Friday, July 12, 2013

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Groundwater Contamination: Now It's Hole No.3, With All-Beta at 1,400 Bq/L from ND a Week Ago


Whatever or wherever it is leaking, it's spreading.

Despite TEPCO's attempt to tell us the cesium contamination in the observation hole No.1-2 was from contaminated dirt particles (or other residues), that still doesn't account for higher all-beta and very high tritium.

Now, the sample taken from another observation hole, No.3, on July 11 suddenly shows higher all-beta amount.

From TEPCO's email notice for the press, 7/12/2013:

<地下水観測孔No.3>
Groundwater observation hole No.3

・7月11日採取分 Sample collected on July 11:
セシウム134 Cs-134  1.9 Bq/L
セシウム137 Cs-137  4.8 Bq/L
全ベータ all-beta 1,400 Bq/L

・7月4日採取分(お知らせ済み) Sample collected on July 4 (already published):
セシウム134 Cs-134 1.5 Bq/L
セシウム137 Cs-137 2.8 Bq/L
全ベータ all-beta ND(18 Bq/L)


Here's the diagram showing where these holes are located. They are along the seawall, east of the turbine building.

From Nuclear Regulatory Agency (secretariat of NRA) document, 7/10/2013 (original diagram from TEPCO, 6/26/2013):


In the earlier version of the diagram by TEPCO (6/16/2013), the observation hole No.3 is right near the location where a leak of highly contaminated water from Reactor 3 (remember it is a MOX-fuel reactor) was found on May 11, 2011.


The Tokyo University researcher who has written papers on measuring radioactive materials of Fukushima origin, including the one about neptunium-239 discovery in Iitate-mura tweeted an interesting idea on how to find out whether the contamination is coming from any of the reactors:

How about mixing a small amount of radionuclides that are not present in the reactors in the water to cool the reactors, and seeing if these radionuclides are detected in the observation holes?


He withdrew that idea later by saying it may not be a small amount that would be needed.

TEPCO could use bath salts again...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, please be patient for my non-understanding, but i really don't see the point of saying that some form of "dirt" or "dirt particles" contaminated the ground water. Does it really matter? Is radioactive cesium leaking in the Ocean or not?
I don't care a bit if it's from "dirt particles" or any other source of contamination.
The really sad show we're staring right now simply tells us how complexly and intricate the radionuclides are interacting with soil and ground water.
This is the "lesson unlearned" from Fukushima (and TMI, and Chernobyl, atc.): this shouldn't have happened!

Kna said...

why not use some coloring agent, such as I believe in hydrographic surveys, instead of diluting radionuclides among other radionuclides?
Perhaps the result will be too easily visible??

Anonymous said...

Tepco prefers that this contaminated water will flow away and they will act if it is all a big surprise to them and say that it can't be fixed ( so easily).
This is by far the cheapest 'solution' for them. They only go for the cheap fix and this is even better, all this highly contaminated water that doesn't have to be stored and purified. BINGO !!! Just keep pretending it can not be fixed and that you have no idea where is coming from or going to.
All supported by your lovely LDP boys, who will have a landslide win in the next election. Great future prospects for Japan.

Anonymous said...

Exactly. Just keep piddling around suggesting various red herrings and sooner or later the sheeple here will be distracted by something else. The LDP (the guys who created this problem to begin with) will win the election in a landslide and then embark on their new "Great Beautiful Patriotic Nippon" campaign and everything will be forgotten until the next disaster.

Anonymous said...

Japan npps need another large scale earthquake to compensate for the LDP landslide... possibly far away from Fuku 1

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