Just weeks after re-starting the building of a giant ice-wall to contain groundwater leaking from the Fukushima nuclear plant [3], TEPCO has been forced to admit that a 780-meter protective wall built alongside the crippled power station (completed only last month and designed to prevent contaminated groundwater from seeping into the sea) is already "slightly leaning." While this sounds a lot like being half-pregnant, TEPCO remains 'optimistic' that the wall will hold. But you can't say the government is not trying - in an effort to 'calm' the public, scientists have developed a special scanner to accurately measure the amount of radioactive material inside the bodies of young children... which is odd given just how "contained" Abe said it was.
The 780-meter coastal wall along the damaged reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was built to stifle the flow of tainted water into the sea from 400 tons to 10 tons a day.
The “impermeable” barrier has an underground section that reaches 30 meters deep. TEPCO officials have claimed that such a structure should reduce the amount of radioactive cesium and strontium flowing into the sea to one fortieth of previous levels, while the tritium levels should be reduced to one-fifteenth.
But, as RT reports, [4] the "impermeable sea wall" is leaning already...
Completed only last month and designed to prevent contaminated groundwater from seeping into the sea, the wall is already “slightly leaning,” plant operator TEPCO has announced.
TEPCO however remains optimistic and has said that the slight lean does not affect the wall’s ability to block radioactive water.
The operator is now reinforcing the wall with steel pillars.
Inspection into the construction was completed in late October and also discovered cracks along the perimeter of the wall in the embankment’s pavement.
Officials have blamed rising groundwater levels for the cracks – and keep repairing them to make sure that rain does not increase the groundwater levels even further.
And then there's this, as The BBC reports, [5]
It's nearly five years since the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster but concerns about possible health problems - especially in children - are still high in many parents' minds.
To reassure the public, scientists have developed a special scanner to accurately measure the amount of radioactive material inside the bodies of young children.
Now the results of over 2,500 scans have just been released.
So that's reassuring then.
