Japan earthquake: Radioactive leak into ocean 'stopped' Skip to main content

Japan earthquake: Radioactive leak into ocean 'stopped'

A worker points to a crack in a concrete pit near Fukushima Daiichi's No 2 reactor, 2 April The concrete pit near Reactor No 2 was cracked by the quake

Japan quake

A leak of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been stopped, its operator reports.
Tepco said it had injected chemical agents to solidify soil near a cracked pit, from where the contaminated water had been seeping out.
Engineers have been struggling to stop leaks since the plant was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.
Japan has asked Russia for the use of a floating radiation treatment plant.
In another development, government sources said that a plan to cover the damaged reactor buildings with special metal sheets could not be carried out until September at the earliest due to high-level radioactivity hampering work at the site.
The official death toll from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami stands at more than 12,000 with some 15,000 people still unaccounted for, and more than 161,000 people still living in evacuation centres.
'Water glass' Samples of water used to cool one of the plant's six reactors, No 2, showed 5m times the legal limit of radioactivity, officials said on Tuesday.
The Landysh moored near Vladivostok (archive image from 2004) The Landysh (Suzuran) is used to decommission nuclear submarines
In order to stem the leak, Tepco (the Tokyo Electric Power Co) injected ''water glass'', or sodium silicate, and another agent near a seaside pit where the highly radioactive water had been seeping through.
Desperate engineers had also used sawdust, newspapers and concrete to try to stop the escaping water.
The company still needs to pump some 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive seawater into the sea because of a lack of storage space at the plant.
But officials said this water would not pose a significant threat to human health.
Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom said it was awaiting answers to some questions before granting Japan's request to lend its vessel the Landysh, known in Japanese as the Suzuran, which is used to decommission Russian nuclear submarines in the far eastern port of Vladivostok.
One of the world's largest liquid radioactive waste treatment plants, the Landysh treats radioactive liquid with chemicals and stores it in a cement form.
It can process 35 cubic metres of liquid waste a day and 7,000 cubic metres a year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12981243
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do...
1 comment
Read more

Ancient Rakhine City of Mrauk-U Proposed for UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Irrawaddy YANGON—Myanmar’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture submitted the final draft of its nomination for Mrauk-U to become a World Heritage Site to UNESCO on Monday, four months after the ministry submitted the first draft of its nomination in September 2019. If the application succeeds, Mrauk-U will be the third place in Myanmar to be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after the ancient cities of Bagan and Pyu. Mrauk-U is located in northern Rakhine State, around 60 km from the state capital of Sittwe. The ancient city was the seat of Arakanese kings from the 1400s until the late 1700s. At the height of their power, they controlled an area covering large parts of eastern Bengal, modern-day Rakhine State and the western part of central Myanmar. Much of the city’s remains are well-preserved and some 380 historic temples are scattered between the lush hills of northern Rakhine. Mrauk-U Heritage Trust chairwoman Daw Khin Than told The Irrawaddy on Tue...
1 comment
Read more

Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera

The Life Story of A Distinguished And Outstanding Bhikkhu The Most Venerable Saradawpharagree Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera The Buddhist missionary Saradaw Ashin U Chandramani was endowed with great gifts and led a famous and long life. He was a very well known, distinguished and outstanding Bhikkhu Mahathera. While living in the Kushinagar Monastery, a place close to where the Lord Buddha had passed away to Nirvana, the Government of India had offered, and he had accepted, the highest, most honourable and respected title "Guru Guru MahaGuru". He became the first ever President of all Buddhists in India.A World Buddhist Conference took place in Kathmandu during the reign of King Mahindra of Nepal. The Conference was very well attended by over one hundred thousand Buddhists from various parts of the world and it was opened by King Mahindra himself. As requested by the King, Saradawpharagree blessed all the participants with the power of Triple Gems...
Post a Comment
Read more