Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Fukushima 6 years later: radioactive boars and $188 billion in clean-up costs

https://thinkprogress.org/fukushima-has-radioactive-boars-8a1583b21856#.hrc1b05o7
"Perhaps more shocking is that six years after the meltdowns, Fukushima is still generating and dealing with unimaginable amounts of contaminated waste. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is still “pumping water nonstop through the three reactors to cool melted fuel that remains too hot and radioactive to remove,” as the New York Times explained Saturday. That generates some 400 tons of contaminated water each day. With more than 962,000 tons now stored on site, storage space is running out. Some officials have contemplated whether they could dilute the waste and dump it in the ocean. Unsurprisingly, “local fishermen are vehemently opposed.” There are also more than 3,500 shipping containers holding radioactive sludge left over from the initial efforts to decontaminate all that water. On top of that, every day, some 6,000 cleanup workers dispose of their protective hazmat suits and other gear, so far generating nearly 65,000 cubic meters of gear — enough to fill 17 million one-gallon containers. TEPCO plans to burn it all at some point."

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