The water contaminated with radiation that has accumulated in plant buildings has been one of the biggest issues at the Fukushima I nuclear power station (NPS) owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. (TEPCO), and operation of the treatment system to purify this water is beginning to get on track. In units 1-3, fuel has apparently melted down inside the reactors, and crews hope to inject the purified water into these units for stable cooling without an increase in the total amount of contaminated water.
At present, about 400 tons of water is being pumped into units 1-3 every day. The amount is being held to the minimum requisite in order to prevent the contaminated water from increasing, but more than 100,000 tons of contaminated water is still standing in the reactor buildings and other facilities.
The treatment system was placed into operation in mid June, but it continued to experience various troubles initially. It is now delivering the anticipated decontamination performance, according to TEPCO.
The treated water began to be injected into the reactor units in late June. This process likewise was plagued with difficulties at first, but has been proceeding fairly smoothly since the start of July. If the operation remains smooth, TEPCO expects to lower the amount of contaminated water to the targeted level around mid August. This will enable it to avoid the risk of an overflow of contaminated water from the buildings.
Four months have passed since occurrence of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and efforts aimed at putting an end to the catastrophe are graduating from the level of emergency evacuation initiatives to medium- and long-term steps.
