Leak Found In Fukushima Tank Holding Radioactive Water

The leak is not only an immediate environmental concern, but threatens TEPCO’s tight water management situation, Ono said.

Issei Kato/AP

Journalists wearing protective gears are escorted to the damaged No. 4 reactor building and an under construction foundation, center right, which will store the reactor’s melted fuel rods.

The tank contains 13,000 tons of water, which is part of the water that was used to cool melted fuel at the plant’s reactors damaged in the twin disasters. So much water has been used that TEPCO is struggling to find storage space.

“The impact (from the leak) is not small, as the space is already tight,” Ono said. “We need to revise our water management plans.”

More than 270,000 tons of highly radioactive water is already stored in hundreds of gigantic tanks and another underground tank. They are visible even at the plant’s entrance and built around the compound, taking up more than 80 percent of its storage capacity.

TEPCO expects the amount to double over three years and plans to build hundreds of more tanks by mid-2015 to meet the demand.

AP

Storage tanks for radiation-contaminated water are seen in the compound of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

Because of that, TEPCO is anxious to launch a new water treatment system that can purify the contaminated water. The machine, called ALPS, recently started a final test run after six months of delays due to safety requirements by government regulators.

The delay caused TEPCO to use some of seven underground tanks, originally meant for ALPS-treated water, to accommodate the contaminated water backlog as a stopgap measure.

TEPCO officials have indicated they hope to release the water into the ocean, but Ono said the company has no immediate plans to do so without public acceptance.

The plant is being decommissioned but continues to experience glitches. A fuel storage pool temporarily lost its cooling system Friday, less than a month after the plant suffered a more extensive outage.

The underground tank, several times the size of an Olympic-size swimming pool and similar to an industrial waste dump, is dug directly into the ground and protected by two layers of polyethylene linings inside the outermost clay-based lining, with a felt padding in between each layer.

The meltdowns have caused the plant to release radiation into the surroundings and displaced about 160,000 people from around the plant. They do not know when or if they will be able to return home.