Common Dreams reports:
The public cost of cleaning up the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster topped ¥4.2 trillion (roughly [$41] billion) as of March, and is expected to keep climbing, the Japan Times reported [August 28].
That includes costs for radioactive decontamination and compensation payments. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will sell off its shares to eventually pay back the cost of decontamination and waste disposal, but the Environment Ministry expects that the overall price of those activities could exceed what TEPCO would get for its shares.
Meanwhile, the taxpayer burden is expected to increase and TEPCO is asking for additional help from the government.
[...] Problems still persist at the nuclear plant, most notably with the highly contaminated water being stored in tanks at the site. [...] "The situation with contaminated water at the site is a ticking time bomb and they don't seem to know what they can do--other than to construct more tanks", [said Aileen Mioko-Smith, an anti-nuclear activist with the group Green Action Japan].
takyon: ¥4.2 trillion is approximately $41 billion at today's exchange rates, not $628 billion. You can reach the author of the Common Dreams article, Nadia Prupis, by the email or Twitter account listed on this page.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2016, @04:40AM
If I had to guess it is probably much cheaper... that is until something like this happens. But this kind of costs are never on the balance sheets...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by butthurt on Tuesday August 30 2016, @05:44AM
That's probably why. TEPCO has filtered much of the water, but tritium is costly to separate.
http://nautil.us/blog/no-one-knows-what-to-do-with-fukushimas-endless-tanks-of-radioactive-water [nautil.us]
One worker said that he did "a shoddy job" of building the tanks; another said he was told to apply sealant during rainy weather, which could keep it from adhering.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-nuclear-fukushima-labour-insigh-idUSBRE9B415P20131205 [reuters.com]
An official said that tanks had to be built quickly, and the quality of construction suffered.
https://weather.com/science/environment/news/fukushima-nuclear-plant-water-tanks-flawed-20131108?_escaped_fragment_=#! [weather.com]
Tritiated water can escape from cement:
Leachability - water not fixed chemically, is held physically as gel or capillary water in pore structure that extends through hardened cement paste. This water can exchange with external sources of water that penetrates into pore structure and diffuses through material.
--https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/36834/e-25-626_317251_fr.pdf [gatech.edu]
After a worker fell into one of the tanks and died, the government asked TEPCO to release the contaminated water into the ocean.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/01/21/fukushima-watch-regulator-calls-on-tepco-to-discharge-tritium-water/ [wsj.com]
Tritium has a 12.3-year half-life, so after ~123 years, it's only 0.1% as radioactive as when it was made.