Fukushima is unadulterated mess--a devil's brew of contaminated water, radioactive slurry, and contaminated debris. The striken plant's TEPCO has no idea what to do with it all. The melted fuel rods and building debris must be constantly doused in a flow of water which itself become radioactive almost instaneously. The contstant flow is necessary to prevent an explosion that would spread deadly radioactivity into the streets of Tokyo prompting a mass evacuation event. But the water flow flushes out a slurry of highly radioactive material resembling shampoo but containing high concentrations of radioactive strontium. TEPCO is faced with the problem of how to dispose of it permanently, if that is even possible. The storage containers used to confine it temporarily quickly errode from and need to be constantly replaced, Since March TEPCO has accumulated 3,373 of these vessels and they will need to be replaced by 2025 before they spring a leak. The NRA has concluded that 31 of them have already reached the end of the useful life and another 56 will need to be replace within two years. Considering the danger of exposure during a transfer of the slurry, TEPCO plans to use robots apparently, but so far has not reveal acceptable plans for this highly dangerous transfer of waste material.
TEPCO's nighmarish problems do not end there. The company stored radioactive waste water underground in two building near Reactor Four. It used bags of a mineral known as zeolite to absorb radioactive cesium--about twenty six ton of mineral bags. They emit 4 sieverts an hour, enough to kill half the site workers nearby in ah hour. The bags need to be disposed of, but where to put them? TEPCO is again, at a loss. TEPCO will begin release of 1.37 million tons of contaminated waste water into the Pacific Ocean in the fall of this year when storage capacity is full. The decision to allow release of treated water containing tritrium is opposed by fishers and conservtionists. Ii is expected that gradual releases will take thirty years to complete. [photo: waste water tanks]
Rubble at the site, including felled trees, now exceeds 480,000 cubic meters as of 2021, all of it radioactive. TEPCO wants to incinerate the debris and is building a special incinerator. Where to put the radioactive conbustion waste is also an unknown. In fact, Where to put it?, is still the bane of the nuclear power industry. These problems are not unique to Japan, but every nation that uses nuclear power on a commerical scale faces waste disposal problem. USA now stores mounting tons of spent fuel rods in open pools next to nuclear reactors. If exposed to the air, the rods erupt into sizzling zirconium fires that spew bursts of radioactivity into the air. These atomic sparklers, if you will, could force evacuation of major cities and contaminate large areas of countryside. Any policy maker that considers nuclear power a viable solution to the climate crisis is playing with never-ending fire.