3 ms·
Radioactivity level spikes 6,500 times at Fukushima well
- api 13y agoI wonder at what point the cost of cleanup for this one thing will eclipse the cost of replacing the entire former nuclear output of Japan with offshore wind and storage? Probably already does if you include the amortized cost of the real estate now ruined for many years, and the cost of relocating and compensating over 300,000 people.
- cbennett 13y agoIf definitely already does, and I think there is a systematic under-appreciation of just how catastrophic Fukushima could become if there is an additional criticality if not a series of them, it is truely an order of magnitude bigger of a concern than Chernobly ever was. The upper band for relocation might be in the tens of millions instead of hundreds of thousands: "a newly stated concern is the proximity of melted fuel in relation to the Tokyo aquifer that extends under the plant. If and when the corium reaches the Tokyo aquifer, serious and expedient discussions will have to take place about evacuating 40 million people from the greater metropolitan area" Of course this is a 'worst case' but given that the likelihood of a perfect mitigation is so extremely rare planners need to be at least considering this at a non-zero probability, which is more than a bit frightening. More here: http://rt.com/news/fukushima-apocalypse-fuel-removal-598/ http://rt.com/news/fukushima-apocalypse-fuel-removal-598/