Minister pledges urgent action on radioactive leaks
Print Edition
Japan’s industry minister promised urgent government action yesterday to curb radioactive water leaks from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Toshimitsu Motegi said lax maintenance by the plant’s operator was largely to blame for the series of leaks from storage tanks at the plant, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
“The urgency of the situation is very high,” Motegi said. “From here on the government will take charge.”
The leaks have shaken confidence in the reliability of about 1,000 tanks that are crucial for storing water that has been pumped into three damaged reactors to keep their radioactive fuel cool.
At least five of the tanks at the plant on Japan’s northeastern coast have leaked.
Last week, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said 300 tons of highly contaminated water had flowed from one tank, in the worst leak so far. Most of the water is thought to have seeped into the ground, but some may have entered the sea through a rainwater gutter, it said.
The tanks contain nearly 300,000 tons of partially treated radioactive water.
Motegi, who toured the plant yesterday, said inspections of the tanks would be doubled to four times a day. “Water control is a very important issue. We have to prevent contaminated water from reaching the sea,” he said.
TEPCO President Naomi Hirose apologized for the leaks. He said the company is setting up a new task force to better deal with the problem and will step up efforts to assess the extent of underground water contamination and prevent leakage into the sea.
TEPCO plans to build more tanks to store another 800,000 tons of water, which combined with plans to pump out uncontaminated underground water should prevent the situation from becoming dire for another three to four years.
“But we cannot keep making tanks endlessly,” Hirose said.
The chief of Japan’s nuclear watchdog, Toyoshi Fuketa, who inspected the plant last Friday, also criticized the plant’s management of the tanks, some of which have hoses running directly on the ground.
TEPCO spokesman Noriyuki Imaizumi said on Saturday that a two-person team has been inspecting the 1,000 tanks during twice-daily “patrols,” which regulators have criticized as just a walk. He acknowledged the workers did not usually carry dosimeters to measure radioactivity, and did not keep full inspection records unless there were notable irregularities such as major rust spots or leaks.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the recent major leak was “extremely regrettable.”
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