Liquid glass successfully plugs radioactive leak at Fukushima nuke plant (lots of great photos)

dailymail. ^ | 12:14 PM on 6th April 2011 | By Daily Mail Reporter

[dennisw]

Engineers have used liquid glass to stem the highly radioactive water leaking into the sea from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant in breakthrough in the battle to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

However Tokyo Electric Power still needs to pump contaminated water into the sea because of lack of storage space.

A Tepco spokesman said: 'The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected mixture of liquid glass and a hardening agent and it has now stopped.'

Engineers had been desperately struggling to plug the leak and had tried using sawdust, newspapers and concrete to stem the flow of the highly-contaminated water.

The liquid glass was injected into the ground beneath the leaking storage pit yesterday and stopped the escape after solidifying the earth.

The report, dated March 26, reveals how a build up of salt is blocking the flow of fresh water meant to cool the damaged cores, making flow 'severely restricted' in reactor Number 1, and to a lesser extent in Numbers 2 and 3.

Experts said some may have been washed away by the switch to the use of fresh water.

David A Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who worked on similar General Electric reactors to the kind used in Japan, told the New York Times: 'I thought they were, not out of the woods, but at least at the edge of the woods.

'This paints very different picture, and suggests that things are a lot worse. They could still have more damage in a big way if some of these things don’t work out for them.

'Even the best juggler in the world can get too many balls up in the air. They’ve got a lot of nasty things to negotiate in the future, and one missed step could make the situation much, much worse.'

[dennisw]

First day back: Children on their first day of school at Shimizu elementary school in Fukushima, as over 70 schools restarted classes after the earthquake and tsunami

 

 

 

Help at hand: Japanese soldiers distribute relief goods to evacuees in the tsunami-devastated coastal town of Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture

Ceremony: Children sit in the school hall on their first day back

Mission impossible: A U.S. military barge carrying pure water (bottom) leaves the quay near Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant today

Plugging the leak The concrete pit of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant No. 2 reactor gushes with radioactive contaminated water above, but has now stopped, below

[yldstrk]

Very cool.

Necessity is the mother of invention

[Fresh Wind]

Interesting that all the kids are wearing photo ID.

[SIRTRIS]

What is this liquid glass, sodium or potassium silicate?

[dennisw]

——sodium silicate——

From Italian news source—

07:48 06 APR 2011

(AGI) Tokyo - After several unsuccessful attempts, the Fukushima Dai’ichi workers did it. They plugged the breach developed by one of the containment vessels of reactor 2, from which radioactive water leaked out for several days. To fill the gap, about 20 cm wide, the plant technicians used the so-called liquid glass, a highly concentrated solution of sodium silicate. Their solution worked and the leak has been stopped. .

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

What? Didn’t they have any duct tape?

[pennboricua]

I remember the first day of school a number of years back,
most everyone wore their best and behaved their best.

And proudly pledged Allegiance to the flag.

Circa 1960s and in Chicago!

[pennboricua]

Believed was also used to destroy the engines, in the cash for clunkers fiasco.

[FatherofFive]

'This paints very different picture, and suggests that things are a lot worse. They could still have more damage in a big way if some of these things don’t work out for them.

Not very reassuring.

And can someone tell me why they tried to use newspapers to plug the leak????

[bert]

Yes, what is this liquid glass?

Leaky basements result from hydrostatic pressure and very fine cracks. Treatment on the exterior is about the only way to stop them and conquer the pressure. What ever was used could have basement leak applications

[Baseballguy]

Arent newspapers full of crap and no one reads them.

[ChiefKujo]

Fix your basement leaks with potato chips.

[null and void]

Believed was also used to destroy the engines, in the cash for clunkers fiasco.

When you absolutely positively have to get all all EMP immune, non-GPS trackable, no remote shutdown cars off the road...

[null and void]

What? Didn’t they have any duct tape?

Godzilla ate it.

[Don Corleone]

This fortifys my idea about disposing of nuclear waste by enclosing it in glass and dropping it into the deeps of the oceans.

[ReformedBeckite]

Arent newspapers full of crap and no one reads them.

To add to that, crap will break up and go down into your drainage field while making grass, flowers, and trees grow nice and green. Liberal shit just Kills off life as we know it.

[Slump Tester]

When I read "hardening agent", I immediately thought of epoxy.

My father was an aero-space engineer, and they used to use stuff that was just like china glass once it set. It was good for a very wide temperature range and you could even machine it.

[FReepaholic]

...Interesting that all the kids are wearing photo ID...

Considering they're in Fukushima, those could be TLD badges.

TLD Badges

[4Runner]

Look at the photo of the children in the school hall. The young man third from the right, front row. Looks like a potential future prime minister. These kids are amazing. The Japanese culture puts the West to shame. What do we do? We raise little slobs who we think are so cute when their faces are smeared with food, and who get to learn how to put on a condom by first grade, and whose heroes are worthless musicians and sports studs who have amassed a thousand loose women following them in search of bigger and better orgasms. The fruits of feminization of the culture. Remember—Eve started it. My own country disgusts me. I am so embarrassed to be called an American. We make Sodom & Gomorrah look like a monastery. God hasn’t figured out yet what our punishment is going to be. But man, you can be sure it’s gonna fit the crime.