Confirmed equipment failure for ice wall – Ice wall building resumed

TEPCO confirms equipment failure for ice wall

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says the equipment to build an underground ice wall has stopped working due to power failure.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has been conducting trials to create a barrier of frozen soil around the reactor buildings that will keep groundwater from seeping into them.

An alarm was set off on Tuesday morning signaling trouble with a power panel at the plant. Workers then found white smoke rising from a power cable.

Officials at TEPCO also found that part of a system to send nitrogen into the containment vessels of 3 reactors had stopped working.

The equipment has been building the subsoil ice wall by pumping liquid coolant of minus 30 degrees Celsius into pipes installed in the ground around the reactor buildings.

The officials say they do not know when they can restart the equipment. But they say the ice wall will not melt for several days, even without coolant running from the equipment. 

Source: NHK 

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150728_25.html

Ice wall building resumes

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has resumed building an underground ice wall after a brief equipment failure.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has been conducting trials to create a barrier of frozen soil around the reactor buildings to keep groundwater from seeping into them.

On Tuesday morning, workers responding to an alarm found smoke rising from a power cable.

They confirmed that all the equipment to build the ice wall had stopped working due to a power failure.

The staff found no problems with the equipment and resumed work in the afternoon using another power system.

The power failure also partially stopped a system that sends nitrogen into the containment vessels of 3 reactors. That work has been resumed as well.

TEPCO says the power cable that was emitting smoke had short-circuited.

The utility is investigating what may have triggered the problem. 

Source: NHK 

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150728_34.html

July 28, 2015 - Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima Daiichi