Mention “Japan” and “Nuclear Reactor” together in the same sentence and your memory should be brought back to the eastern coast of the country back in 2011, to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, following the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. However, nearly three years after the initial incident, the clean up process is still nowhere near completion, and when I talk with some of my friends and classmates, it seems that many people are not aware of the continual struggle that the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) — owner of the power plant and thus responsible for all clean-up efforts — has been having with storage of irradiated water.
The 2011 nuclear crisis was triggered after major equipment failures, particularly the major and backup power generators. The secondary emergency pumps managed to survive the initial earthquake and tsunami damage, but unfortunately did not have the lifetime to sustain the paramount cooling of the nuclear reactor. With no way to cool the incredibly hot nuclear rods, meltdown was inevitable. Hydrogen formed by the oxidation of the zirconium alloy fuel rods with water vapor in the reactor core ignited in the three active reactors, causing massive hydrogen-air explosions.
Ranking a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) — the only event in history to achieve this rank apart from the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster — Fukushima had a 20-km evacuation radius established around the plant, forcing 160 000 people from their homes. Even today, only a select few regions have had the evacuation mandate lifted, and workers can spend only strictly governed periods of time in the area. If you search ‘Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan’ on Google Maps and take a look at the street view of the region nearest to the plant, you can see abandoned houses, buildings destroyed by the earthquake and Tsunami, and even spot a few HAZMAT-donned workers in the area.
All fifty of Japan’s reactors were shut down following the disaster, partially due to safety concerns of the other facilities and partially due to rampant public opinion against nuclear energy after the meltdown. Last year, two units were put back online, but desires to make Japan nuclear-free still ran high. These crippling shutdowns have forced Japan to import expensive fuel from elsewhere in order to satisfy its fuel needs. After last December’s election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a strong advocate for Nuclear Energy, Japan has once again put plans to re-start reactors in other plants around the country, with updated safety protocol and emergency procedures.
The clean-up of the area around Fukushima and complete decommission of the plant will be a very lengthy and delicate ordeal. While original estimates quoted a completion time of at least forty years, thus far the process has been far from perfect. In December of 2011, contaminated water leakages were reported due to cracks in the foundations of the treatment system. In March of this year, the plant had a scare when the cooling systems failed for twenty-nine consecutive hours; TEPCO reported that power failure occurred from a rat gnawing through switchboard wiring. From April to August, TEPCO had a near-continuous stream of incidents to report, mainly concerning leaks of several hundred tons of radioactive water from storage tanks. This water has been confirmed to be leaking into the groundwater supply, eventually reaching the neighbouring Pacific Ocean.
At the end of August, Japan’s Nuclear Regulator official raised the severity of the Fukushima plant’s INES rating to a Level 3, classifying it as a ‘serious incident’.
In September the company stated that the radiation emitted by the leaking water was eighteen times more severe than originally thought– the original value of 100 mSv (millisieverts, used to expressive the effective dosage of radiation) per hour was documented due to the equipment being unable to take readings past the 100 mSv range. A better suited device recorded the radiation closer to 1800 mSv per hour– an incredible difference, when considering the workers who were subjected to such radiation while at work on the clean-up.
Just recently, on the third of October, another tale of radioactive water leaking from a storage tank was released to the public– this time, the error was attributed to excess rainwater following a storm pressuring the workers to push the tanks past their normal capacity, thus leading to the subsequent overflow. The international criticism that has arisen towards TEPCO and its clean-up conduct is no secret.
Fortunately, the Japanese government has decided to lend a hand to the company’s struggling efforts. Nearly half a billion US dollars has been allocated for the implementation of a frozen wall around the plant to prevent further leaks of nuclear water from entering the water table or the ocean. Shafts drilled approximately 27 m underground surrounding the damaged reactors will be filled with circulating liquid coolant, freezing the adjacent soil to prevent any flow of water underground. Construction has already begun on the project, as well as an offshore steel wall to keep any existing contaminants from spreading further into the Pacific. The projected completion date is March of 2015.
The pressure is mounting for Japan to clean up its clean-up act; last month, it won the Olympic bid to host the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, and with all the time and money that will be invested into its preparations, the government won’t have much in free resources to deal with any further complications from the plant, nor does it want nuclear waste on the public’s mind while the events are taking place.
Undoubtedly more news concerning the plant’s status will be released in the future– we will just have to wait to see if it’s going to be good or bad.
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