More leaks feared at Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan

Bad news about nuclear power plants damaged by the tsunami in Japan continues to drip, drip, and drip.

Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan’s nuclear observer, said some tanks and pipes at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station’s crippled plant were suspected of leaking toxic water.

His comment was that TEPCO, a highly critical plant operator, detected a sharp rise in radiation levels over the weekend in several pipes and huge containers holding large amounts of contaminated water accumulating at the site. After mentioning.

The problem is the latest retreat of the factory, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has vowed to intervene to deal with the toxic water crisis, which is raising concerns at home and abroad about the difficult scale of the problem.

Since the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami, which caused a meltdown in three nuclear power plant reactors, TEPCO has added a site to its steadily increasing collection of containers. Has stored a large amount of water contaminated with.

Some water tanks were rushed to be built as temporary storage units in the aftermath of natural and nuclear disasters. The makeshift containers are the ones that have recently encountered problems.

Check the problem area

TEPCO said on the weekend that this time highly polluted water leaked slightly from the tank. However, this disclosure comes only a few weeks after admitting that about 300 tonnes of radioactive water leaked from another tank.

Tanaka said on Monday that recent leaks did not appear to be very large and did not seem to reach beyond the barriers surrounding the rows of water tanks.

“Nevertheless, we transfer the contaminated water to other tanks and check the tank bolts and seams for thoroughness,” he said.

The tank with high radiation levels detected is the same design as the one that leaked in large numbers last month-a crisis that urged nuclear regulators to declare it a serious Level 3 incident, 2011.

TEPCO said it found high radiation readings in storage tanks and pipes on Saturday. The four locations are the pipes that connect the bottoms of the three tanks to the tanks in different areas.

The highest value was 1,800 millisieverts per hour at the bottom fringe of the tank. At the bottom of the other two tanks, measurements of 220 and 70 millisieverts per hour were measured. TEPCO also said it found dry dirt under the pipe with a radiation measurement of 230 millisieverts per hour.

People in industrialized countries are, of course, exposed to 3mA per year. According to experts, after a single acute exposure of 1,000 millisieverts, people tend to start feeling nausea and vomiting. Exposure to 5,000 millisieverts over several hours can be fatal.

When the staff pushed the insulation around the pipe, a drop of liquid fell. However, TEPCO said no contaminated water leaks were expected as the water level in the tank did not change.

“Whac-A-Mole”

Efforts to deal with the toxic water crisis have recently been compared to a game of mogura beating by government ministers, the company said it is trying to identify the cause of the latest problems and will take steps to resolve them in the meantime. Ensuring the safety of the workers who promised that.

However, Mr. Tanaka did not seem to be impressed with the company’s response to the factory problem.

“TEPCO has dealt with these accidents temporarily, so it must have been overlooked in the overall measures,” he said.

In July, TEPCO admitted that radioactive groundwater was leaking from the site into the Pacific Ocean, bypassing an underground barrier built to block the groundwater.

With about 400 tonnes of groundwater flowing into the premises every day, TEPCO also pumps large amounts of water into the building to keep the crippled reactor cool.

The Government of Japan has promised to devise emergency measures to tackle the growing problem of toxic water.

According to Kyodo News, the “Comprehensive Measures Package” will be announced at a ministerial meeting led by the Prime Minister on Tuesday.

Throw it in the sea?

One approach, flagged by experts to deal with large amounts of toxic water in factories, is to dump some or all of it into the Pacific Ocean.

“It may be necessary to consider options for discharging contaminated water below regulatory levels into the ocean,” Tanaka said on Monday.

However, he emphasized that he would not allow the discharge of “unacceptable levels of contaminated water.”

Tanaka also warned that toxic water is not the only major challenge in the field. There is also the decommissioning of nuclear reactors, which can take 30 to 40 years.

“There is a long way to go before us,” he said.