Beginning of transfer

April 15, 2013

TEPCO begins preparing to transfer contaminated water at stricken Fukushima plant

The Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, where preparations are underway to move contaminated water to aboveground storage tanks, is pictured in this photo taken from a Mainichi helicopter on April 15. (Mainichi)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on April 15 began preparing to move radioactively contaminated water from underground reservoirs at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant to storage tanks on the ground.

The move follows the recent discovery of leaks from three of the reservoirs, whose cause remains to be confirmed. It is expected to take until June to transfer all of the contaminated water, leaving the plant at risk of further leaks over the next two months.

TEPCO has seven reservoir tanks, each with the same design, at the plant. So far leaks have been confirmed at the No. 1-3 tanks, which as of April 12 held 6,000, 1,100 and 8,400 cubic meters of contaminated water, respectively. The No. 4 and No. 6 reservoir tanks respectively hold 3,000 and 8,100 cubic meters of water, while the No. 5 and No. 7 reservoir tanks are not in use.

The utility plans to prioritize the transfer of contaminated water from the No. 1 and 2 reservoir tanks, where relatively large leaks were detected, hoping to complete the work by around the Golden Week holiday period in May. On April 15, the company set up temporary piping and pumps and began preparing to pump water from the No. 2 reservoir tank to a storage tank on the ground about 200 meters away. It plans to move 1,400 cubic meters of tainted water from the No. 1 reservoir tank to a storage tank on the ground, and another 4,600 cubic meters to a filtrate tank. The company expects to complete transfers of contaminated water from the No. 3, 4 and 6 reservoir tanks by around June.

At first TEPCO said that if it didn't use the underground reservoirs, then it would find itself short of space to store radioactively contaminated water, and that it planned to continue using the seven underground reservoir tanks. However, as the threat of further leaks loomed, the Fukushima Prefectural Government and other parties have asked the company to move the water to storage tanks above ground.