FUKUSHIMA: AT LEAST THREE OF SEVEN UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS LEAKING RADIOACTIVE WATER
April 9th, 2013Via: New York Times:
The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear plant halted an emergency operation Tuesday to pump thousands of gallons of radioactive water from a leaking underground storage pool after workers discovered that a similar pool, to which the water was being transferred, was also leaking.
At least three of seven underground chambers at the site are now seeping radioactive water, leaving the Tokyo Electric Power Company with few options on where to store the huge amounts of contaminated runoff from the makeshift cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stressed that he will not permit Tepco — which has effectively been nationalized following the disaster — to again release contaminated water into the ocean. But Tepco says it already stores more than a quarter-million tons of radioactive water in hundreds of tanks at the site, or in underground pools, and that the amount of runoff could double within three years.
The company has said it is building more storage space, and also filters much of the runoff. But with its underground pools vulnerable to leaks, Tepco is being forced to scramble for alternatives.
Workers at the plant had been emptying the No. 2 underground pool after Tepco found that about 120 tons of toxic water, or almost 32,000 gallons, had breached its inner plastic linings and seeped into the soil. Tepco said the leak appeared to be the biggest since the early months after the March 2011 disaster.
