TV: Hundreds of tons of water in contact with melted nuclear fuel have now flooded basements at Fukushima plant — Nearly 10 Trillion Bq of Cesium — Concentration of strontium-90 and other radioactive materials not reported (VIDEO)
ENE News
Asahi Shimbun, Apr. 14, 2014: Tons of highly radioactive water have flooded basements at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant [...] the Nuclear Regulation Authority ordered the utility to continue to monitor the situation and collect the leakage as soon as possible. TEPCO officials said the water was highly contaminated because it was used to cool reactors [...] it has yet to be purified using a system that removes radioactive materials. [...] Workers noticed something amiss on April 10, as the water levels in buildings that should have been pumping out water were found to be rising. Workers discovered April 12 that four pumps that should not have been used were in operation [and] were halted around 5 p.m. on April 13.
NHK WORLD, Apr. 13, 2014: [The water had been used] to cool melted nuclear fuel. [...] The 4 pumps sent the contaminated water in a reverse direction, or into the basement of a facility known as the Incineration Workshop Building. [...] TEPCO officials estimate about 200 tons of highly- contaminated water leaked into the building. They say the radioactive cesium in the water is 37 million becquerels per liter. [...] They are closely watching the changes in the water level inside the building as well as the water quality of the wells in the surrounding area. [...]
NHK Newsline, Apr. 14, 2014: [TEPCO officials] have revealed another mistake at the nuclear plant [...] Highly contaminated water was sent to the wrong building [...] about 240 tons¹ of contaminated water had flowed in.
¹37 million Bq of cesium per liter x 1,000 liters per metric ton x 240 metric tons = 8.88 trillion Bq of cesium in building’s basements, according to data released publicly by TEPCO
Published: April 14th, 2014 at 4:35 am ET
By ENENews |