TEPCO under pressure?

 April 16, 2014

TEPCO ordered to act on contaminated water problem

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140416_25.html 

Japan's nuclear regulator has ordered the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to strengthen safety measures for handling contaminated water. The Tokyo Electric Power Company announced a mishandling incident at the plant and the regulator wants to prevent a reoccurrence.

Workers at the plant inject water into damaged reactors to cool melted fuel. The water becomes highly radioactive in the process, and is supposed to be held in storage buildings before being sent to a decontaminating facility.

On Monday TEPCO learned that more than 200,000 liters of highly contaminated water was mistaken pumped to the basement of a building in the compound. The company says 4 pumps for emergency use directed the water.

Nuclear Regulation Authority Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa called for stronger measures at a regular meeting of the group on Wednesday. He suggested steps such as setting up security cameras and locking the pumps' switch boxes.

The regulator ordered the utility to come up with preventative measures and report them at an experts' panel scheduled for Friday.

TEPCO has yet to determine who turned on the pumps and how the incident came about. The regulator has also asked to be briefed on the results of TEPCO's investigation.

April 15, 2014

TEPCO pressed to probe contaminated water problem

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140415_12.html 

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is under pressure to find out why more than 200 tons of highly contaminated water was mistakenly pumped to a wrong building at the compound.

Water injected to cool the melted nuclear fuel becomes highly contaminated. The water is then sent to storage buildings before it is sent on to a processing facility.

Workers noticed the problem last Friday when water levels had dropped at a storage building that was supposed to be receiving the contaminated flow.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has blamed 4 pumps for misdirecting the water to a building not intended for storage. The pumps were supposed to be out of use.

TEPCO officials said on Monday that they did not know whether the 4 pumps were deliberately switched on, and that they may interview workers if necessary.

The officials have said little about the problem, including why an investigation began a day after the water level abnormality was found.

Local authorities have criticized the utility for its failure to pinpoint the causes of a series of troubles at the disabled plant.

In February, more than 100 tons of contaminated water leaked from a tank due to a deliberately opened valve. TEPCO officials have interviewed about 100 workers, but have yet to find out exactly what occurred.

Apr. 15, 2014 - Updated 03:31 UTC