14 DAY TRIAL // This past Monday, Japan's nuclear regulator announced that Tokyo Electric Power Co., otherwise known as Tepco, had officially been granted permission to move forward with its plans to build a “Game of Thrones”-like ice wall at the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant.
For those unaware, this nuclear plant in Japan suffered a major meltdown back in March 11, when it was terribly shaken by an earthquake and its subsequent tsunami.
Since then, the nuclear plant's operator, i.e. the previously mentioned Tepco, has been trying to get things under control and ensure that contaminated water present at the site of the nuclear plant will remain there and not seep into the facility's surroundings.
Granted, there have been some mishaps over the years, but Japan's nuclear regulator appears to think that the plant operator has things all figured out, hence its decision to let Tepco carry on with its work to secure the facility's perimeter and decommission it.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. explains that this ice wall it wishes to set up at Fukushima will be an underground one and will serve to ensure that water was contaminated with radioactive materials does not work its way into the region's broader water supply, Japan Times informs.
Should things go according to plan, the wall will be set in place around the buildings that currently serve as a home for reactors 1 to 4. Its length will be one of 1.5 kilometers (roughly 0.9 miles), and the depth it will reach will be one of 30.5 meters (about 100 feet).
For the time being, detailed information concerning how exactly this wall will be built is lacking. Still, word has is that workers and engineers in charge of implementing this project will insert several pipes in the underground, and then circulate liquid through them.
Whatever this liquid will be, Tepco argues that its temperature will be low enough for its passing through said system of pipes to cause the earth in its proximity to freeze. By the looks of it, the goal is to make the ground under Fukushima reach temperatures well bellow zero.
Several specialists have until now warned that the construction of this ice wall might cause the earth under and around the Fukushima nuclear plant to sink and thus further destabilize the already crippled facility. However, Tepco maintains that, even if this happens, the sinking will be insignificant.
With the help of funding provided by Japan's government, Tokyo Electric Power Co. is expected to begin work on this underground ice wall sometime next month. Specialists working with the nuclear plant's operator expect that the wall will be completed and functional by next year's March.