Japan:High concentration of radioactive water found in Fukushima's No. 4 reactor

A concentration of radioactive water in the basement of the No. 4 reactor's turbine building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant became abnormally high, reaching a maximum of 250 times normal monthly levels, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on April 26.

Radioactive water may be leaking from the basement of the nearby No. 3 reactor's turbine building and the water level there is on the rise, TEPCO sources say, as the ongoing crisis at the power plant continues following heavy damage by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and subsequent explosions.

These guys have no idea how difficult this task is gonna be. Do they expect to just pump this radioactive water out and not leave behind any of the waters radiating particulates or solvents ? They are screwed to say the least. Might have been better to just dump it into the ocean. Its all gonna end up there eventually anyway.

This is a slow motion trainwreck. At best it would be a economic slow motion trainwreck, that is, astronomical amount of money will be spent to cool the reactor and eventually stop spreading of radioactive materials. However, there is a good chance that further radioactive fallout will occur, leading to expanded evacuation zone. That will impact Tokyo area. People love to say that few people have been killed due to radiation problem. Well, radioactive contamination spread slowly, People have ample warning time. They will escape the potential danger zone in which they will be exposed to radioactive materials and suffer serious(or lethal) health problems down to the road. In some circle of Japan, people start talking about relocating some of major institutions out of Tokyo. Relocating Tokyo Stock Exchange to Osaka, for starters, and possibly government offices later. This is especially the case because Japan still face major earthquake problem. They expect 8.0 aftershock coming sooner than later, the long-awaited Tokai Earthquake. It was always a latent danger, but since the 9.0 quake on Mar. 11, they think it will come soon. It does not help that aftershocks show a pattern of migrating SSW down to Tokyo coastal area.

Excerpt from a story on the http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/ blog.

A curious bit of news from Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 4/26/2011), that Japan Meteorological Agency's Yamagata Branch has been receiving reports of loud ground noise in Yonezawa City since early April.

JMA Yamagata Branch speculates that the noise may be caused by small, shallow earthquakes that have been happening very frequently since March 18 in the adjacent Kitakata City and Kita Shiobara-mura in Fukushima Prefecture, and is telling the Yonezawa residents to remain calm.

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