03 October 2013 (11:51 UTC-07 Tango)/28 Dhu ‘l-Qa’da 1434/11 Mehr 1392/29 Ren-Xu (8th month) 4711
On 02 October 2013 another contaminated water storage tank, at Fukushima Daiichi, overflowed water containing 200-thousand becquerels of beta radiation per liter! TEPCo officials say the water got into the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese government’s safe limit for radioactive water being released into the ocean is 30 becquerels per liter.
Continued incompetence on the part of Tokyo Electric Power Company, and its subcontractors, is being blamed for the most recent radiation leaks into the Pacific Ocean.
It turns out that the contaminated water storage tanks are not only built with bolt together panels that did not seal properly, and not only were they built on the hill upstream of the reactors, and not only do the majority of tanks lack gauges to measure water levels, but some of the tanks are tilted!
Yesterday’s 200-thousand bq leak occurred in one of five tanks that are connected by pipes. The tanks are built on a slope. One of the tanks is set lower than the others, and is tilted. This is the tank that overflowed.
It is also becoming clear that the geniuses at TEPCo never took into account that they would have to deal with rain and groundwater (and snow) exacerbating the radiation contamination problem from the ongoing slow burn melt downs. They’ve admitted that their contracted employees are spending a lot of unexpected time dealing with rain and groundwater issues.
Regarding the four metric ton water leak on 01 October; not only has TEPCo revised the radiation levels upward, but now they say it was closer to five metric tons spilled. TEPCo officials are also blaming their contracted (and inadequately trained) employees. They say the employees misunderstood their instructions and pumped the contaminated rainwater into storage tanks that were too small.
The prefectural government of Fukushima is so fed up with TEPCo’s lack of progress and honesty, as well as being fed up with the failed state national government, that they are taking radiation matter into their own hands.
Governor Sato Yuhei says they will conduct their own radiation monitoring of the Pacific Ocean. The decision was made at an emergency meeting, and will start today. They suspect that a large drainage pipe is flowing highly radioactive water into the ocean.