[ransomnote]

Radioactive groundwater has been leaking into the ocean since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. This National Geographic article

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/130807-fukushima-radioactive-water-leak/

explains that 300 tons of radioactive ground water pour into the ocean daily. The Japanese were not able to stop the leak but treated (removed many kinds of radioactive waste products from) some water and stored it on land in a temporary tank farm. Now they will dump that water into the ocean even though it still contains radioactive Tritium. Radioactive wastes will continue to flow into the ocean via groundwater indefinitely as no remedy is known and the location of the radioactive fuel in the destroyed nuke plants is unknown (somewhere under the plant) and ground water testing stations near the plant continue to register record-setting levels of radiation. Pumping all that water into the plant to cool the fuel in the ground beneath the plant means that the water has to go somewhere and it is going into the ocean.

[lefty-lie-spy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium

“Health risks[edit]
Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, which allows it to readily bind to hydroxyl radicals, forming tritiated water (HTO), and to carbon atoms. Since tritium is a low energy beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally (its beta particles are unable to penetrate the skin),[20] but it can be a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food or water, or absorbed through the skin.[21][22][23][24] HTO has a short biological half-life in the human body of 7 to 14 days, which both reduces the total effects of single-incident ingestion and precludes long-term bioaccumulation of HTO from the environment.[23][25] Biological half life of tritiated water in human body, which is a measure of body water turn over, varies with season. Studies on biological half life of occupational radiation workers for free water tritium in the coastal region of Karnataka, India show that the biological half life in winter season is twice that of the summer season.[25]”

There is plenty more useful health/environment information at the link.

[Wilhelm Tell]

This will probably be a horrible mess for many, many years until we develop some sort of super technology to just get it under control. Maybe robots that can withstand extreme radiation and heat? Why do I have the feeling that the worst is yet to come?

[exDemMom]

I wonder, couldn’t it be possible to extract the tritium for use in other applications? I know, 300 tons is a lot of material to process—but it seems to me that a resource is being thrown away here.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

(from the article):" Tepco’s decision has local fishermen worried that their livelihood is at risk because the radioactive material will further mar public perceptions about the safety of their catches. "

Be prepared for restaurants of offer you a gieger counter reading with your sushi !
This has already happened in the vegetable markets immediately following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, where gieger counters accompanied vegetable shoppers.

[Delta 21]

They need to load the heavy water up on C-130s and C-141 refuelers and fly over to North Korera and just start dumping the stuff.

Tell the Norks if they dont like it we have some highly concentrated tritium we can give them.

Much faster method of operation that the former but just as effective.

[Wuli]

If the tainted water is evaporated by extreme heating, where is the tritium - in the residue, or in the water vapor that is released or recaptured?

Is it possible to evaporate the tainted water leaving all radioactive tainted material in a residue that could be containerized and buried in something like a salt mine?

[mabarker1]

I wonder if they could boil the water to reduce the volume needing to be stored ?

Anybody know if that would work and leave the tritium in a dry form like a powder that could be dealt with in some way ?

Just a brain fart of an idea.

[rottndog]

The ocean is the best place for the Fukushima water...the volume released is infinitesimally small compared the ocean itself.

Dilution of the solution is the resolution.

[Ray76]

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/tritium-radiation-fs.html

[JimRed]

I assume it is too costly to process the water and harvest the tritium, even though it is one of the most valuable substances (per milligram) on Earth.

[Wuli]

I posed the question of whether or not the tainted water containing tritium could be evaporated and if so then in the process what would happen to the tritium.

One of you answered the tritium would continue with the other H2O molecules in the water vapor.

So I went looking to see if you can get tritium out from tritium tainted water. The technical answer is yes.

With an electrolysis process you can separate oxygen and hydrogen out from water molecules, returning the basic gases oxygen and hydrogen.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Separate-Hydrogen-and-Oxygen-from-Water-Through-El/

And there are processes that can separate “pure” hydrogen isotopes out from hydrogen that is in the tritium or other “non-pure” forms; producing hydrogen that is 99.99% “pure”.

http://www.powerandenergy.com/tritium-separation-nuclear-plants/

The non-technical questions are whether or not separating out the tritium is worth it on the basis of what would be the cost of the procedures for doing it?