Fukushima radioactive water could overflow soon

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Raising fresh concerns about its ability to bring the nuclear crisis under control, Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced June 3 that highly radioactive water pooled in underground pits could start rising above ground in less than three weeks.

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English Title
Fukushima radioactive water could overflow soon
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Raising fresh concerns about its ability to bring the nuclear crisis under control, Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced June 3 that highly radioactive water pooled in underground pits could start rising above ground in less than three weeks.

The company said there were 105,100 tons of stagnant water with high levels of radioactivity within the power plant as of the end of May.

The water contained an estimated 720,000 terabecquerels of radioactivity (1 tera is 1 trillion), according to the operator of the plant battered by the earthquake in March. That is more than the amount of radioactivity released from the plant into the atmosphere in the wake of the accident, which is estimated at 370,000 to 630,000 terabecquerels.

TEPCO warned that the contaminated water pooled in the basement of the buildings could start flowing out as early as June 20.

The company plans to treat the radioactive water in a new facility to be completed June 15 to prevent the overflow of polluted water, but it will also consider reducing the amount of fresh water being injected into the reactors.

Radioactive water is flowing into the basement of facilities within the compound as well as the buildings housing the Nos. 1 and 4 reactors, their turbine buildings, and the radioactive waste treatment facility, according to a report submitted by TEPCO to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The total radioactivity of the pools of contaminated water is equivalent to one seventh of the 5.2 million terabecquerels released into the atmosphere from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986.

As TEPCO continues injecting water into the reactors at the Fukushima plant to cool their nuclear fuel, the amount of highly radioactive water leaking from the reactors is expected to continue increasing.

The utility made estimates of when the contaminated water in buildings' basements could leak aboveground, under several different scenarios, suggesting that it could happen as early as June 20.

It has been confirmed that highly radioactive water was leaked into the sea twice during the crisis: first 500 tons containing 4,700 terabecquerels gushed out, with 250 tons containing 20 terabecquerels following later.

TEPCO is building a new facility to treat the highly radioactive water while storing it in equipment located within the turbine buildings.

The expected overflow could take place earlier if there is heavy rain in the area, the utility said. In that case, the company will buy time by cutting the amount of water being injected into the reactors. The polluted water in the turbine buildings of reactors 2 and 3 had been transferred to the radioactive waste treatment facility until the company stopped this operation May 26 as the total amount approached the planned capacity of 14,000 tons.

Levels of contaminated water have since been rising, partly because of rainfall.

Radioactive water in the pits to the underground tunnels coming from the reactors 2 and 3 was 21.8 centimeters from the surface of the ground as of 7 a.m. on June 3, according to the company.

The water level in the pits had been rising at a daily rate of 5.9 centimeters for the No. 2 reactor and 2.1 centimeters for the No. 3 reactor.

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