Why, thank you CP.

I have one for you from MIT, with an interesting picture:


How the Fukushima Ice Barrier Will Block Radioactive Groundwater


"The Oak Ridge freeze wall fused in January 1998 and contained the same suite of elements present at Fukushima for six years—the duration specified for Fukushima’s wall by the Nuclear Regulation Authority panel—until regulators ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to remediate the site. Phillips is confident that it would have operated beyond its 30-year design life...

...One major drawback, however, is power consumption. While the walls take months or years to thaw once frozen—and are thus immune to power outages—they do require long-term refrigeration to endure. Typically, the cooling power required for maintenance is about half of what was required to form the wall."

[link to www.technologyreview.com]



It seems as if many proposed measures have short shelf-lives, when considering that the area, at some point not all that far into the future when compared to half-lives and such, may get too hot to handle.

I am afraid that all these temporary measures will give people a false sense of security, leading to a time when no one is left willing or able to take responsibility.

Just like when they tried to sell us on 'cold shutdown', which fooled most of the world into believing that the crisis in Japan had finally ended.