Although Fukushima’s wrecked reactors aren’t melting down any longer, the entire complex is clogged with extremely radioactive water. The building’s also blown to hell ever since it, uh, exploded twice. So what could make things worse? This typhoon’s massive downpour.
Extreme rain of Typhoon Roke combined with wind speeds over 100 MPH could be one of the worst things that happens to Fukushima short of another tsunami. Not only is the plant full of coolant water pumped in by TEPCO, the plant’s owner, Bloomberg reports 500 tons of groundwater is flowing in every single day. The expected residential damage is such that 1,000,000 Japanese have already been evacuated from their homes. If the storm strikes Fukushima in the right way, water soaked with horribly toxic radioactive isotopes could be blown along with all the rest of the wind and debris, to say nothing of the extra flooding the plant will receive.
As you can see from this NOAA satellite image, it’s one hell of a big storm. Here’s hoping it’s nowhere near as bad on the ground. [NOAA via Hiroko Tabuchi, Bloomberg]