nuclear-news

New radioactive leak belies TEPCO’s claims of Fukushima cleanup success

More Radioactive Water Leaks From Japanese Nuclear Plant, By HIROKO TABUCHI, NYT December 4, 2011 TOKYO — At least 45 tons of highly radioactive water has leaked from a purification facility at the Fukushima Daiichi buclear power station, and some of it may have reached the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator said on Sunday…..

the plant continues to pose a major environmental threat. Before the latest leak, the Fukushima accident had been responsible for the largest single release of radioactivity into the ocean, threatening wildlife and fisheries in the region, experts have said.

The new radioactive water leak called into question the progress that the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, appeared to have made in bringing its reactors under control….

The trouble on Sunday came in two stages, a Tepco statement said. In
the morning, utility workers found that radioactive water was flooding
a catchment next to a purification device; the device was then
switched off, and the leak appeared to stop. But the company said it
later discovered that leaked water was escaping through a crack in the
catchment’s concrete wall and was reaching an external gutter.

In all, as much as 220 tons of water may now have leaked from the
facility, according to a report in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that
cited Tepco officials.

The newspaper says the water may have contained up to one million
times as much radioactive strontium as the maximum safe level set by
the government, and about 300 times as much radioactive cesium. Both
are readily absorbed by living tissue and can greatly increase the
risk of developing cancer.
Tepco said it was exploring ways to stop the water from leaking
through the crack.

Since the disaster in March, workers have been struggling to cool the
stricken plant’s reactors by flooding them with water, which is
contaminated with radioactivity in the process and becomes a problem
of its own.

Tepco installed a new circulatory cooling system in September that was
meant to decontaminate and recycle the cooling water. But the company
acknowledges that some water has already leaked into the ocean and
more remains in the flooded basements of the plant’s reactor
buildings.

The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety in France
estimates that between March and mid-July, the amount of radioactive
cesium 137 that had leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima Daiichi
plant amounted to 27.1 petabecquerels, the greatest amount known to
have been released from a single episode. (A becquerel is a frequently
used measure of radiation, and a petabecquerel is a million billion
becquerels.)…
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/world/asia/more-leaks-from-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant.html

December 5, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety