A 362-meter-long makeshift coastal levee to protect the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant from a second tsunami was completed by Tokyo Electric Power Co. on June 30.
A 362-meter-long makeshift coastal levee to protect the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant from a second tsunami was completed by Tokyo Electric Power Co. on June 30.
The barrier, constructed of rocks inside wire netting and tarpaulins, ranges in height from 2.4 to 4.2 meters. It is about 14 meters above sea level at its highest point.
TEPCO, the plant's operator, said the levee was designed to withstand an 8-meter-high tsunami triggered by a magnitude-8 earthquake. The company released photographs of the new construction, which lies in front of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors and the central waste disposal plant, on July 1.
Previously, the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors had no levee to guard their seaward side.
The arrival of another tsunami could make the already grave situation at the plant chaotic, wrecking the remaining cooling systems in the reactors and spent fuel storage pools and cutting power supplies again.
More than 70,000 tons of highly radioactive water is lying in the central waste disposal plant and in other buildings on the site and could be released into the sea.
TEPCO said the makeshift levee would eventually be replaced by a permanent concrete levee.
TEPCO also released photographs on July 1 of the spent fuel storage pool at the plant's No. 4 reactor. That reactor's cooling system is not working, so water is pumped in intermittently to cool the fuel rods. The water temperature was about 85 degrees at 4 p.m. June 30.
TEPCO said steam is rising constantly from the pool. Live video from the Fukushima No. 1 plant sometimes appear to show white smoke billowing from the No. 4 reactor's destroyed roof. TEPCO said this is in fact steam.