Gov't says Fukushima plant leaking 300 tons of toxic water into sea daily

Finally!

Make sure to charge TEPCO when it is over!!

Just now!?

wait wait, use more public funds! Tepco just posted a profit the other week after raising their rates, they need to use their own money!

The government should spend what is necessary to get the situation under control, then take the money from TEPCO.

So the first thing they do is ask for money, before they even know what "measures" to take! Looks like METI have spotted a potentially large trough to dine from...

Sending more "volunteers" and buckets would be my guess.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which regulates TEPCO and other power utilities, to significantly step up its role.

Actually, METI is the problem. On March 11, 2011, when the earthquake occurred, all the METI nuclear inspectors evacuated Fukushima Daiich Nuclear Power plant, leaving everything to TEPCO. That evacuation lead to communication breakdown between the power plant and the government headquarters. Their evacuation is recorded in government report of the nuclear accident, but so far none of them were punished.

I have to watch closely what METI will do with the budget. Chances are that they would use the money for something else.

maybe the could find a Peter like the dutch did and he can put his hand in the dyke and save everyone.!!closing the door after the horse bolted..

Need to raise taxes? Release more radioactive water...

Well, better late than never, I suppose! It would have been nice if the previous prime ministers did the same. He is the third since the disaster, I think. It's hard to keep track of them. Let's see if he has the courage of his convictions and follows through with this order or if it is just another round of political grandstanding to please the masses. Seriously though, somebody should be held accountable for the farce that is going on there. They are openly admitting they have been pumping radioactive water into the ocean and leaking it into the surrounding environment and also admit they have withheld this information for fear of reprisal. Is that not a criminal act in this country? Or, is TEPCO above the law? I couldn't get away with such lies and deception, so I see no reason why TEPCO should be able to!

There seems no idea no plan to contain catastrophic contamination....Y40bil is not a problem when Abe is in-chage- of Abenomics !

Just remember :

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/govt-suggests-tepco-freeze-soil-around-fukushima-plant

TEPCO officials promised to study the plan but said the cost of installing such a system would be high. It also said it would take SEVERAL YEARS to implement.

But... no problem give us $400 million now, and we'll see in several years....

TEPCO is trying to prevent groundwater from reaching the plant by building a "bypass", but recent spikes of radioactive elements in sea water has prompted the utility to reverse months of denials and finally admit that tainted water is reaching the sea.

If the spike is recent, the leak is recent. Accusing "months of denials" is illogical.

The government can do nothing. Tepco Is a part of the government.The way Fukushima has been handled is an embarrassment to Japan and the Japanese people. Japans livelihood depends on the pacific ocean. Until the Japanese people truly feel threatened by the Nuclear fallout in the air they breathe,the food they eat,the clothes they wear and so on,nothing will ever change. Please world come together and clean up this mess.

Cart, horse, too little too late but give it a go.

The Japanese government and TEPCO even the regulators are all cohorts.

Those guys at the METI and Govt are distributing cakes of half of billion $ , one after one, to TEPCO which is posting profit, like if they had no limit pumping in our pocket....geez this is money we are all making from our hard work and the salary of our health, really that makes you want to have no job just to not be collectively part of that crazy system. TEPCO must pay for the cleaning cost and if not enough money (which I doubt looking at their total assets) go and collect money from their friends Hitachi and Toshiba.

40 years at a cost of 11 billion! Yeah right, try 40 years at a cost 200 billion!!

This reminds me very much to the safety conditions in the simpson's nuclear powerplant with homer as safety inspector. look out for 3 eyed fish when you go shopping ;)

I know you should set realistic goals, but 60tonnes a day? Quite an achievement.................

Interesting JT just changed the headlines to this article, something about how Abe has finally decided to get the government involved with this disaster. The headline sounded great but as we know TEPCO and the government lack being honest and truthful. Sadly, I expect the money won't be spent on real solutions. It's time to allow ALL countries (willing to help) assist with the many complicated challenges! If Abe truly wants to fix this disaster, he will get international help from everywhere!

Hmmmmm.. 2 days ago they were saying that disaster mght strijke in the next 2 or 3 weeks unless urgent action was taken. Now they are saying that leakage already substantial?

I have hung in for a long time, but it's time to leave Japan. I love Japan, but It's just not safe for the family long term IMO.

Stabilizing the Fukushima plant is our challenge,for the day" Abe said at a meeting of the governments disaster task force.

" in particular, the contaminated water is an urgent issue which has generated a great deal of public attention today

There, finished it for ya Abe.

“swift and steady measures”

Ah, so in 10 years they'll start to do something? Maybe form a panel to think about a discussion on it? It has only taken 2.5 years and literally daily admittances by TEPCO for the past two weeks for Abe, who has pledged to get rid of nuclear weapons while exporting Japanese nuclear technology, to "think about it". His measure after he pledged to solve the problem? give it to someone else, of course.

Here's what needs to be done for anything to be actually done:

1) declare any and all exports from Japan to be potentially contaminated and require strict radiation level checks.

2) Stop calling the incident "the worst thing since Chernobyl" and start admitting it's just worse.

3) Tell TEPCO they are going to have to pay for it, not the taxpayers while TEPCO tries to get back in the black.

4) Put all TEPCO heads, now and since before the disaster, in jail.

5) Do something. Instead of saying you're going to be decisive about thinking about it.

smithinjapan, Great.

5) Do something.

This is about the only real thing in your proposal to deal with the accident. You are qualified to a TEPCO board member or an METI official.

CH3CHO: "This is about the only real thing in your proposal to deal with the accident"

Nope, just the only one to a person who is not an apologist. Weren't you defending TEPCO on the leaks just a few hours ago?

"You are qualified to a TEPCO board member or an METI official."

Be careful! That might actually make them reliable. Then you would just blame foreigners.

So what's your solution, bud?

They should have contracted with the French to fix this mess a long time ago. Tepco and Japan's "nuclear village" are well out of their depth. But hey, national pride comes first.

Wow believing the stories of "A Japanese government official."

This is not good. 300 tons of toxic water leaking into the sea from Fukushima? And we are supposed to support the Fukushima folk by buying up their fish?? Their agricultural products etc..?? Anybody know if this toxic radiation waste can be tracked?? If the UN, USA etc...is tracking this mess?? How far from Fukushima is this mess going?? Just a couple of questions I would like to have answered. As for those who want to escape from Japan, can we blame them??

Finally!! Yes finally we know that is how much toxic waste is the dumped into the ocean daily basis. However, I have to say that this is unacceptable and it needs to be fixed now!!!!

JeffLeeAug. 07, 2013 - 07:16PM JST

They should have contracted with the French to fix this mess a long time ago.

I think TEPCO did more than 2 years ago. http://www.areva.com/EN/news-8834/special-japan-eight-experts-joined-the-team-already-in-place-in-tokyo.html

But hey, national pride comes first.

Is this myth still alive in English speaking community?

Other than admitting it, and METI already getting their snouts into the yen trough, what are the government really going to do about it?

They have no pollution experts, unless you include polluters such as Sumitomo (remember Universal Studio Osaka) and Chissho Metal (Minamata), and most of their expertise is in cover-up and denial until plaintiffs die off. Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi are only expert at building nuclear power plants, not decommissioning them, and in a recent case of pollution in the river at near OkuTama, they could not even identify the source of the pollution.

Even overseas experts have no experience in a managing 3 broken reactors where they have no idea where the melted fuel assemblies are, and re-routing entire groundwater flows.

The best chances are with the likes of the US Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for waterways in the USA, and some cleanups of places like Hanford and Savannah, sites of the US nuclear programmes; the Pan-American Centre for Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Services, and some of the mining support companies in West Virginia, who are used to dealing with pollution from mines. They use grout curtains, soil/ cement-slurry walls and other techniques to create impermeable barriers.

If it carries on like this, and the leaking radioactive water starts circulating in the Pacific, they'll certainly want to get involved.

Even overseas experts have no experience in a managing 3 broken reactors where they have no idea where the melted fuel assemblies are, and re-routing entire groundwater flows.

Finally someone told it, and this is why nuclear power shouldn't be used. We haven't developed the proper technology to deal with nuclear disaster yet.

The best chances are with the likes of the US Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for waterways in the USA, and some cleanups of places like Hanford and Savannah, sites of the US nuclear programmes

I read that the situation at Hanford Site isn't good at all. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/21/us/washington-hanford-leak

The ministry official also said the government plans to reduce the leakage amount to 60 tons per day by as early as December.

Oh fantastic news we can all relax now , by december there will only be 60 tons per day leaching into the food chain, what a relief N O T .

Bring in international help as much as is needed, swallow your pride as, your pride is now beyond saving anyway (the world is disgusted with tthe way japan has handled this) , get help, be humble and get this mess fixed for crying out loud, govt thinks throwing more money at tepco will fix the problem.

CH3CHO: "Is this myth still alive in English speaking community?"

Still fact, actually. In your language it may still be a myth, though -- solving the problem sure seems to be a myth here. But hey... let's let tomorrow's headlines on the most recent admissions prove that.

(the world is disgusted with tthe way japan has handled this)

News about Fukushima are almost absent on the major international press, and this because wordlwide nuclear village is handling their own nuclear waste and plants in a mediocre way, so they prefer silence.

wanderlustAug. 07, 2013 - 08:18PM JST

Other than admitting it, and METI already getting their snouts into the yen trough, what are the government really going to do about it?

If you can read Japanese, this is their plan. http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/roadmap/images/t130627_11-j.pdf

Look at the photo on page 36. TEPCO is going to freeze the soil along the blue line and place water proof steel plates along the red line up to the depth of very low hydraulic conductivity bedrock to contain the water.

Until some people will think that the way Fukushima disaster is handled is related to Japanese culture rather than at the nuclear village in general, we could never have a nuclear free world. It's a big conceptual mistake.

Abe makes the same political speech as if he is getting tough. "Swift and steady measures", this is just a bunch of words to calm the fact that it "has generated a great deal of public attention.” Calm the people and do nothing. They need to close the plant and encase the whole thing in cement. This disaster will contaminate the entire world.

Rev. 8:8 The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,9and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died;

Japan needs to stop hiding their mess. Soon the only food you will be able to safely eat will be imported. I really do not care if people like the truth.

Gov't says Fukushima plant leaking 300 tons of toxic water into sea daily

Surprise that no global authority has sued Japan for polluting the world and poisoning the global commons such as the sea and its beautiful biota and ecosystem? Such japan-style culture of lack of accountability is reason why Abe has the guts to globe-trot, peddling Japanese nuclear technology, even at its lowest popularity....

They need to close the plant and encase the whole thing in cement.

I guess they can't do it. Also, it's not like Chernobyl site is really safe now. The last winter the roof collapsed at the nuclear power plant under the weight of snow.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/chernobyl-radiation-unaffected-roof-collapse-article-1.1263037

Good grief...in most parts of the world if there is a major disaster, the government steps in to assist instead of playing the blame game.

Fix the problem first, then looks for the incompetent bufffoons who caused the problem and take corrective action so it does not happen again.

Abe can call for "swift and steady measures" all he wants until the cows come home but its futile. Whatever arises from their actions will be too little too late. In part this slow government response regarding the groundwater three weeks from a disaster will be thanks to the japanese public who have swept the disaster under the rug without taking proactive steps and raising their voice against the government to spur action. It's extremely frustrating because this is no longer Japan's problem but the entire globes.

@CH3CHO

Eight members? LOL. No, I mean contracted to supervise and manage the cleanup project overall. Meanwhile, keep Tepco and its sub-sub contracted low-skilled temporary workers (paid 10,000 yen a day with no benefits) a safe distance away while the pros do the job.

I spoke to over a dozen of my Japanese students about this today. They ranged in age from early 20's to late 60's and nor one of them had any comment at all! The only thing they did was to shrug they shoulders and avoid the topic. Is this the mindset of the Japanese? They are more concerned about who will be voted the next leader of AKB than they are about TEPCO poisoning the whole east coast and their government, which they voted for, abusing all the power they were given. I, on the other hand, am gonna do everything I can to make people see how stupid they are being and to get my kids off my ex-wife and get them of this poisoned island asylum! Minamata was exactly the same situation and it took nearly ten years before the few people effected by to stand up and get some action, which is still being procrastinated over some 40 odd years later. If the contaminated water is leaking into the sea at such a huge rate it is also leaking into the aquifer and ultimately into the drinking water. The same stuff you shower in! I read a report a few months (not on JT) that the ground under dai-ichi had actually cracked and the radioactive water was running into the underground water table. Enough is enough! For 2.5 years we have had these TEPCO wankers lying to us and the go tenement ignoring the pathetic BS that is going on up there and then stating that it is all under control. It is all BS! 300 tons of water every day is not a drop in the ocean. It is a major contamination!

They should have contracted with the French to fix this mess a long time ago. Tepco and Japan's "nuclear village" are well out of their depth. But hey, national pride comes first.

I rather believe TEPCO does not want to open and expose themselves, they lied so much all over the course of the action, they are lying on everything and that does also include overcharging cleaning cost. If they do request help from abroad they will have to first answer questions and they do not want it, plus they do not want to loose the control on the "cost". Staying between Japanese corp, used to price fixing and how to share public fund is what they are doing.

an estimated 300 tons of contaminated water is leaking into the ocean per day

300 tons per day is hardly a "leak", more like a deluge.

I have hung in for a long time, but it's time to leave Japan. I love Japan, but It's just not safe for the family long term IMO.

Is your spouse Japanese? If so, good luck with that!

...the highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from the Fukushima plant was creating an "emergency"...

...which is expected to take more than 40 years and cost $11 billion.

Any highly radioactive substance takes 10,000 years to fully decay.

Disillusioned: "Is this the mindset of the Japanese?"

Yes, you J-basher! Now go out there and try to help and see the response you get! (aside: praise them first for... well... Watanabe Ken or something).

TEPCO needs English lessons. "Seeping" and "Leaking" does not equal 300 Tons of water every day into the ocean. I rest my case.

We used to say "We Japanese live in harmony with nature". No more. Now we must say "We Japanese poison nature, and our own children, with lies and stupid old greedy men."

300 tons is not leak. It is tsunami every day.

Hi Boardies. Q plz. What is the equilivant of 300 tons of water? How many Olympic swimming pools? Thx.

That is very good day for TEPCO hip hip hurra..., they just secured a hell of cash from public fund for a very long time, bonuses for executives can flow at will ! As for us, minimum of 40 years of just "must pay", "must get contaminated" and "must shut-up".

Bring in international help as much as is needed, swallow your pride as, your pride is now beyond saving anyway (the world is disgusted with tthe way japan has handled this)

The truth is, 'the world' doesn't have a Scooby because it isn't being reported...anywhere! Nobody knows. When I get talking to people and I get asked why I left Japan and cite the nuclear problem as one of the reasons (it wasn't the main reason but it was certainly a contributing factor) I just get reactions of incredulity. I'd say the international community is going out of its way to avoid reporting anything about it. It gets a mention on the BBC every March and then it's just about the anniversary of the disasters - nothing more.

My wife is Japanese and my kids are Japanese, they were born here in Tokyo and they are both more willing than I am to escape from Japan! As long as my home is still standing, and that mess up in Fukushima does not explode and send that radiation crap down here to Tokyo, I will not think too much about escaping from Japan. But I am sure many others do not think like me and they have already left Japan or are getting ready to escape ASAP!

While we huff and puff I can't really expect much to change with the current lot of TEPCO executives, government officials and politicians. The man in the street needs to get up and do something but given the apathy of the average Japanese can't expect much. Pathetic reactions to disasters are a part of life here. Look at Kobe. The reaction was a joke just as this one is too. What and when will the next big disaster be and how many people will die because of incompetance, corruption and arrogance. I envy you, Elbuda Mexicano, in having a family which can see things for how they really are.

JeffLeeAug. 07, 2013 - 09:41PM JST

@CH3CHO Eight members? LOL. No, I mean contracted to supervise and manage the cleanup project overall.

LOL. In all likelyhood, AREVA simply does not have that capability.

DisillusionedAug. 07, 2013 - 10:27PM JST

I spoke to over a dozen of my Japanese students about this today. They ranged in age from early 20's to late 60's and nor one of them had any comment at all! The only thing they did was to shrug they shoulders and avoid the topic.

Probably, they did not know the English words about the subject. Are you sure that they refuse to talk about the subject even though they have enough vocabulary on nuclear pollution? Maybe they might ask refund for the unprepared lesson.

Citizen2012Aug. 07, 2013 - 10:31PM JST

I rather believe TEPCO does not want to open and expose themselves,

Then why did they appoint Dale Klein, a former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman as the chairmand of TEPCO's reform committee? http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tepco-says-radioactive-water-overflowing-at-fukushima-plant

I would guess this has been occurring since day one of the melt down and in typical Japanese fashion a gross under estimation? Don't eat sea food!

Contaminated seas and seafood, innocent victims, lost livelihoods, cozy ties between government and major corporation, cover-ups, lies, denials and evasions, scores of deaths and court battles that take decades to resolve: look no further than the sad story of Minamata disease. I almost believe that this particular case has emboldened the government, and Tepco, into assuming that they can get away with anything if they keep lying about it for long enough. And sadly, knowing the Japanese people as I do, I think they may be right.

What METI disclosed today says that natural underground water runs beneath the nuclear power plant site with an estimated amount of 1000 tons per day. Of that amount, 400 tons per day contacts highly contaminated water that contains melted down nuclear fuel. But the water is captured and stored in tanks. 600 tons per day runs unnoticed beneath the site. But since the site is contaminated, the water may be contaminated.

Quite frankly, I do not know if I should believe that account or not. No one knows if the estimate of 1000 tons a day is correct. No one knows where the unknown underground water runs and if it contacts radioactive material. Cesium is known stay on the surface of soil. It could be just a story to get budget, but can be real.

"Solving the problem is our challenge"

Wow, sounds really urgent... sigh

300 tons a day probably isn't a lot compared to the whole pacific ocean but as that material is concentrated moving up the food chain it could become a problem. I wonder what the measurements are further up the coast.

Months ago I said we were all just frogs being boiled slowly with the way the government was doling out information in bits and bobs. They'd give us some bad news, deny anything worse and then once we got comfortable with that initial bad news, they'd give us more and repeat the cycle. Nothing has changed. If they're admitting this now I can only imagine how much worse it really is.

Nipporinoel - 300t is about 1/8 of an olympic pool.

@ChibaChick. Thx. Appreciated.

Incase the whole thing in concrete! together with those that hid this debacle!

Incase the whole thing in concrete! together with those that hid this debacle!

Would that work? If it's seeping downwards, it would just cause more problems. I wonder how many onsens are now tainted?

Ill fated stars of Fukushima http://bit.ly/19dEuPA