Japan to build a wall of ice in effort to stop flow of radioactive water to the sea at Fukushima

In an unprecedented effort, the Japanese government plans to spend close to half-a-billion dollars building a 90-foot wall of ice in the ground around the Fukushima reactors in an effort to stop flow of radioactive water into the ocean. There’s no guarantee that this will work, and even if it does it is at best only a temporary solution to a catastrophe that continues to unfold. For details, including images, go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23940214

Fukushima radiation levels ’18 times higher’ than previously thought

This article from the BBC shows that  the Fukushima disaster is ongoing, not improving but getting worse and worse with passing time. in short, a continually unfolding catastrophe. Go to the URL for pictures that accompany this story.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23918882>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23918882

Fukushima radiation levels ’18 times higher’ than thought

Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi inspected the site on Monday
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23918882#story_continues_1>Continue reading the main story

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Radiation levels around Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant are 18 times higher than previously thought, Japanese authorities have warned.

Last week the plant’s operator reported radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank into the ground.

It now says readings taken near the leaking tank on Saturday showed radiation was high enough to prove lethal within four hours of exposure.

The plant was crippled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) had originally said the radiation emitted by the leaking water was around 100 millisieverts an hour.

However, the company said the equipment used to make that recording could only read measurements of up to 100 millisieverts.

The new recording, using a more sensitive device, showed a level of 1,800 millisieverts an hour.

The new reading will have direct implications for radiation doses received by workers who spent several days trying to stop the leak last week, the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Tokyo.

In addition, Tepco says it has discovered a leak on another pipe emitting radiation levels of 230 millisieverts an hour.

The plant has seen a series of water leaks and power failures.

The 2011 tsunami knocked out cooling systems to the reactors, three of which melted down.

The damage from the tsunami has necessitated the constant pumping of water to cool the reactors.

This is believed to be the fourth major leak from storage tanks at Fukushima since 2011 and the worst so far in terms of volume.

After the latest leak, Japan’s nuclear-energy watchdog raised the incident level from one to three on the international scale measuring the severity of atomic accidents, which has a maximum of seven.

Experts have said the scale of water leakage may be worse than officials have admitted.

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