Pipe dream

Appropriate photo title - pipe dream, indeed.

Pipe dream, yep that about sums up many of the J gov policies

Since the trial system has failed (constant underground water flow means it refuses to freeze properly) very few people are now publicly defending the efficacy of the proposed new system. Dream on, TEPCO.

They don't care if it fails, they just want the money to build it and then move onto something else to make more money

As we are all going to bite the bait dangled before us, yes, total pipe dream. Is never --and never was-- going to work as hoped, sold, played.

nandakandamanda,

The failed ice experiment was for service tunnels, not the ice wall.

Zichi,

Apparently Muon-imaging could be used to locate the cores.

Let's hope it works.

All we have left is prayer!

It's both saddening and maddening that this unproven technology at a huge cost to the public may just fail before it even starts working. The amount of breakdowns they have already had with their water treatment plant tells you that they are not on the ball. The typhoon tonight will test their metal. How many thousands of tons of contaminated water are gonna get flushed away during the storm tonight? It's still so hard to believe the J-Gov is so dead set on restarting and continuing to use nuclear power after this catastrophe. The Fukushima disaster will end up costing ten times more than it cost to build ALL the plants in the first place.

However, I guess we should applaud these workers for being there and doing the job that nobody else wants to do. It is not their fault they are employed by gangsters and thieves. In a way, they are national heroes.

In short: we are so screwed. Next up: The Age of Gokiburi, the sole remaining survivors on failed Planet Terra.

Pipe dream

Indeed,the title of the photo says all. When it comes to Tepco, the whole thing has been an ever-lasting nightmare.

The logic question is tha how on the earth Japan can allow this company to continue operate with public tax yen given its criminal and negligent track records done to Japanese people and ecosystems ?

Star Viking, I am aware of the difference. Tepco say they hope to get this experimental section freezing properly by next spring.

Quote from NHK 10 July 2014:

"Tokyo Electric Power Company is under pressure to make sure that its plan to install "frozen walls" to halt the flow of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant actually works. Officials of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, or NRA, expressed their concern at a meeting on Monday. TEPCO began work in April to create a wall of ice between the basement of the No.2 reactor building and its utility tunnel. The idea was to prevent highly radioactive water in the reactor building from flowing into the tunnel, where the runoff could become mixed with groundwater and end up in the sea. The wall of ice was supposed to be in place in May, but the structure remains incomplete.

TEPCO officials told the NRA that currents in the water in the tunnel are preventing it from freezing, and that they'll have to put off pumping out radioactive water from the tunnel for about 3 months. NRA officials urged the utility to come up with concrete measures by the end of July to complete the ice wall.

NRA officials also expressed concern that similar problems may hamper the freezing of soil around 4 reactor buildings at the plant. The massive underground wall is supposed to prevent groundwater from flowing into the buildings."

Nadakandamanda,

Thanks for the information.

Zichi,

I don't know about removing the cores per se, surely the objective will be to make them as safe as possible - which may or may not entail removal.

I wrote "as safe as possible" Zichi. Depending on the disposition of the cores it might be better to find some way to permanently entomb them, or divert groundwater around them, rather than dig them up.

And you know this how?