Japan's new plan to stabilize reactors
Source: Agencies |
May 18, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
JAPAN unveiled new plans yesterday to contain the crisis at a crippled nuclear plant after admitting it faced greater challenges than first disclosed, but it kept to a goal of bringing the reactors under control by January.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant's operator, said it had dropped an initial plan to fill the reactors with water after last week's discovery of a large leak in the main vessel of the plant's No. 1 reactor.
Instead, the embattled utility said it would now try to cool the reactors by circulating the radioactive water that has pooled throughout the Fukushima complex. Most of the water is within the reactor buildings, but some is outside in trenches.
The new approach will involve costly steps to decontaminate tens of thousands of tons water and the construction of a large storage area for the remaining low-level waste.
In a move that acknowledged a risk that it had previously downplayed, the utility said it would step up its monitoring of radiation in nearby seawater and attempt to build a kind of underground fence to prevent groundwater contamination.
The utility said it still aimed to complete initial steps to limit the release of further radiation from the plant 240 kilometers northeast of Tokyo and to shut down its three unstable reactors by January 2012.
"We know that there are a lot of defining factors and risks, but we still want to complete the first steps by July and the remainder of the plan within nine months," Sakae Muto, a vice president at the utility, said.
He added it was impossible to estimate how much the clean-up of Fukushima would cost. "It's something we will have to study over time."
From the start, the timetable for stabilizing Fukushima, announced just over a month ago, has faced scepticism from experts.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant's operator, said it had dropped an initial plan to fill the reactors with water after last week's discovery of a large leak in the main vessel of the plant's No. 1 reactor.
Instead, the embattled utility said it would now try to cool the reactors by circulating the radioactive water that has pooled throughout the Fukushima complex. Most of the water is within the reactor buildings, but some is outside in trenches.
The new approach will involve costly steps to decontaminate tens of thousands of tons water and the construction of a large storage area for the remaining low-level waste.
In a move that acknowledged a risk that it had previously downplayed, the utility said it would step up its monitoring of radiation in nearby seawater and attempt to build a kind of underground fence to prevent groundwater contamination.
The utility said it still aimed to complete initial steps to limit the release of further radiation from the plant 240 kilometers northeast of Tokyo and to shut down its three unstable reactors by January 2012.
"We know that there are a lot of defining factors and risks, but we still want to complete the first steps by July and the remainder of the plan within nine months," Sakae Muto, a vice president at the utility, said.
He added it was impossible to estimate how much the clean-up of Fukushima would cost. "It's something we will have to study over time."
From the start, the timetable for stabilizing Fukushima, announced just over a month ago, has faced scepticism from experts.
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