Conditions May Be Deteriorating at Japanese Nuclear Power Plant

Apr. 16 2011 - 2:58 pm

By OSHA GRAY DAVIDSON

Five weeks after the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station (FDI) first began, there is new evidence that the situation may have taken a turn for the worse.

Intensely radioactive water from reactor Unit 2 is filling a nearby tunnel faster than workers can empty it, and radioactive levels of seawater near the plant increased sixfold following an aftershock on Saturday.

According to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) owner/operator of the 6-reactor power plant, radioactive contamination of groundwater by Unit 2 is 17-times higher than it was just one week ago. The problem is thought to be caused by an unknown leak or leaks in the basement of the unit’s turbine building or in the tunnel itself.

A spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Commission told reporters that “We want to determine the origin and contain the leak, but I must admit that tracking it down is difficult.”

On Friday, workers dumped more sandbags of zeolite, a radiation absorbing material, into the sea by Unit 3.

Radiation Threat to Marine Life

Little is known about the effects of radiation on marine life, despite a long history of such human-caused contamination from using the ocean as a dumping ground for nuclear waste from France, the U.K., and the former Soviet Union. An unknown amount of radiation also came from US nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific. The explosion and fire at the only previous nuclear power disaster on this scale, at Chernobyl in 1986, deposited a significant amount of radiation in the ocean.

A recent article by journalist Elizabeth Grossman quotes Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:

    Given that the Fukushima nuclear power plant is on the ocean, and with leaks and runoff directly to the ocean, the impacts on the ocean will exceed those of Chernobyl, which was hundreds of miles from any sea….My biggest concern is the lack of information. We still don’t know the whole range of radioactive compounds that have been released into the ocean.

TEPCO moved 660 tons of radioactive water from the Unit 2 tunnel to a giant cask on Wednesday, lowering the water level in the tunnel by about three inches. By Saturday morning, however, the water level in the tunnel had returned to its previous position and then rose another inch.

Also, the Japanese public television network NHK reports that radiation in underground water is 38-times higher than it was a week ago.

How Far Away is Safe?

Despite assurances from the government that areas outside of designated evacuation zones are safe, debate continues over the safety of areas farther from the plant and when it will be safe for evacuees to return.

Part of the debate stems from the mixed signals sent by other nations. The U.S. told American nationals to evacuate from a 50-mile zone around FDI. France instructed its citizens to leave Japan entirely.

Changing instructions by the Japanese government itself is another factor contributing to confusion and alarm among the Japanese people.

An opinion piece published in yesterday’s Kyodo News is generating more debate on what actions need to be taken to deal with the nuclear crisis. The editorial was written by Alexey Yablokov, a Russian scientist who edited a book about the public health and environmental effects of the Chernobyl disaster.

“Based on Chernobyl experiences,” says Yablokov, “it is necessary to understand that it may be impossible to quickly get back to life before the catastrophe and to accept the post-Fukushima realities as soon as possible.”

His editorial includes suggestions such as expanding the exclusion zone around FDI to “at least” 30-miles, mass distribution of chemicals such as potassium iodine so that people can protect themselves against some forms of radiation, and the creation of a special government committee to deal exclusively with “problems of contaminated territories during the first most complicated years.”