Russia Offers Fukushima Cleanup Help as Tepco Reaches Out

More than two years after the earthquake-tsunami disaster in Japan that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power station, the power company and government still do not have radiation under control. Russia has repeated an offer to assist in the cleanup. In the globalized nuclear industry, all accidents are international, points out Vladimir Asmolov, of Rosenergoatom, Russia’s nuclear utility. “As Tokyo Electric pumps thousands of metric tons of water through the wrecked Fukushima station to cool its melted cores, the tainted run-off was found to be leaking into groundwater and the ocean,” reports Yuriy Humber and Jacob Adelman of Bloomberg. Another analyst quoted in their report suggests that Japan has the technologies for the cleanup, but lacks a system. Tons of contaminated water is stored and leaking into the Pacific Ocean. Analysts urge Japan to work with specialists from Russia, the United States and France with experience researching radiation containment at the Chernobyl, Hanford, Three Mile Island facilities as well as radioactive waste storage sites. – YaleGlobal