle, it is particularly selective of radioactive isotopes: Cesium-134,137 and Strontium-90, the very substances now being release en masse from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan. In addition, we use a specific type of Carbon which is highly potent in absorbing the Iodine-131 isotope, and the KDF media greatly adds to the reduction of the heavy metals: Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Copper, Nickel and other dissolved positively charged metal ions.

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Seems everything is BROKEN. In1970s and 80s, Japanese workers did sure, superb jobs (better than anyone in the world). Prefrontal Cortex makes one do a good job or a bad job. Read Professor Mori Akio's "geemu Noo no Kyofu", you will know the reason.

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