Strontium absorbent

 January 30, 2014

Strontium absorbent to be tested in Fukushima

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140131_01.html

Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are trying to contain leaked and leaking radioactive wastewater in the site. They are using various approaches.

As part of their efforts, they will examine how much an absorbent material placed underground can remove radioactive strontium from leaked wastewater.

The plant has seen a string of radioactive water leaks from storage tanks starting last August. Workers have taken countermeasures, including removing soil from around the tanks. But high levels of radioactivity were detected in groundwater near a tank that leaked large amounts of radioactive water.

To prevent the contamination from spreading further, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company will start testing the absorbent in February. This is one of the additional measures announced by a government taskforce in December to cope with wastewater leaks.

Workers will dig a 20-meter deep hole near the tank that leaked large quantities of radioactive water and bury the absorbent for strontium there to study its effectiveness.

The measure proved effective in a US nuclear facility. Some believe it won't be as successful with the salty water accumulated at the Fukushima plant.

Tokyo Electric plans to assess test results to decide around late February whether to fully introduce the absorbent.