Radiation Leaks Suck

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan back in the spring of 2011 sucked. Big time. But it wasn't just the quake (which was the fourth largest earthquake ever recorded) that sucked, but also the 30-40 ft tsunami waves that rushed in and battered the coastline about an hour after the catastrophic event, while everyone was still crippled by shock. Then, the day after all this suckiness, a nuclear emergency was declared at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Apparently, the tsunami had wiped out the backup generators and all the safety mechanisms were down. That sucked.

All this, however, is old news. What really sucks for Japan is that the suck-fest hasn't ended yet. Currently at the Fukushima site, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) is pumping out radiation-contaminated ground water in an effort to stop the liquid-suckiness from getting into the ocean or mixing with the hydrological cycle in general.

Well, it turns out the storage tanks suck too. They are leaking. Recent readings at ground level near some of the tanks show a significant spike in radiation: enough to kill an unprotected human within hours. It would appear that the Japanese just can't catch a break.


In other news, Tokyo (about 140 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi site) will be hosting the 2020 Olympic games. Hopefully, all this radioactive leaking isn't as bad as it sounds. It would suck if the Tokyo Summer Games were remembered as the time when hundreds of thousands of people all got cancer at the exact same sucky time.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/3/japan-to-fund-icewalltostopreactorleaks.html
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/17/world/asia/japan-earthquake---tsunami-fast-facts/index.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/