As if Tokyo Electric Power Co., the embattled operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, didn’t have enough problems, another daunting task is what to do with an estimated 90,000 tons of radioactive water.

This vast amount remains from the pumping of water to cool reactors after the plant’s regular cooling systems were disabled in the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and seawater from the tsunami.

The problem is growing by the day, as the volume of contaminated water keeps increasing.

TEPCO needs to treat and recycle contaminated water escaping from the facilities to maintain the cooling of the reactors without increasing the volume of contaminated water.

It signed a deal with France’s Areva SA, a nuclear engineering company, to start treating the radioactive water in June. But Areva’s equipment is capable of treating only 1,200 tons a day, and it is not clear if it can handle a total of 90,000 tons.

In dealing with this volume of contaminated water, the plant’s No. 2 reactor presents the most serious challenge of its four stricken reactors.

Workers discovered on April 2 that highly radioactive water gushed into the sea through cracks close to a pit near an intake of the No. 2 reactor. Technicians spent a total of 93 hours before successfully plugging the leaks on April 6.

The contaminated water came from buildings housing the No. 2 reactor and turbine as well as a trench.

TEPCO is transferring the contaminated water to a disposal-and-treatment facility in the compound to prevent further overflow.

The total amount of contaminated water at the No. 2 reactor was estimated at 25,000 tons before the transfer work got under way, equivalent to about 400,000 terabecquerels of radioactivity.

via asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：TEPCO drowning in dealing with tons of radioactive water – English.

…just happened in Japan. “The splitting of the atom changed everything save man’s mode of thinking.”

My guess is the millions of barrels of toxic dispersant they used to disappear the oil.

Dead baby bottlenose dolphins are continuing to wash up in record numbers on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and scientists do not know why.

Since February 2010 to April 2011, 406 dolphins were found either stranded or reported dead offshore.

The occurrence has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to designate these deaths as an “unusual mortality event” or UME. The agency defines a UME as a stranding incident that is unexpected or involves a significant loss of any marine mammal population.

“This is quite a complex event and requires a lot of analysis,” said Blair Mase, the agency’s marine mammal investigations coordinator.

Mase said NOAA is working closely with a variety of agencies to try to figure out not only why the bottlenose dolphins are turning up in such large quantities but also why the mammals are so young.

“These were mostly very young dolphins, either pre-term, neonatal or very young and less than 115 centimeters,” she said.

Marine mammals are particularly susceptible to harmful algal blooms, infectious diseases, temperature and environmental changes, and human impact.

“The Gulf of Mexico is no stranger to unusual mortality events,” Mase said.

Sensitivity surrounding marine life in the area is particularly high after the BP oil disaster that sent millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico nearly a year ago.

via Scientists unsure why dolphins washing up dead – CNN.com.

They may have disappeared the oil but they can’t disappear the effects

 

The discovery of more than 80 dead dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico is raising fresh concerns about the effect on sea life from last year’s massive BP oil spill.

The dead dolphins began appearing in mid-January along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in the United States. Although none of the carcasses appeared to show outward signs of oil contamination, all were being examined as possible casualties of the petrochemicals that fouled the sea water and sea bed after BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded last April, killing 11 men and rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor. The resulting “gusher” produced the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, releasing nearly five billion barrels of crude oil before it was capped in July.

The remains of 77 animals – nearly all bottlenose dolphins – have been discovered on islands, in marshes and on beaches along 200 miles of coastline. This figure is more than 10 times the number normally found washed up around this time of year, which is calving season for some 2,000 to 5,000 dolphins in the region. Another seven dead animals were reported yesterday, although the finds have not yet been confirmed by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

One of the more disturbing aspects of the deaths is that nearly half – 36 animals so far – have been newborn or stillborn dolphin calves. In January 2009 and 2010, there were no reports of stranded calves, and because this is the first calving season since the BP disaster, scientists are concerned that the spill may be a cause.

via Oil spill link suspected as dead dolphins wash ashore – Nature, Environment – The Independent.

Black areas show the least biologically productive parts of the world’s oceans. These so-called ocean deserts are expanding much faster than previously predicted. The UNEP warns that by 2050 productivity will have decreased in nearly all areas and with it fish catches. It also says that the continuing decline in marine biodiversity will compromise the resilience of marine and coastal ecosystems to the impacts of climate change, as well as their ability to mitigate its effects.

Plastic waste on the Azores Islands in Portugal. The UNEP says marine litter poses a ‘dire, vast and growing threat’ to the marine and coastal environment. Most marine litter consists of material that degrades slowly, if at all, so a continuous input of large quantities of these items results in a gradual build-up

Nine other issues and pictures:

Marine ecosystems at risk from pollution