Now that the nuclear horses are getting out…again. (Thanks to wdydfae for the link.)
I have no idea why they didn’t have pumps set up from the beginning. I know it’s a real pain, given the water volume they must deal with. And filtering tritium from water isn’t nearly as easy as separating things like cesium and strontium.
But it would have been less painful if they hadn’t waited until the last minute.
World's Only Rational Man 
Tepco does seem to like to sit on things for a while. Including information.
What kind of contamination threat are we actually looking at?
AFAIK, they still haven’t released pertinent numbers. They almost never did before, why start now? The numbers they gave for the tritium release was to date, not projected. About the threat of more tritium (and cesium and strontium) they merely said “above limits”, or something like that. Rad release that’s barely above usual limits is of no environmental consequence whatsoever, especially in the Fukushima neighborhood. A quadrillion times more than that is another matter.
So, as usual, we wait until they give us the information or, more likely, we get distracted and forget to–
Ooooh, look! A squirrel!
Thanks!
Worme is always an anchor of . . . reasonablealityness through the Fukushima debacle, then and now!
Problem is that the decisions are made by people sitting in comfy chairs in big offices, who more often than not have no real clue about what their company is doing with this nucular thingy or how it even works. I’m pretty convinced that the board of TEPCO is full of economists and lawyers and not of rad techs and nuclear physicists.
Then you have to consider the way society works. Including society in such large companies. I’m pretty sure the guys on site were asking for pumps and what not right when they saw the problems and possible issues, but until that goes through all the way to those making the actual decision… Yeah…
Just take the initial problem right after quake and tsunami. Sure, the plant director made mistakes, but if he wouldn’t have basically said “sod it, I’m doing what I think is right” who knows how bad it could have become. And don’t forget that the upper echelon of TEPCO initially wanted to abandon the plant, putting more oil into the fire of how they’re all just sitting in cushy offices.
Yep, to all. I remember the frustration at the time, watching from the sidelines and boggling at the mistakes.
NHK seems to have pretty decent updates.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130811_01.html
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130810_99.html