Dumping Fukushima's Contamination
TEPCO Plans To Release Radioactive Water Into Pacific Ocean For Next 30 Years
The International Atomic Energy Agency has agreed to monitor the release of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean under an agreement announced on Aug. 25. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings plans to build a concrete undersea tunnel to hold a pipeline carrying treated but still radioactive water from the plant, damaged by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It will be discharged at a depth of about 40 feet below the ocean's surface in an effort to minimize its impact on marine life off the coast and avoid interference with local fishing.
It has required about 1,000 storage tanks to hold the contaminated water, but TEPCO expects to reach capacity by late next year. The Japanese government decided in April to allow the discharge of treated and diluted water into the Pacific Ocean in the spring of 2023, but fishermen, residents, and neighboring countries — including China and South Korea — have opposed the plan.
Junichi Matsumoto, who is in charge of the water discharge project, said TEPCO will drill the tunnel through bedrock in the seabed near its No. 5 reactor, which survived the meltdowns at the plant, to minimize possible underground contamination or leakage of radioactive ground water. TEPCO plans to apply to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for a safety review of the tunnel plan once it has the support of local fishermen and residents. Once the tunnel is completed, there will be a controlled release, with an annual cap on radioactive materials, continuing for about 30 years, or until the plant's decommissioning ends, Matsumoto said.
Monsoon Damages Trump’s Border Wall
Rains associated with Arizona’s summer monsoons have wreaked havoc with former president Donald Trump’s border wall, which was installed quickly, bypassing environmental and cultural protection laws. While those laws are meant to protect the natural world and historically significant artifacts and sites, they also ensure that multibillion-dollar construction projects such as the wall do not face catastrophic failures within a few years of being built.
The damaged wall stood near San Bernardino Ranch, a historic site between Douglas, Arizona, and the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge. The monsoon rains doused the southern half of Arizona, with Douglas seeing nearly double its average monsoon season rainfall so far. A blast that came through this week unleashed flooding on the Arizona-Sonora border. Six gates in the border wall were washed out at that location, and other gates also were hit by the heavy rainfall and flooding.
When Mexico refused to pay for the wall, as Trump had promised, he declared a national emergency, which allowed him funnel money from other federal projects and programs to build it. Much of the work went to private companies, including Southwest Valley Constructors, which did most of the work in Arizona. The company pulled in $2.7 billion in federal contracts but the location near San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge is one of a growing number of chinks in the rushed wall. Another section in Texas where levees were destroyed has left hundreds of thousands of people exposed to catastrophic flooding. “It’s clear that these were not companies that really were taking the long-term integrity of the product into account,” said Myles Traphagen, the borderlands program coordinator of the Wildlands Network. “The sad thing is that it was overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers.”
Graton Associates To Improve Milan State Park
Arnold Graton Associates of Holderness has won a $434,000 contract to restore the historic 1939 Milan State Park building which has been closed due to a failing foundation. Graton, who has extensive experience in restoring covered bridges, will jack and lift the historic structure, remove the concrete, and build a new foundation.
There were no bids on the project when it first went out to bid in October 2019. It was rebid in April 2021, with two potential bidders attending a mandatory view. Only Graton bid on the project, which will be paid through the state’s capital budget.
The bid was awarded during the Aug. 19 meeting of the Governor and Executive Council.
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