Better News From Fukushima

The ABC says that Japan stops water leaks from nuclear plant

Engineers have stopped highly radioactive water leaking into the sea from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant, a breakthrough in the battle to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

However the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), still needs to pump contaminated water into the sea because of a lack of storage space at the facility.

“The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected a mixture of liquid glass (sodium silicate) and a hardening agent and it has now stopped,” a TEPCO spokesman said.
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TEPCO says it has detected radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times above the legal limit in seawater near the facility, adding to fears contaminants had spread far beyond the disaster zone.

The government is considering imposing radioactivity restrictions on seafood for the first time in the crisis after toxic caesium was found in fish off Japan’s east coast.
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There is a total of 60,000 tonnes of highly contaminated water in the plant after workers poured in seawater when fuel rods experienced partial meltdown.

TEPCO on Monday, had to start releasing 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive seawater after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water. The release will continue until Friday.
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Caesium has a radioactive half-life of 30 years and according to scientists can accumulate on the ocean floor where shellfish live and feed.

Sounds like another “Bondo” success story. Apparently they have been working from the outside, and not within the building with the tank.

The Caesium [US spelling: cesium] reduces the “good news” in the story. It’s difficult to plant sunflowers in the ocean, but they would be useful around the plant to concentrate some of the contaminants for disposal.