Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) says that work to remove radioactive materials such as cesium from heavily contaminated water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will be delayed until after the initially scheduled June 15 start date.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) says that work to remove radioactive materials such as cesium from heavily contaminated water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will be delayed until after the initially scheduled June 15 start date.
Officials said that while they had been fixing glitches in equipment designed to remove radioactive materials, deemed crucial for dealing with a large amount of radioactive wastewater that is accumulating inside the facilities, they have continued to encounter such problems as leaks and clogging.
They said that if the problems continue, a new location to store wastewater will be needed.
The purification equipment was originally scheduled to start full-scale operation on June 15, but the problems may delay the start date by several days, TEPCO officials said June 12.
TEPCO tested the equipment, made by Kurion Inc. of the United States, on the night of June 11. In one of the four piping systems, a flow of only 0.5 ton of water per hour was measured. That was a fraction of the 12 tons per hour expected.
The existing plan is for the purification equipment to be run on a trial basis for five days before operating it on a full-scale basis. However, officials said TEPCO was considering shortening the trial period. Officials said they now hope to have the equipment fully operating around June 17 or June 18.
"There is a possibility that some valves did not open sufficiently," a TEPCO official said.
Currently an estimated 105,100 tons of contaminated water have accumulated inside facilities at the Fukushima nuclear plant.