Fukushima

TEPCO Releases 40 Tons of Water from Fukushima Tanks

Jiji Press,

16 October, 2013

Fukushima, Oct. 16 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> said Wednesday that it has released some 40 tons of radioactive water from two temporary storage tanks at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in northeastern Japan.

The two temporary tanks are used to store low-level radioactive water accumulated inside the barriers surrounding a group of regular storage tanks for radioactive water.

The company began the water release at 5:40 a.m. Wednesday (8:40 p.m. Tuesday GMT) to secure space for storage, after heavy rain from a powerful typhoon, called Wipha, caused an increase in the amount of water inside the barriers.

The temporary tanks, each with capacity of 25 tons, stand near the barriers for the regular tank areas located 500 to 600 meters from the seawall at the disaster-stricken nuclear power plant.

The water released from the temporary tanks contained 21 becquerels of radioactive cesium-137 per liter, below the provisional limit of less than 25 becquerels set for such water releases.