ALPS already suspended

September 28, 2013

Tepco halts trial of water treatment system at Fukushima No. 1 plant

Kyodo

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/09/28/national/tepco-halts-trial-of-water-treatment-system-at-fukushima-no-1-plant/#.UkgSWFM0_9k

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday it has halted a trial run of its much-vaunted water treatment system at the Fukushima No. 1 plant just a day after it resumed operations.

At around 10:40 p.m. Friday, Tepco detected technical problems with line C of the advanced liquid processing system (ALPS), which was restarted after midnight Thursday and had processed around 100 tons of toxic water before its suspension. Tepco is investigating the cause.

ALPS extracts most radioactive materials from contaminated water and is seen as crucial in the utility’s efforts to process the vast amount of toxic water that continues to accumulate at the crippled No. 1 nuclear plant. The system operates via three separate lines.

While Tepco’s existing water treatment facility at Fukushima No. 1 can only remove cesium, ALPS can extract 62 different types of radioactive materials, with the exception of tritium.

Tepco and the government had trumpeted the ability of ALPS to process tainted water faster than it builds up at the wrecked complex, which suffered three meltdowns in March 2011. They planned to expand the system and to enhance its performance in the future.

The utility initially started a trial run of lines A and B in March, but halted all operations in June after the tank of line A was found to be leaking water because of internal corrosion. While Tepco worked to repair the tank and investigate the problem, it sped up efforts on line C, which at the time was still waiting to be tried out.

See also :

TEPCO halts test operation of Fukushima water treatment system

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130928p2g00m0dm082000c.html 

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday it has halted trial operation of its water treatment system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station a day after resuming it     [….]

Waste water decontamination suspended

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130928_26.html

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has suspended the process of decontaminating radioactive wastewater with a new filtration system. The move came less than one day after it resumed a test-run.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it detected a decline in the flow of radioactive wastewater in a pipe that carries the water to a storage tank at about 10:30 PM on Friday.

TEPCO officials say they are checking what caused the problem. They say they do not know when the decontaminating operation will resume.

It was the first time TEPCO had tried testing the new equipment in one and a half months.

The equipment is designed to eliminate almost all of the radioactive materials in the accumulating wastewater at the plant.