Japan: Groundwater flowing into Fukushima nuclear plant (200 to 500 tons)

Mainichi Shimbun ^ | 09/20/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Groundwater flowing into Fukushima nuclear plant

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it suspects that 200 to 500 tons a day of groundwater might be flowing through pits and wall cracks into reactor and turbine buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The suspicion is based on the fact that a decline in water levels in these buildings has slowed down.

"The suspected groundwater inflow is now unlikely to cause problems as the plant is capable of treating nearly 1,000 tons of radiation-contaminated water," said an official at the company known as TEPCO.

[TigerLikesRooster]

The question is "Does incoming water remain inside or is there also outflow into groundwater?" If latter, I think we have serious groundwater contamination problem.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[wolfcreek]

Hey, maybe the groundwater will wash out all the radiation. What you can detect can’t hurt you, right? /s

And yes, we have a serious problem, one that has caused great damage and is continuing to do so.

[freebird5850]

The numbers we keep hearing are mind boggling and never any type of solution.....only more problems arising.

[bgill]

That was my first thought as well. What flows in, must flow out. That’s been the problem all along, there are major cracks that can’t be fixed. It’s a lost cause.

[CharlesWayneCT]

They can pump 1000 tons a day through their cleaners. So 200-500 tons isn’t a big deal, so long as they don’t need more than 500 tons of new cooling water a day, which apparently they don’t.

They are merely pointing out that their pumps haven’t run the place dry, so there must be water coming in.

500 tons is about 120,000 gallons.

[justa-hairyape]

This is actually a major problem. They just stoped using the Areva filtration system. Last time they tried, the Areva system put back in the contamination the Kurion system took out. So they are now down to just two filtration systems that are operational. Another problem is that the original design was to have a closed loop cooling system. Pump water in, filter it clean, then pump it back in. That is what all their calculations were based upon. The closed loop design is not possible now. They will be producing heavily contaminated excess water for years.