(Organic Slant) The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear plant was moving tons of highly radioactive water from a temporary storage tank to another after detecting signs of leakage.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) detected the leak earlier in the week, when radiation levels spiked in water samples collected in between the inner linings of the tank.
TEPCO conducted nuclide analysis of the leakage detector hole water at the Underground Reservoir 3, which locates next to the east side of the Underground Reservoir 2.
The analyzed results are as follows.
[Underground Reservoir No.3: Leakage detector hole water, northeast side (sampled at 9:50PM, April 6)]
[Results]
-Chloride concentration: Below 1ppm
-I-131: N.D（Below detection limit）( Detection limit:2.7×10^-2Bq/cm3）
-Cs-134: N.D（Detection limit:5.2×10^-2Bq/cm3）
-Cs-137: N.D（Detection limit:6.7×10^-2Bq/cm3）
-I-131: N.D ( Detection limit:6.6×10^-2Bq/cm3）
-Cs-134: N.D（Detection limit:6.5×10^-2Bq/cm3）
-Cs-137: N.D（Detection limit:7.9×10^-2Bq/cm3）
As much as 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from a storage tank at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, contaminating the surrounding ground.
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 damaged reactors. TEPCO is struggling to find storage space.
Contaminated water at the plant, which went into multiple meltdowns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, has escaped into the sea several times during the crisis. Experts suspect there has been a continuous leak into the ocean through an underground water system, citing high levels of contamination among fish caught in waters just off the plant.
The power company has yet to discover the cause of the leak, detected on one of seven tanks that store water used to cool the plants reactors.
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.
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