nuclear-news

Tepco’s hopes that a giant ice wall will solve radiation leak problem

Japan building giant ice wall at Fukushima after all as TEPCO gets go ahead RT May 28, 2014 Japan’s nuclear authority will allow Fukushima’s nuclear power plant operator, TEPCO, to build an underground ice wall isolating radioactive water build-up. This is despite earlier concerns that the wall might cause the ground to sink.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) no longer has reservations about the 32 billion yen (US$314 million) government-funded project, in which a giant “wall of ice” is to be built around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant’s four reactors, Kyodo news agency reported.

The plan, which involves 1.5 kilometers of pipes with coolant powerful enough to make the earth around it freeze, earlier raised concerns that it could cause trouble by making the ground near the reactors less stable.

TEPCO officials have, however, persuaded NRA experts that the ground around the ice wall may sink only up to 16 mm, posing no threat to its stability.

“I think we have been able to confirm today the scale of ground sinking, which is what we have most feared as side effects of building the wall,” NRA Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa told Kyodo.

While accepting the operator’s explanation, the NRA still has issues to discuss with TEPCO, which include ways to accurately measure the level of radioactive water accumulating inside the reactor buildings. The issue of contaminated groundwater seeping through the ground and into the ocean has for years been one of the major problems faced by TEPCO. ……

May 29, 2014 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | Fukushima 2014, Japan