Kennedy Visits Fukushima 'Problem From Hell'

Carolyn Kennedy is visiting Fukushima’s crippled nuclear facility as a push to plug the plumbing problem from hell at Fukushima Daiichi is about to get some help as the reactor is believed to be leaking highly radioactive coolant water through a rupture in a donut-shaped chamber at the base of the reactor.

Matt Cole, engineering director of Kurion, contracted to work on the crippled reactor, said an arm will be used to inspect three areas around that chamber, known as the suppression pool, for suspected leaks.

“They know there is a leak because of the balance of water,” Cole said, “but they don’t know exactly where that leak is.”

The damage to reactors 1 and 3 is dramatically visible, as massive hydrogen explosions blew apart their concrete housings in the first days of the accident. But what happened in No. 2 has largely remained a mystery.

What happened in No. 2 has largely remained a mystery. Operators reported hearing a bang from deep within the reactor, probably from another hydrogen explosion, and a spike in radiation levels.

The unit’s turbine plant soon filled with water that was loaded with nuclear wastes, backing up through service tunnels and spilling into the neighboring Pacific.

Dozens of gallons per hour [at least 2 metric tons/day] are escaping.

 Caroline Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to Japan, got her firsthand look Wednesday inside the Japanese nuclear plant for about three hours with her son, Jack Schlossberg.

Ground zero is plagued by leaks of radioactive water.

“It’s very hard to visualize and understand the complexity of the challenge when you just read about it, so this was a very informative visit,” Kennedy told reporters.

Schlossberg, 21, said, “I hope my peers, my generation in the United States will keep Fukushima in mind and understand that there is still work to be done and we can all do something to help.”

Kennedy said the US government would offer “experience and capabilities, in particular, toward the near-term resolution of ongoing water contamination issues”.

“The US will help,” she said, “particularly to resolve the issue of radioactive wastewater.”

Kennedy’s statement posted by TEPCO was:

“Daunting task in the cleanup and decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi… We are committed to providing support as long as it is necessary [and] will offer our experience and capabilities, in particular, toward the near term resolution of ongoing water contamination issues.

A nearly 50-foot wall of water slammed into Fukushima Daiichi in the historic earthquake and tsunami that struck eastern Japan in March 2011. The wave flooded the plant and knocked out power to the cooling systems of the three reactors that were running at the time.

The result was the world’s worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, as the reactors overheated and spewed radioactive particles into the environment.  

Three years later, operators are still having to pump more than four tons of water an hour — 26,000 gallons every day — into each reactor to keep them cool, Yoshida said. That water builds in the basements of the reactor buildings, along with hundreds of tons of groundwater seeping daily.

Though no deaths have been directly attributed to the Fukushima Daiichi accident, approximately 138,000 people forced to flee homes as far as 25 miles away are still living in temporary housing and an untold number of people are suffering from radiation poisoning.

“Mayor Idogawa’s” nose bleeds every day, especially in the mornings,” Mainichi reports this week. 

“Many people suffer from nosebleeds and fatigue because they have been exposed to radiation,” the mayor said. “People should not live in Fukushima today.”