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Apr. 8, 2013

TEPCO head briefs government on leakage accident

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130408_27.html

The head of Tokyo Electric Power Company says the utility will remove by Wednesday radiation-contaminated water from storage tanks at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

TEPCO President Naomi Hirose made the pledge on Monday when he briefed Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi about the recent accidents at the plant.

More than 120 tons of contaminated water leaked from an underground storage tank last week. A minor leakage was also found at another tank on Sunday.

Hirose told Motegi that the work to transfer the remaining contaminated water to other storage tanks in the compound will be completed in 3 days time.

He promised that TEPCO would strengthen its monitoring of the tanks.

Motegi told Hirose the utility must prevent the contaminated water from entering the nearby Pacific Ocean.

TEPCO says it has set up an emergency taskforce led by its president to deal with a spate of accidents at the Fukushima plant. The cooling system for spent fuel pools failed due to a power blackout last month and earlier this month