Get on with it!

April 8, 2013

Nuclear regulator instructs TEPCO over water leaks

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130408_24.html

Japan's nuclear regulator has instructed the operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to swiftly find the cause of radioactive water leaks from underground storage tanks there.

The move comes after the Tokyo Electric Power Company reported a massive leak of more than 120 tons of contaminated water from an underground storage tank last week. There was another report on Sunday of a small leak of up to 3 liters from different tank.

Toyoshi Fuketa, a member of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, summoned to his office Zengo Aizawa, a vice president of TEPCO on Monday.

Fuketa urged Aizawa to identify the cause of the leaks and their environmental impact, and to review TEPCO's storage system of tainted water.

Fuketa stressed the authority is taking the leaks seriously.
He said the existing tanks have to be used to store the contaminated water for the time being because of the current tank shortage. He urged the TEPCO executive to come up with a more secure plan to store radioactive water.

He also said he will consider expanding the authority's inspection staff at the Fukushima plant after the plant suffered a series of problems, including last month's power failure at the fuel pools.

April 8, 2013

TEPCO ordered to address radioactive water leaks at Fukushima plant

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130408p2g00m0dm082000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. faced increasing pressure from government entities Monday to address recent radioactive water leakages and power outages at its accident-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

"If these kinds of incidents continue to occur, the very process toward decommissioning the (crippled) reactors could be affected," Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told TEPCO President Naomi Hirose in their meeting, while adding that the public is "greatly" concerned about the situation at the plant in northeastern Japan.

Motegi also ordered TEPCO to take measures so that radioactive water found to be leaking from the plant's underground storage tanks will not end up flowing into the adjacent Pacific Ocean.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority summoned TEPCO Executive Vice President Zengo Aizawa the same day to confirm the situation over the water leakage.

NRA Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa said at a press conference after meeting with Aizawa that he is taking the incident "seriously" in the sense contaminated water has been released into the environment but denied the situation will immediately pose a huge risk.

"It will take quite a long time...until the contamination spreads outside the site. So we have a certain amount of time to take measures to contain the contamination," he said.

TEPCO has used the underground tanks to store part of the massive amount of radioactive water that is created as a result of continuing water injection to the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors, which have suffered meltdowns due to the March 2011 accident.

Cesium is removed before the water is transferred to the tanks, but other radioactive substances remain. It is the first time leaks have been confirmed at such tanks.

In addition to the water problem, a power outage, believed to have been triggered by a rat that touched a switchboard, disabled cooling systems for the spent fuel pools of the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 units in March.

Apparently taking into account a spate of problems the plant has experienced even more than two years after the nuclear crisis occurred, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, the head of a now-defunct accident investigation panel, said the situation is "clearly yet to be settled."

Kurokawa made the remarks during a meeting of a special committee newly set up in parliament to oversee the government's handling of nuclear power issues and carry out related investigations.

The Diet-appointed investigation panel said in its report released last July that TEPCO and regulators failed to take proper safety steps amid cozy ties, calling it "clearly a man-made disaster.