Fukushima’s protective ice wall will have to last for 300 years!

Japan to spend £300 million on Fukushima ‘ice wall’ containment The Japanese government says it will invest over £300 million to try and stop radioactive water leaking from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. Plans include an ‘ice wall’ of frozen earth. Experts say that radiation will enter the human food chain by contaminating water, crops and fish. VoR’s Daniel Cinna reports.

The 27-metre deep ice wall is intended to prevent contaminated water seeping into the surrounding earth.

However, nuclear expert John Large is sceptical: “The problem with ice walls is that you can crack and fissure the clay, which provides migration routes for the water and the radioactivity through the ice wall, so it’s not at all certain.”

He also points to the fact that the ice wall presents a technical challenge for future generations as it will have to be maintained at minus 40 degrees for 200-300 years. Large says releasing of contaminated water into the sea will create new uptake routes into the human food chain and the environment.

Conditions are so disastrous now partly because the government pumped water in to cool the reactors that went into meltdown after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami – that contaminated water is now leaking out.
Some calculations put the exposure at five times that of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.
http://ruvr.co.uk/2013_09_03/Japan-300-million-Fukushima-clean-up/