NRA: Ice wall effects ‘limited, if any’ at Fukushima nuclear plant

As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has concluded that Tokyo Electric Power Company's "ice wall" -- a frozen soil barrier penetrating 100 feet down, and encircling the four devastated reactors at Fukushima -- has largely to entirely failed to prevent groundwater from seeping into shattered basement levels, and mixing with highly radioactive wastewater. This, despite $300 million having been spent on it in the past 3 to 4 years.

There has been skepticism about the proposed ice wall from the start. Now, NRC has advised that the ice wall play at most a secondary role in stemming the flow of groundwater, to prevent its mixing with highly radioactive wastewater. Instead, a redoubling of pre-emptive pumping of groundwater is now proposed as a primary preventive measure.

The amount of highly radioactive wastewater now stored at Fukushima Daiichi is approaching a million tons. Another 1,000-ton storage tank is added every few days. The risk exists that another strong earthquake hitting the site, could cause the hastily-erected, shoddy storage tanks to fail, releasing highly radioactive water into the soil, groundwater, and Pacific Ocean.

Greenpeace wrote an excellent overview, clearly explaining the quantity of radioactive water being generated at Fukushima Daiichi, and where it is going. Entitled "Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Water Crisis: TEPCO's Discharge Plans of Contaminated Sub-Drain Water into the Pacific Ocean," the briefing was authored by Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace Germany, and is dated September 4, 2015.