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Tepco Says 300 Tons of Contaminated Water Leaked from Fukushima Tank

Tepco Says 300 Tons of Contaminated Water Leaked from Fukushima Tank
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Τρι, 20 Αυγούστου 2013 - 15:30
Some 300 tons of highly radioactive water has leaked from a storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) said Tuesday, the worst such spill since the plant suffered a triple meltdown two years ago.
Some 300 tons of highly radioactive water has leaked from a storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) said Tuesday, the worst such spill since the plant suffered a triple meltdown two years ago.

The leak is the latest black eye for Tepco, which has already been struggling to contain an estimated hundreds of tons of contaminated groundwater that experts think is flowing into the sea from the site every day.

Tepco didn't say over what period the latest leak occurred, but said the water probably isn't getting into the sea. That is because the trench that offers the most likely route to the ocean didn't show significantly elevated radiation levels, Tepco said. But the contaminated water registered radiation levels so high that workers near it would soon exceed their annual limit for exposure.

The leak has spilled contaminated water into the ground around the tank, and prompted Japan 's nuclear regulator to consider a check of other storage tanks---some 1,000 of which now line the compound as Tepco searches for places to keep an estimated 400 tons of excess water a day pumped out of the plant's highly radioactive reactor and turbine buildings.

"We may have to check out other tanks for more leaks, though the extent depends on why the leak occurred," said Hideka Morimoto, the Nuclear Regulation Authority's deputy secretary-general, at a news conference Tuesday.

The leak announced came from one of 350 tanks set up on the fly after earlier leaks in April prompted the utility to move tons of water from the underground tanks where it had been stored. Those tanks are less sturdy than others added previously, the Tepco spokesman said.

Tepco said it is preparing to move the remaining water from the leaky tank to one nearby, and will then investigate the cause. The water in that tank was stored before the introduction of the process Tepco now has in place for removing radioactive elements, meaning it has a higher level of contamination than much of the other water in storage at the site.

Tepco's struggles with radioactive water, which started to surge earlier in the year with the leaks from the underground storage tanks, followed by the discovery that contaminated groundwater is flowing into the sea, have recently caused the government to step in. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said earlier this month the government would provide money and other resources to find a solution.

The contamination doesn't pose an immediate threat. Residents remain evacuated from nearby towns, and the levels of radiation being measured in the ocean don't appear significant at this point. Still, politicians and experts say the flow is another sign Tepco isn't properly managing the site, where a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused a power outage that sent the plants three active reactors out of control.

The problem is the water that's flowing from the mountains behind the plant into the ocean on the other side, some 1,000 tons a day of which is thought to go through the site. Another 400 tons a day is pumped into the damaged buildings to cool the melted reactor cores.

Tepco pumps around 800 tons a day out from the basements of those buildings, half of which is processed and recycled, with the other half stored. The rest flows into the sea. Of this, around 300 tons daily could be contaminated from contact with other radioactive water sitting in trenches near the shore.

Tepco, with the aid of three government-affiliated panels, is rolling out a range of steps to try to prevent the groundwater from coming into contact with contaminated structures, and to keep water that has been tainted from getting to the sea.

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