| photo courtesy of csmonitor.com |
Tokyo Electric Power said a new mechanism for decontaminating radiation-tainted water at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant ran at roughly 76 percent efficiency over a seven-day period that ended on Tuesday, falling short of a goal for the equipment to achieve four-fifths of its maximum possible output, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, July 6).
The plant operator has battled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor Fukushima facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan. The firm has pumped water into the plant on an ongoing basis in an effort to cool components; the new system is intended to cleanse tainted fluid for reuse in the temperature control efforts.
The company now believes it would need until the middle of next month, or roughly 10 days later than previously planned, to reduce the depth of significantly contaminated water at the No. 2 and No. 3 reactor sites to 1 meter under the groundwater threshold.
The decontamination unit has treated 14,970 tons of highly radioactive water since it was first activated on June 17, Tokyo Electric Power indicated. The 6,830 tons of fluid it processed over the seven-day reporting period fell 2,020 tons short of the intended target.
Technical problems forced that forced numerous shutdowns of the system are in part to blame for the processing shortfall, the company said, adding it hoped to reach the 80 percent decontamination goal in July and 90 percent treatment efficiency next month (Kyodo News/Mainichi Daily News, July 7).
Meanwhile, specialists have launched an effort to model the dispersal of radioactive cesium from the plant through Japan's Kanto region, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday (Hirohiko Nakamura, Asahi Shimbun, July 7).
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