TEPCO cooling system trouble
Source: Agencies |
June 28, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A WATER recycling system crucial to progress at Japan's damaged nuclear power plant was halted for repairs yesterday after briefly resuming full operation.
Tons of fresh water has been pumped to cool the reactors since the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. That process taints the water with radiation, and 110,000 tons of contaminated water has accumulated and could overflow by early July.
Workers have struggled for weeks to use a new system that would clean the tainted water and reuse it in the cooling process. It fully operated for five hours earlier this month, and test-runs were conducted before it went fully operational and pumped treated water into the reactors yesterday.
But plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said the system was halted about an hour and a half later. Workers spotted water leaking from a hose that was sending the processed water into the reactors, TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.
The system has reprocessed 1,850 tons of contaminated water.
An earthquake and tsunami destroyed power and cooling systems at the Fukushima plant, melting reactor cores and leaking radiation. Some contaminated water had seeped into the ocean.
Tons of fresh water has been pumped to cool the reactors since the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. That process taints the water with radiation, and 110,000 tons of contaminated water has accumulated and could overflow by early July.
Workers have struggled for weeks to use a new system that would clean the tainted water and reuse it in the cooling process. It fully operated for five hours earlier this month, and test-runs were conducted before it went fully operational and pumped treated water into the reactors yesterday.
But plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said the system was halted about an hour and a half later. Workers spotted water leaking from a hose that was sending the processed water into the reactors, TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.
The system has reprocessed 1,850 tons of contaminated water.
An earthquake and tsunami destroyed power and cooling systems at the Fukushima plant, melting reactor cores and leaking radiation. Some contaminated water had seeped into the ocean.
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