Radioactive groundwater pumped out
Print Edition
The operator of the crippled Japanese Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has started pumping out radioactive groundwater to reduce leakage into the Pacific Ocean.
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) began the work after it admitted last month that radioactive groundwater had been seeping out of the plant — confirming long-held suspicions that the sea was being contaminated.
TEPCO said it pumped out 13 tons of water from a well between 2pm and 8pm on Friday.
By mid-August, TEPCO plans to complete a system enabling it to pump out 100 tons a day. The water will be filtered and recycled to cool the reactors.
But there are growing fears that existing facilities will soon be overwhelmed.
“It has been an urgent issue for us to suck out groundwater as soon as possible,” a TEPCO spokesman said on Friday.
The embattled utility — kept afloat by a government bailout — last month admitted that radioactive groundwater had been leaking outside the plant.
It has since said tainted water has been escaping into the Pacific since the atomic crisis triggered by a huge quake and tsunami in March 2011.
Japan’s industry ministry said this week that Tokyo estimates 300 tons of contaminated groundwater may be seeping into the ocean every day.
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