Radioactivity levels exceeding standards to release groundwater into the ocean were discovered in a pump well at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said April 17.
Radioactivity levels exceeding standards to release groundwater into the ocean were discovered in a pump well at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said April 17.
TEPCO said 1,600 becquerels per liter of tritium were detected in one of 12 wells dug on the facility's grounds to lift uncontaminated underground water before it can reach reactor buildings and become contaminated. The level tops the utility's self-imposed standards of 1,500 becquerels per liter.
TEPCO said it has suspended pumping operations and that it intends to decide whether to resume operations after conducting an investigation into the groundwater on April 18.
The utility currently plans to divert groundwater from reactor buildings by pumping and storing it before it reaches the crippled reactors and then releasing it into the ocean.
The 1,600 becquerels of tritium were found in water sampled from the No. 12 pump well on April 15, TEPCO officials said. The officials said radioactivity levels there were 1,300 becquerels a week earlier.
Although legal standards allow nuclear facility operators to release up to 60,000 becquerels per liter of tritium contaminated water into the sea, TEPCO has imposed stricter restrictions on itself to win consent from local residents for its water bypass project.
Fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture expressed concerns over the relatively high readings.
“We know that TEPCO will not release the water immediately, but it is only natural for us fishermen to feel anxiety,” said Hiroyuki Sato, president of the Soma-Futaba fisheries cooperative, on April 17.
Masakazu Yabuki, who heads the Iwaki city fisheries cooperative, requested that TEPCO determine the causes of higher radioactivity levels.
“All we can do now is just monitor what TEPCO will do,” Yabuki said. “I want the utility to work to prevent (the water) from affecting other wells.”
Although the Fukushima prefectural government has required the utility to decide the general steps to be taken when readings beyond its self-imposed standards are discovered in the respective 12 wells, the utility says it will take countermeasures on a case-by-case basis.
“I hope TEPCO will reveal results of a detailed analysis and show how it intends to respond as early as possible,” said an official of the prefecture’s nuclear safety management division.
Sato said fishermen need to be involved in the process of making rules on how to deal with the issue of higher radioactivity levels in the pump wells.
“We will call on the central government and TEPCO to allow local fisheries cooperatives to develop new rules together with them,” he said.