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by newnewpdro 2895 days ago
It's worse than that; > 100 tons of groundwater contaminated by the ongoing crisis still run to the ocean daily. [1] They've made progress in reducing the amount (it used to be hundreds of tons daily) but it's still a problem. Now there's talk of dumping what's been stored into the ocean anyways.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/remediating-fukushim...
2 comments
vidarh 2895 days ago
100 tons is roughly 100 cubic metres, or 1 cube of 4.65m. In a year it's a cube of roughly 33.2m each side. Given that the concern seems to be tritium, with a half-life of 12 years, if you want to reduce radiation to about 1/1000th, you'd need 10 halvings, so 120 such cubes. That's a lot, but if you were to build containment basins of "only" 1 depth, it'd be a basin 365 meters each side and 33.2m deep. That's not nothing, but it's likely also excessive.
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antris 2895 days ago
> They've made progress in reducing the amount (it used to be hundreds of tons daily) but it's still a problem

What exactly is the problem that it is causing?

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newnewpdro 2895 days ago
Are you asking me what is the problem with 100+ tons of reactor-contaminated groundwater effluent entering the sea on a daily basis? On the surface this seems like a weak attempt at a strawman, please clarify.

edit: s/irradiated/reactor-contaminated/

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antris 2895 days ago
Yes, I'm asking that. Because all sea water is irradiated anyway, the effects depend on the amount of radiation in the water. So, what problems is this water entering the sea causing?
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newnewpdro 2895 days ago
My understanding is not all isotopes are equally hazardous. The stuff coming with the reactor-contaminated water is particularly harmful to the marine environment and people of Japan, and not normally present at such levels in the surrounding waters.

The half-life as I understand it is relatively short for the especially harmful stuff, but that's not so helpful if leaks are ongoing.

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chlvsl 2895 days ago
Yes, he is, and I am as well. First of all, irradiated doesn't mean radioactive. Most food in the US is irradiated for health purposes before sale at grocery stores.

How is it contaminated? What's the distribution of contaminants? Do they actually have a significant effect?

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