TEPCO Released 850 tons of “Decontaminated Groundwater” From Fukushima Site into Ocean

TEPCO dumped 850 tons of “decontaminated groundwater” from the Fukushima site into the Pacific Ocean on September 14. The company will continue to discharge decontaminated groundwater into the sea in an effort to minimize toxic build-up around the power plant.⁽¹⁾

Efforts to distill groundwater into the sea are part of TEPCO’s subdrain plan, which was approved last July. The plan took about a year to approve as the company battled against local fishermen, who feared that releasing the toxic water into the ocean would contaminate marine life.⁽¹⁾

TEPCO had the last say in their fight against local fishermen. They claim that the recently installed water purification system can safely remove toxic radioactive materials, like cesium and strontium, from the groundwater.⁽¹⁾

“Once this sub drain system is fully operational, the level of contaminated water is expected to be reduced to 150 tons per day,” company spokesman Satoshi Togawa told sources.⁽²⁾

“Below Measurable Limits”

A third party panel confirmed that the radioactive content was below measurable limits. TEPCO permits “one becquerel of radioactive cesium per liter of decontaminated groundwater, three becquerels for elements that emit beta rays and up to 1,500 becquerels for tritium,” which are impossible to remove with existing technology.⁽¹⁾

The batch of “purified” water dumped into the ocean Monday measured 330 to 600 becquerels per liter. The current plan is to pump water from the 41 subdrain wells surrounding the main buildings at the Fukushima site. The hope is to pump 100 to 200 tons of groundwater a day, and later increase it to 500 tons of groundwater a day.⁽¹⁾

“We’re currently replacing the tanks with larger ones and as this system gets off the ground we’ll have less contaminated water, so we’re not going to be immediately pressed for more storage space,” Togawa added.⁽²⁾

Remember, there are no safe levels of radiation. The amount of radiation pumped into the ocean accumulates over time. Bottom feeders are particularly susceptible to small doses of radiation, which can have a rippling effect throughout the entire food chain.

Ice Wall Fails to Contain Groundwater

TEPCO has already been widely criticized for its handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The company is running behind schedule to contain the groundwater from the Fukushima site with their infamous ice wall. The ice wall consists of dry ice, which was intended to act as a barrier around the Fukushima site. After spending nearly $300 million on the ice wall, TEPCO concluded that the project was a total failure.⁽³⁾

The incident adds further evidence that TEPCO has no idea how to contain the groundwater. “The risk that you run is that you have all these tanks full of water,” said Dale Klein, a chairman of a committee orchestrated to thwart meltdowns.“The longer you store the water, the more likely you are going to have [an] uncontrolled release,” he said.⁽¹⁾

To add fuel to the Fukushima fire, flooding from Typhoon Etau created new leaks at the nuclear power plant, which caused more contaminated water to bleed into the ocean. The drainage pumps could not cope with the rush of water that accompanied the storm.

Ironically, TEPCO’s solution to “contain” the toxic groundwater is to release it into the wild.

Sources include:

(1) RT.com

(2) NBCNews.com

(3) America.AlJazeera.com