Japanese nuclear disaster: Radioactive water leaking

  • Published on March 28th, 2011

ocean at fukushimaWhy is it bad that they’re now finding radioactive water leaking out of the reactor?

1) They have no idea where it’s coming from.

If that doesn’t disturb you, nothing else will. But do keep in mind that every assurance about the safety of nuclear power revolves around “We know what we’re doing, we have safeguards in place, and nothing could possibly go wrong.”

Now, when something HAS gone wrong, it’s gone SO wrong that they really have no clue where stuff is coming from, or how to go about fixing it.

Keep in mind, this has been going on for two weeks. And spare me the argument “Well, this is a very unusual circumstance.” THAT’S THE POINT. It’s nice that they can handle day-to-day operations (although in at least two instances, they couldn’t even handle that much – see Chernobyl and Three Mile Island). But when you’re attempting to reassure folks that we should give you permission to build something that will KILL TENS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IF YOU SCREW IT UP, you can’t really say, “We can handle absolutely anything (except for a real problem)”.

2) This nuclear power plant is right on the ocean.

This is not unique – nearly all reactors are built on bodies of water – rivers, lakes, oceans – because they need large amounts of water for cooling.

This means that if radioactive water leaks out, there’s no way to contain it. It’s out there – in the food chain.

Not that it’s limited to the water supply that’s in direct contact. Fallout from the reactor is also a concern across the country, and Japan’s health ministry has already put out the call to water supplies – don’t take in any more rainfall, that might be contaminated, and cover holding pools and reservoirs (if possible)

-> Next Page: 3) This stuff is very, very radioactive

About the Author

Jeremy Bloom is the Editor of RedGreenAndBlue. He lives in New York, where he combines his passion for the environment with his passion for film, and is working on making the world a better place.

2 comments

  • I want to mention that since yesterday in Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg we have what might be just the first (of several) landslide victory of an ecological party largely BECAUSE of the fukushima disaster.

  • And why didn’t they take Michio Kaku’s advice from day one after the Reactor 4 explosion? That advice was to immediately entomb each of the four problematic reactor buildings with sand and cement. It only took days for Soviet authorities to realize this was all they could do at Chernobyl….Now Tepco is sitting on their hands, squirting relatively miniscule amounts of water into the cooling pools, in hopes that the facility could be saved and they can recover their economic losses. Meanwhile California, the Pacific Ocean, and all of Japan is dealing with continued nuclear fallout.

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