...

Japan facility soon to reach capacity of radiation-tainted water

Other News Materials 23 May 2011 13:29 (UTC +04:00)
A waste disposal facility at a damaged nuclear power station in Japan will in several days reach its capacity of radiation-contaminated water transferred from its reactors, the plant operator said Monday.
Japan facility soon to reach capacity of radiation-tainted water

A waste disposal facility at a damaged nuclear power station in Japan will in several days reach its capacity of radiation-contaminated water transferred from its reactors, the plant operator said Monday, DPA reported.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which runs the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said it would suspend the transfer from reactors 2 and 3 until the middle of June once the water reaches the capacity of the facility. The operator said it would wait for a new water processing facility to start operation.

The plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which left more than 15,100 dead and some 8,800 missing as of Sunday. It has leaked radioactive substances ever since.

The operator has been struggling to remove highly contaminated water accumulated from reactor buildings and adjoining trenches. The water has prevented workers from restoring key cooling functions in the plant's reactors.

The struggle is expected to continue as the amount of water is likely to be boosted by continuing leaks from reactors and the inflow of rainwater in the rainy season, which will start soon.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said that it was unlikely to be a problem and that once the storage space reached capacity, the contaminated water would be kept where it is for the time being to the extent that it does not overflow, Kyodo News reported.

Some 10,000 tons of contaminated water was being transferred from an underground tunnel near reactor 2. As of Monday morning, roughly 8,700 tons of the water had been diverted to the facility at a rate of 12 tons per hour.

The operator was also to transfer 4,000 tons of contaminated water from the turbine building of reactor 3. A total of 2,700 tons of the 4,000 had already been transported at a rate of 20 tons per hour, Kyodo said.

More than 80,000 tons of contaminated water remains around reactors number 1 to 4. The operator is to recycle the water to cool the nuclear fuel inside reactors number 1 to 3 after desalinating it.

TEPCO said Tuesday that under a revised plan the operator would create a water circulation system in which it would eliminate radioactive materials from water inundating reactor buildings and use the water to cool reactors.

Latest

Latest