nuclear-news

Fukushima: 2 water tanks to be drained

TEPCO to drain two tanks at Fukushima nuclear plant Phys Org 25 Aug 13,  Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Saturday it would empty two more coolant tanks that hold radioactive water over fears of fresh leaks at the crippled nuclear plant. Earlier this week, TEPCO said around 300 tonnes of radioactive liquid was believed to have escaped from one of the hundreds of tanks used to cool the broken reactors.

The episode was dubbed the most serious since the plant went into meltdown in 2011 after being hit by a quake and tsunami.

TEPCO said Saturday that the affected tank was one of three to have been relocated from their original zone because of ground subsidence in the area.

TEPCO has not yet pinpointed the source of the leak in the first tank but there are fears the relocation may have been connected with the incident.

Accordingly, the firm has decided to pump out water from the other two starting on Sunday, a company official said.

Nuclear watchdog inspectors who toured Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant following the discovery of a huge radioactive leak declared Friday that water storage at the site was “sloppy”…….  http://phys.org/news/2013-08-tepco-tanks-fukushima-nuclear.html#jCp

August 27, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013