nuclear-news

Many thousands of tons of radioactive water accumulating at Fukushima

Tepco estimates that the amount of treated water requiring storage is increasing by 200 to 500 tons every day. 

Japan’s earthquake-hit nuclear plant scraps plan to dump water in sea, Reuters  Tokyo December 12, 2011 Japan’s utility operating the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant said on Friday it has scrapped a plan to dump water it treated for radiation contamination into the sea following fierce protests from fishing groups.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the utility operating Fukushima’s Daiichi plant, had said on Thursday it was considering discharging some treated water into the sea because it was running out of storage space. That caused an uproar among Japanese fishing cooperatives.

“Treated” means once-high radioactive content has been reduced considerably, but not completely…..

Tens of thousands of tons of water contaminated with radiation have accumulated at the plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, after Tepco, early in the crisis, tried to cool reactors that suffered nuclear fuel meltdowns by pouring in water, much of it from the sea.

Tepco estimates that the amount of treated water requiring storage is increasing by 200 to 500 tons every day. It says the plant is likely to reach its storage capacity of about 155,000 tons around March.

The utility released more than 10,000 tons of water tainted with low levels of radiation in April to free up space for water with much higher levels of radioactivity, drawing sharp criticism from neighbors such as South Korea and China……

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/japans-earthquake-hit-nuclear-plant-scraps-plan-to-dump-water-in-sea/458258/

December 12, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, oceans, wastes