Engineers found two openings along a joint in the storage tank at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that leaked 300 tons of highly radioactive water, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
Engineers found two openings along a joint in the storage tank at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that leaked 300 tons of highly radioactive water, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
TEPCO, the operator of the plant, said Sept. 25 it conducted a vacuum test the same day whereby it applied foam to the bottom of the tank to see where it was compromised. Foam near a pair of adjacent bolts that fasten steel panels on the south side of the structure disappeared, indicating openings were present, the utility said.
Earlier checks discovered five loose bolts on the east side of the tank floor. The foam near those bolts remained undisturbed during the vacuum tests, according to TEPCO.
But the pressure inside the tank, particularly along the bottom, is greater when it is full. TEPCO said it will investigate to see how and if the loose bolts and the openings were involved in the 300-ton leak discovered in mid-August.
TEPCO has been disassembling the tank to try to locate the source of that leak. The utility believes the leak occurred on the bottom of the structure after finding no traces of water on its sidewalls.