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Drain radioactive water from underground tunnels – TEPCO is ordered

TEPCO ORDERED TO DRAIN RADIOACTIVE WATER FROM UNDERGROUND TUNNELS  http://www.tokyotimes.com/2013/tepco-ordered-to-drain-radioactive-water-from-underground-tunnels/   31 July 13 BY TOKYO TIMES  

Japan’s nuclear regulator ordered Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to drain all underground radioactive water from the underground tunnels of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The measure is taken after the authorities made public the fact that radioactive water leaked into the sea at the Fukushima nuclear plant site.

High levels of radioactivity have been detected in wells in the plant site and an adjacent port since May, the media reports.

The operator says it will start injecting chemicals into the gravel layers to block the water and that it will also decontaminate the water in the tunnels from September by circulating it through a purifier.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Saturday it has detected 2.35 billion becquerels of cesium per liter from water in an underground passage at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that is leaking into the sea. This is roughly the same level as the level of radiation measured in April 2011, shortly after the nuclear disaster the preceding month.

The water sample taken Friday from a trench contained 750 million becquerels of cesium-134 and 1.6 billion becquerels of cesium-137 per liter, while 750 million becquerels of other radioactive substances were detected, according to TEPCO, quoted by Kyodo.

The trench is located below the No. 2 reactor turbine building and is hypothetically the source of the latest leakage into the ocean.

The operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant admitted for the first time, last week,  that the radioactive underground water leaked into the ocean. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) was studying radioactive water in its monitoring wells since May and recently observed a drop in the radioactivity. This can only mean that the tainted water leaked into the Pacific Ocean.

August 2, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013