Friday, February 21, 2014

250,000 tons

That's how much radioactive topsoil Japan has put into bags and stored in thirty locations (some in town centers) round Fukushima. Someone is praying that the bags do not break, leak, or fall over. But since the bags are temporary, prayers need to be offered for only five years as that's how long the bags can withstand the environment. 

2014 has not started well re Fukushima. In January Tepco had such a problem finding workers to clean up the mess that it had to recruit the homeless in Tokyo. In February, Tepco said that the levels of strontium-90 in te water was five times higher than previously estimated. At least one scientist has forecast that the Fukushima Daiichi plant cannot safely be reoccupied for at least 165 years.

Would we be able to do better? Where in the United States of America would a power company or government authority safely bury 250,000 tons of radioactive soil, millions of gallons of high-radiation water, and the detritus of abandoned homes and farms across thousands of acres of land? 


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