The Time Has Come to Say Sayonara

The BBC is reporting:
High levels of a toxic radioactive isotope have been found in groundwater at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said tests showed Strontium-90 was present at 30 times the legal rate.
Strontium-90 is formed as a by-product of nuclear fission. A Tepco official told media that tests showed levels of strontium in groundwater at the Fukushima plant had increased 100-fold since the end of last year.

A U.N. nuclear watchdog team said Japan may need longer than the projected 40 years to decommission the Fukushima power plant and urged Tepco to improve stability at the facility.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency team, Juan Carlos Lentijo, said Monday that damage at the nuclear plant is so complex that it is impossible to predict how long the cleanup may last.
“As for the duration of the decommissioning project, this is something that you can define in your plans. But in my view, it will be nearly impossible to ensure the time for decommissioning such a complex facility in less than 30 to 40 years as it is currently established in the road map,” Lentijo said.
The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. have predicted the cleanup would take up to 40 years. They still have to develop technology and equipment that can operate under fatally high radiation levels to locate and remove melted fuel. The reactors must be kept cool and the plant must stay safe and stable, and those efforts to ensure safety could slow the process down.
The plant still runs on makeshift equipment and frequently suffers glitches.
--Japan Times

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Kay Cee Jones: Japanese Farewell Song

Somewhere, far, far away, there's a shitty island. An island without a name. An island not worth giving a name. A shitty island with a shitty shape. On this shitty island grow palm trees that also have shitty shapes. And the palm trees produce coconuts that give off a shitty smell. Shitty monkeys live in the trees, and they love to eat these shitty-smelling coconuts, after which they shit the world's foulest shit. The shit falls on the ground and builds up shitty mounds, making the shitty palm trees that grow on them even shittier. It's an endless cycle.
--Haruki Murakami
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

THE TEN MOST
RADIOACTIVE PLACES
ON EARTH


WIND MAP


BUT STILL SINGING
TO EACH OTHER