Leak of highly contaminated water from ALPS

April 17, 2014

Contaminated water found leaking from ALPS at Fukushima plant

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201404170034 

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said April 16 it detected a leak of 1 ton of highly contaminated water from the ALPS multinuclide removal equipment at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

TEPCO said the water contained 3.8 million becquerels of beta-ray sources per liter, but has not leaked outside the building housing the ALPS equipment. The utility added that the water contains radioactive material-absorbing agents.

The ALPS system has three water purification channels, and TEPCO found the contaminated water containing absorbing agents leaking from Channel B, where operations were suspended after a malfunction shutdown in March.

The plant workers found that the water was overflowing from a container for processed radioactive water and absorbing agents, called the high integrity container (HIC), in the early afternoon of April 16. They were moving granular radioactive material-absorbing agents into the tank with water.

TEPCO said the leakage has not compromised the entire purification process of the ALPS system.