Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced Oct. 26 that the construction of seaside walls to block radiation-contaminated groundwater from seeping into the sea has been completed at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced Oct. 26 that the construction of seaside walls to block radiation-contaminated groundwater from seeping into the sea has been completed at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The walls, comprising numerous cylindrical steel pipes, were installed at a 780 meter-long stretch along the plant's coastal embankment near the damaged No. 1 to No. 4 reactor buildings.
TEPCO officials said the underground walls will reduce the daily flow of contaminated groundwater into the sea from the previous estimated 400 tons to 10 tons.
However, they said it will take a month or two to confirm the effectiveness of the barriers.
The seaside walls are one of the three pillars of TEPCO’s efforts to deal with tainted groundwater accumulating at the plant.
The other projects are a plan to treat groundwater pumped from subdrain wells around the reactor buildings and release it into the sea and a frozen soil wall being constructed to divert untainted groundwater away from the damaged reactor buildings and into the ocean.