A (not-so) recent (anymore) report from the contaminated reactor site stated that as much as 110 gallons of highly radioactive water may have accidentally spilled from a rainwater overflow tank and found its way into the Pacific Ocean.

What caused the leak? Heavy rainfall in the region caused rainwater collection tanks to overflow — and apparently some of the large containers lacked level gauges so workers could not easily monitor content levels.

Officials believe the leaked water carried a radioactive load of around 580,000 becquerels per liter and contained both cesium and strontium. The latter, if consumed, may accumulate in a person’s bones where it will irradiate its surroundings continuously. That radiation will more than likely result in the formation of cancer cells.

By comparison, health and safety officials state that ‘safe’ drinking water ought to have no more than 10 becquerels per liter.

Moral of the story?

In addition to worrying about mercury accumulating in our systems if we enjoy certain types of seafood on a regular basis, we must now turn the lights off before we eat sushi… to make certain it doesn’t glow in the dark!

Just kidding about glowing in the dark, but we think you catch our drift. We may, however, borrow a Geiger Counter from our survival stash to take with us the next time we go out for sushi, though.

Today we read an article on Yahoo that contained seemingly one piece of bad news after another. For your convenience we will attempt to highlight the horrors taking place at the crippled TEPCO controlled nuclear power plant below:

• Earlier this week workers at the Fukushima site reported finding levels of known radioactive (and carcinogenic) materials like strontium in well water samples taken very recently. Health experts say materials like strontium build up in bones where they may eventually cause cancer.
   
• TEPCO stated that it now seems pretty likely that contaminated water leaking from the Fukushima site may have reached underground waterways that take water from land out towards the sea and testing of some ground water samples showed concentrations of up 3,200 becquerels per liter. By comparison, drinking water ought not contain more than 10 becquerels of radioactivity per liter.
   
• In a statement made previously, personnel at the Fukushima site stated that around 300 tons of mildly polluted water runs into the Pacific Ocean each day in underground currents of ground water — and now tests show that unsafe levels of radioactive materials may exist as unwanted component of that continually flowing river of pollution into the Pacific Ocean.
   
• The recent news of ground water contamination greatly complicates the plan of putting in an ‘ice barrier’ around the plant to keep ground water from becoming contaminated.
   
• Samples of ocean water taken from offshore locations have not (yet) turned up positive for contamination.
   
• TEPCO and the Japanese Government have both stated that they would entertain discussions with non-Japanese sources regarding possible solutions for the Fukushima radioactive waste water situation.

The article also mentioned Tokyo, Japan’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics… but honestly WE DON’T CARE about the 2020 Olympics when something desperately needs to get done to stop the flow of radioactive water and materials into the Pacific Ocean.

Let us not forget how Godzilla ‘supposedly’ got mutated: Radioactivity. At this point no one seems to know WHAT’s on the full list of radioactive materials that has already made its way into subterranean waterways headed into the ocean OR exactly WHERE all those contaminants have gone — except out into the sea… someplace… they think.

Coming to a beach near you…

Anyone who believes waste products from the Fukushima reactor site cannot reach their country needs to spend a few minutes researching past and present news stories about debris from the 2011 tsunami in Asia washing up on shorelines all around the world.

Moral of the story?

Stay tuned for more bad news, folks… More. Bad. News.

Again, not totally unexpected given the manner in which TEPCO surreptitiously (and many say incompetently) attempted to contain the radiation leaving the Fukushima site.

An article we ran across this morning published on Monday had this to say:

• Ten workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant conducting cleanup activities at the site tested positive for exposure to small amounts of radiation.
   
• As of the time that article’s publishing, officials did not know how or when the workers became contaminated, though the term ‘radioactive dust’ did get mentioned as a possibility.
• Power and cooling systems at the nuclear facility became damaged and/or destroyed as a result of the March 2011 earthquake and resultant tsunami that wreaked havoc on the region.
   
• Large amounts of radiation escaped containment as a result of the earthquake and tsunami and TEPCO engineers on-site still have not gotten the plant’s leaks fully contained.
   
• Experts have installed temporary equipment to help keep the reactor(s) cool but power issues and water leaks have hampered containment efforts.

Personally, we wonder exactly HOW MUCH radiation has escaped this facility and in what form. Mostly as runoff water from the facility or did a fair amount escape in an airborne manner (i.e. as dust carried away by winds)?

No matter what, we don’t suspect that no one will want to swim in the ocean anywhere near that facility for many years to come, if ever again. Plus, given the fact that TEPCO seems to have attempted to keep some (disturbing) facts about site cleanup efforts out of the spotlight for so long, we suspect a lot more (disturbing) information will come to light in the coming months.

And in conclusion?

We intend to keep personal radiation monitors in the Emergency Preparedness/Readiness Kits we have in our homes.