– “Gravest situation since 2011 Fukushima accident” — Nuclear Expert: Emergency effort is needed at plant; “I can’t make out just why the Japanese are reluctant to take strong measures” (ENENews, Oct 20, 2013):
Voice of Russia, Oct. 19, 2013: Sharp radiation growth was registered in ground water samples throughout just one day, October 18th, in the area of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Tritium concentrations, for example, exceeded the admissible values 6,500 times. This is the gravest situation since the 2011 Fukushima accident.
Igor Ostretsov, expert in nuclear physics and nuclear power generation: Radioactive water keeps coming and should be stored somewhere. They have deployed a great number of tanks there and keep bringing more. There must be no place left by now for still more tanks to store radioactive water in. A lot of water has been naturally spilled out, since the tanks just cannot hold all the water. Workers have recently done something wrong, causing massive water discharge. They’ve built [Note: They’ve proposed building] a border dyke 100 metres deep, but subterranean waters are deeper still. This way the radioactive water makes it to the ocean. I can’t make out just why the Japanese are reluctant to take strong measures. Japan is clearly unable to cope with the situation on its own, so what’s needed is an international emergency effort.
Vladimir Slivyak, Lecturer at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia, co-chairman of the Ekozashchita: The Company is actually reacting to emergencies as they occur. When something happens, they start considering the situation. In other words, they are absolutely unable to control the situation. By far graver problems may arise at the Fukushima plant than the ones we now know of. Now, Friday’s jump in radiation levels most likely means fresh leaks.