Another leak at Fukushima Daiichi - Five more to go?

April 7, 2013

TEPCO reports leak from another water storage tank

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130407_13.html

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has found a small leakage of contaminated water from a storage facility at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This follows a recent massive leak from another underground tank.

The company examined a contaminated water storage tank adjacent to the underground tank that had leaked 120 tons of radioactive water. The 2 tanks have the same structure.

TEPCO says a small amount of radioactive strontium was detected just outside a triple-layer of waterproof sheets underneath the storage tank, leading to discovery of the leak.

The tank contains more than 10,000 tons of contaminated water.
But the utility says it is a minor leak as it hasn't observed any change in the tank's water level and the concentration of radioactive substances is low.

It says it will continue to monitor the storage facility, but it sees no need to transfer the water to a different tank.

TEPCO is now transferring 13,000 tons of contaminated water from the tank where the massive leak occurred to 2 other tanks nearby.

The utility says it will take 2 more days until Tuesday to finish the work.

TEPCO officials apologized for causing concern and explained that no water from either leak has reached the ocean.

Apr. 7, 2013 - Updated 05:48 UTC

Contaminated water likely leaked from second Fukushima tank

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130407p2g00m0dm004000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday it is highly likely that radioactive water has leaked from another underground storage tank at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, in addition to a leak reported Friday.

TEPCO said the amount of water involved would be extremely small, however.

The utility said late Friday night that up to 120 tons of contaminated water may have leaked into soil from one of the seven storage tanks at the complex, devastated by a series of explosions in the days after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The tank involved in the latest suspected leak is located close to the tank where the initial leak was reported, according to TEPCO.

The seven tanks, which are of the same design and covered by three layers of waterproof sheeting, store water used to cool the plant's nuclear reactors after radioactive cesium has been removed.

The utility examined water that accumulated around the tank Saturday and detected highly concentrated radioactive substances, but as the water level of the tank has not lowered significantly, TEPCO has determined the leak is minor.