It’s Only Somewhat Poisonous
Today the BBC is reporting on TEPCO dumping radioactive water into the ocean. Not to worry, though, because the thousands of gallons being pumped into the Pacific is only 100 times legal limit for radiation, primarily iodine-131.
They have to do it to make room in their storage facilities for the water that is 10,000 times legal limit, which will be dumped in time for the water that is 1,000,000 times the legal limit, even after they triple the legal limit.
TEPCO is annoyed that Pampers lied about the absorbency of their product [the special “polymer” that they used was developed for disposable diapers], and it did not seal the 8-inch crack in the storage pit that is the source of all of the water coming out of Reactor 2.
I have to assume that the crack is 8 inches wide, based on the amount of water leaking, and they never thought to put a metal plate over it before they tried plugging it with concrete. They could have at least dumped rocks and then gravel into the hole before trying concrete, but they apparently didn’t talk to anyone in construction, especially someone in dam construction, before they made the attempt.
What they did was the equivalent of putting oatmeal in a radiator to plug a leak, i.e. a bad idea in the long term.
