I'm also surprised that the TEPCO engineers didn't have a team working on at least increasing the storage capacity on-site for the huge volumes of radioactive water they were running through the damaged reactors and the spent fuel pools. It should have been evident early on that there was a problem being created. In fact I even anticipated this problem much earlier in this thread in one of my posts.

One might also think that after the water had cooled down in a tank or trench that it could be recycled and used for cooling again, another basic but useful concept that would add another cycle of radiation but wouldn't dump it into the bay.

But, no, someone decided that the bay was there as a source for emergency cooling and for a dump for radioactive waste.

TEPCO's decisions seem a classic example of short-run thinking generating long-run problems. And I bet everyone in the board room is ducking for cover.

Charley Noble