Fukushima

Fresh Fukushima leakage: over 200 tons of radioactive water pumped wrong way

Voice of Russia

14 April, 2014

Some 203 tons of highly radioactive water have been erroneously pumped at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant to the basement of an engineering and utilities service building, rather than to special-purpose storage tanks, according to the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, TEPCO. But TEPCO points out that there is no further leakage threat, since the basement is in no way linked to drainage systems.

According to urgent radiation level gauging, there’s been no change in the level of radiation in the ground waters around the nuclear plant.

TEPCO is continuously pumping water into the three damaged reactors to cool them. The water pours out through holes in the facilities into the basements of the buildings. It is then pumped out of there into a decontaminating system. But the stand-by pumps switched on for some unknown reason on April 10th and remained operational until the 13th . This resulted in the pumping of over 200 tons of water into the basement of a building that’s used for waste incineration.

The Caesium isotope concentration level is currently 37 million Bq per litre. In Japan, the critical radiation level for the water that’s poured into the ocean is 30 Bq per litre.

The nuclear plant managers are currently deciding on the pumping of the radioactive water out of the basement.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant was hit by a strong earthquake and the subsequent powerful tsunami in March 2011. The accident put the cooling systems of three generating units out of operation resulting in nuclear fuel meltdown. This was followed by massive radiation releases, as well as by radioactive contamination of terrain and ground waters.

Groundwater pumping starts in area of troubled Fukushima nuclear plant

Administration of the devastated Japanese Fukushima-1 nuclear plant has started pumping of groundwater from the surrounding areas to ensure it does not reach the zone of the station and become radioactively contaminated. The goal of the operation is to reduce the volumes of contaminated water, flowing into the ocean, on which shore the NPP is located.

Technical wells for groundwater intake are drilled on hillsides around the station. Their contents will be drained with pumps into tank cars, ITAR-TASS informs. After a radiation level check-up that water is to be poured out into the ocean.

Before the start of pumping, the Fukushima-1operator company TEPCO had to convince local fishermen's cooperatives of its expediency. Those were strictly opposed to pouring groundwater into the ocean for fear that it may raise suspicions about the safety of fish and seafood produced here.

Now, about 400 tons of radioactively contaminated groundwater flow into the ocean near the ruined nuclear station every day. Their pumping before they reach the territory of the NPP will allow to reduce the volume by100 tons per day, TEPCO states. It is proposed to cut off the remaining groundwater from getting into the ocean by forming walls of artificial permafrost. These works are already underway near the NPP. Almost $500 million are allocated for them.

It is noteworthy that during three years since the accident, leaks of different volumes of contaminated water have been periodically reported, as well as various problems in the work of the Fukushima-1purification system. The biggest leak was registered in August, 2013.

The wreck at the Fukushima-1 took place as a result of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on the North-East of Japan on March 11, 2011. Following the earthquake, a 14-meter tsunami wave reached the coast, which submerged four out of six nuclear reactors at the NPP and disabled the cooling system that led to a series of explosions of hydrogen and melting of the active zone. The disaster became the largest one in the quarter of a century after the catastrophe at the Chernobyl NPP.