Living Crisis Laboratory

"Nobody knows when this is going to end. We've suspected (leaks into the ocean) from the beginning. ... TEPCO is making it very difficult for us to trust them."
Masakazu Yabuki, Iwaki fisherman

Experts are now of the opinion that underground seepage from the Fukushima's tsunami-crippled nuclear power station; the reactor and turbine building area -- is massively larger and more radioactive than has been thought. Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s response to the disaster has been ineffectual. Compounded by the fact that nowhere in the world has a situation quite like this one ever surfaced before.

Nuclear reactors are generally recognized to be a safe, reliable, relatively inexpensive source of energy. But because they are nuclear installations and radiation is such a powerful weapon of nature inimical to the survival at high enough levels of all life, they must be handled with sensitivity and care. Nuclear reactors should never be built on unstable ground; say for example, over sub-oceanic plates known to move and rub together.

And where there are earthquake zones there are also chances of high probability that tsunamis will result from the massive upheaval of the earth when tectonic plates abrade. This is called double-jeopardy, isn't it, when oblivious hubris results in catastrophe on the scale that Japan experienced two and a half years ago. It was touch-and-go for long enough as the national utility, politically driven as it was, desperately attempted to cope with their melt-down.

Two national, incompatible powerful energy grids, operated separately and in competition with one another is a sign of extremely poor planning to begin with. Now it emerges that the plant is increasingly incapable of containing vast quantities of radioactive water, with the discovery of a leak from a tank storing contaminated water used to cool the reactor cores.

This is a 300-ton leak. Its potential rates equal in fall-out to the March 2011 situation when three of the plant's reactors melted down when the power and cooling functions were knocked out thanks to the tsunami. Poor planning and construction screamed out all over the place; its cooling towers non-existent in conventional reactor core cooling.

Emergency generators were to come on line to power electronics and coolant systems (from sea water) but the tsunami flooded the low-lying rooms where the emergency generators had been placed rendering them completely useless. Another bit of really, really bad planning. Power was cut to the critical pumps meant to cool the cores when the generators flooded and failed.

Fishing in the area is banned already. But fishermen like Mr. Yabuki in nearby Iwaki City were hoping they might be able to conduct some test catches to evaluate the level of contamination. They no longer have reason to hope. A makeshift system of pipes and hoses funnelled water into the broken reactors, the resulting radioactive water treated and stored in aboveground tanks. Which have developed leaks.

But water has been found to be leaking into the basements of the reactors then through cracks into surrounding earth and groundwater; an estimated 400 tons seep into the reactor and turbine basements from mountain streams daily, becoming contaminated as well. Bottom-dwelling fish have been identified with high radioactive cesium levels, which led scientists to suspect the plant was leaking radioactive water, which TEPCO denied.

They no longer can. The ocean is about 150 metres from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant turbine buildings. A Japan Atomic Energy Agency document states the contaminated underground water is spreading at a rate of about four metres a month toward the sea. "This is a race against the clock" said Toyoshi Fuketa, a commissioner on Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, of attempts to block the leaks.

About one thousand steel tanks built at the plant contain close to 300 million litres of partially treated contaminated water. A third of the tanks have rubber seams good for five years before deteriorating. "It's like a haunted house, one thing happening after another. But we must take any steps that would reduce risks to avoid a fatal accident", said Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka.

Japan has been hugely reliant on nuclear energy for decades, to fuel its manufacturing. The islands are mountainous, they sit over some of the world's most active tectonic plates. Earthquakes of various levels take place constantly. Although Japan prides itself on its engineering prowess, its superior products, its peerless product assurances of quality control, it missed the boat on this most critical of all areas of its power production capabilities.