Huge Amount of Contaminated Water Found in Fukushima No. 3 Reactor Basement
Fukushima, June 10 (Jiji Press)—Tokyo Electric Power Co. said
Friday there is a massive amount of radioactive water in the basement of
the No. 3 reactor building in its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power
plant.
During their inspection of the building Thursday, five TEPCO and four
partner company officials found a pool of water whose surface was 5.8
meters above the floor of the first basement, the company said.
According to the operator of the nuclear plant, which was heavily
damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the survey team
monitored 51 millisieverts per hour of radiation in the air near the
water pool and 96 millisieverts on the first floor’s surface. The
reading reached as high as 100 millisieverts on the same floor.
The team’s another finding was that storage racks for water gauges
and other measurement instruments were covered by soot, which is
believed to have been generated by a hydrogen explosion on March 14 at
the building. The radiation level nearby was high at 60 millisieverts.
TEPCO also said its test of the tainted water treatment system at the
Fukushima plant was suspended on the first day because of water leaks
from the installation supplied by Kurion Inc of the United States to
absorb cesium and other radioactive materials.
Jiji Press, June 10, 2011
http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011061100013
High level of strontium found at Fukushima plant
Radioactive strontium up to 240 times the legal concentration limit has
been detected in seawater samples collected near an intake at the
crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said
Sunday.
The utility said the substance was also found in groundwater near the
plant’s Nos. 1 and 2 reactors. The government’s Nuclear and Industrial
Safety Agency said it is the first time that the substance has been
found in groundwater.
The agency said it is necessary to carefully monitor the possible
effects of the strontium on fishery products near the plant.
Strontium tends to accumulate in bones and is believed to cause bone
cancer and leukemia.
Kyodo, June 13, 2011
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110613a1.html
Tepco vents No. 2 reactor while U.S. surveys ocean
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday it began filtered venting of the
No. 2 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to
reduce radiation levels to the point where workers can go inside.
If the airborne radioactivity inside drops enough after three days,
Tepco plans to open up the doors and send workers in to make repairs.
The No. 2 unit’s high radioactivity and humidity have prevented workers
from checking gauges and pipes, hampering the beleaguered utility’s
efforts to guide the reactor into a cold shutdown.
Meanwhile, a U.S. private research institute is conducting a survey of
waters off Fukushima to assess the radiation’s impact on the ecosystem.
An international team of experts led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution began the 15-day survey June 4. It is being carried out on a
research ship from the University of Hawaii, with permission from the
Japanese government, government officials said.
Kyodo, June 12, 2011
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110612a5.html
TEPCO Starts Tainted Seawater Treatment
Tokyo, June 13 (Jiji Press)—Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday it
has started operating a system to remove radioactive substances from
seawater in the area surrounded by the breakwater at its stricken
nuclear power station in northeastern Japan.
TEPCO will operate two sets of equipment around the clock to treat
the seawater there where highly radioactive water leaked from the
Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which was hit by the March 11
earthquake and tsunami. The two units are capable of processing 60 tons
per hour in total.
The units, which are installed near the water intakes of the No. 2
and 3 reactors, absorb such radioactive substances as cesium by using
zeolite.
Although the system is believe to be able to reduce the level of
radioactive substances by 60 pct to 70 pct, trial operations only cut
them by 20 pct to 30 pct.
TEPCO said the poor trial results stemmed from oil contained in
seawater.
Jiji Press, June 13, 2011
http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011061300838