Ulson Gunnar
June 4, 2014
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced the unprecedented undertaking of constructing a 1.5 kilometer long ice wall to contain four reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant - site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in human history. Several of the six reactors at Daiichi were damaged or melted down after the 2011 TÅhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan's northeast coast.
June 4, 2014
Kyodo News reported in its article, "Construction work for ice wall begins at Fukushima plant" that, "under the government-funded project, 1,550 pipes will be inserted deep into the ground to circulate coolant and freeze the nearby soil. The measure is aimed at preventing groundwater from seeping into the buildings and mixing with heavily contaminated water." After the barrier is constructed, waste water must somehow be treated and then the process of decommissioning the power plant can begin, a process expected to take up to 40 years.
