Underground water: TEPCO promises additional measures

October 18, 2013

TEPCO to contain tainted underground water

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131019_02.html

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it plans to take additional measures to contain the spread of contaminated water that leaked from a storage tank.

Tokyo Electric Power Company managers on Wednesday announced they had detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances in water collected from a monitoring well.

They said the figure is more than 6,000 times higher than the level recorded the day before.

They also said the level of radioactive strontium also tripled to the highest-ever figure of 790,000 becquerels per liter.
The well is some 10 meters from a storage tank that holds radioactive water. More than 300 tons of the water leaked from the tank in August. Some of it is believed to have seeped into nearby soil and also reached the ocean through a ditch.

TEPCO officials have been containing the problem by retrieving contaminated soil near the tank. But their efforts to completely remove the tainted soil are being hindered by the presence of pipes and other fixtures in the area.

TEPCO plans to collect the soil under the pipes and also wants to set up a new well to pump up the tainted water.

It has also announced that some 2,400 tons of water had been released from floodgates when heavy rainfall brought on by Typhoon Wipha caused water levels to rise on Wednesday.
The operator maintains that radioactivity levels have stayed below the government set standard and isn't having a negative impact on the environment.