Diagram and photos of radioactive water leaking into the pit at Fukushima Daiichi

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NHK World offered this rather inadequate diagram tonight (Friday afternoon in Japan) showing the path of the water leaking into the pit at Fukushima Daiichi.  Apparently TEPCO has plugged the leak with "liquid glass", whatever that is.

Unsaid is where exactly the exceptionally radioactive water is coming from, and how plugging what is essentially an artesian water source (coming out of the ground), at the final point where it bubbles out, actually solves the problem.  I would assume that the ground around the plant is fully saturated with perhaps millions of gallons of radioactive water, which is making its way underground alongside any cable, conduit, tunnel, or pipe toward the sea.  I am also concerned about erosion of foundations and footings.

Here is a worker pointing to the pit that the water is leaking into:

 Here is the inside of the pit:

Here is the leak before attempts were made to plug it:

Here is the first attempt to plug it.  They simply dumped a load of concrete into the pit.  It didn't work.  The leak just washed away the concrete from the area of the crack.  Imagine my surprise.

Now that they have plugged the leak with liquid glass, I would suspect more leaks to pop up in other places.

Reminds me of this old cartoon, where Popeye and Olive Oyl have some trouble with water pipes:




The Japanese were using old newspapers and sawdust in an attempt to stop the leak.  Maybe a can of spinach would help.

Credit: http://victorzakzaikine.us/poly.html

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