TEPCO reports freezing of soil at the Fukushima site is going "well":
Freezing of soil near Fukushima plant going well, says TEPCO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN April 5, 2016, http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201604050046.html
The freezing of soil around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to block the flow of groundwater is proceeding “largely smoothly,” the plant operator said April 4....
...“While we need to keep making efforts to control the temperature deliberately, we can say that the project is proceeding largely smoothly so far,” the company spokesman said.
What concerns me about the story is the admission that radioactive water coming through the "K drainage channel" is being discharged into the plant's harbor. Previously the water was being released "into the outer ocean." I suppose that discharging contaminated water into the harbor is superior to discharging it directly into the "outer ocean," but only marginally so since the port is hardly a closed system. Accordingly, the Mainichi writes in this article:
The utility also unveiled new drainage outlets for the K drainage channel to discharge water into the plant’s harbor and block it from being released into the outer ocean. The construction of the new outlets was completed March 28. Radiation-contaminated rainwater coming through the K drainage channel had previously often flown into the outer ocean when it rained.
Emissions are down today from the last few days but are still heavy:
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ReplyDeleteMajia, is it possible that emissions are less visible because the weather is warming up and water vapor is less likely to cause fog?
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