Bloomberg – by Masumi Suga, Yuji Okada and Jacob Adelman
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), operator of the crisis-ridden Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, said it found a new leak near the tanks holding contaminated water at the disaster site.
The utility, which serves 29 million customers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, is collecting soil where the leak occurred and doesn’t believe any water reached the ocean, company executives said at a briefing in Tokyo. About 100 metric tons (26,400 gallons) of water may have escaped a concrete barrier, the company said.
“Such a water leak was found despite a variety of measures taken by the company,” Masayuki Ono, an official at the utility’s nuclear power and plant division, said. “We are sorry to have caused concern,” he said.
The finding is a reminder of the task still facing Tokyo Electric as the utility, known as Tepco, battles to manage the plant almost three years since the earthquake and tsunami.
Beta radiation readings of 230 million becquerels per liter were taken in a sample collected from a gutter on top of the leaked tank at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, according to a statement from the Tokyo-based utility. Japan’s safety limit for radioactive materials in drinking water is 10 becquerels per liter, according to the health ministry.
Radioactive water overflowed from the 10-meter long tank after two valves — which were supposed to be closed — had been opened, Ono said today. The leak was found 700 meters (0.4 miles) from the ocean in an area isolated from any drainage ditch, he said.
Setback to Decommissioning
Japan’s nuclear regulator, which is planning to check the utility’s probe of the leak and planned preventative measures, said today that it has asked Tepco to ensure no more leaks from the same type of water storage tanks occur.
The leak highlights difficulties for the regulator as it seeks to force Tepco to limit radiation at the site without slowing down its decommissioning.
“We need a balance of the best regulation and also the quickest decommissioning at Fukushima Dai-Ichi because we really want to have the reduction of the risk at the site,” Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa said today in Tokyo.
Tepco has installed about a thousand tanks at Fukushima to store hundreds of thousands of tons of water used to cool fuel after the nuclear accident in March 2011.
Some 300 tons of contaminated groundwater seep into the ocean each day at the Dai-Ichi station 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo, Japan’s government has said.
Between May 2011 and August 2013, as many as 20 trillion becquerels of cesium-137, 10 trillion becquerels of strontium-90 and 40 trillion becquerels of tritium entered the ocean via groundwater, according to past statements from Tepco.
Tepco’s shares closed down 7 yen, or 2.4 percent, at 455 yen in Tokyo trading after earlier declining as much as 2.8 percent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 2.2 percent.
To contact the reporters on this story: Masumi Suga in Tokyo at msuga@bloomberg.net; Yuji Okada in Tokyo at yokada6@bloomberg.net; Jacob Adelman in Tokyo atjadelman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net
I finally saw this on MSM. TODAY
This Fukushima thing is so controlled it’s hilarious if it wasn’t so lethal. Since this incident began, instead of saying it melted down and is contaminating the world, they slowly come out with something every other month saying, “one reactor almost melted down but it only released a little amount. The other reactors are fine.” Two months later, “We found out that another reactor actually leaked radiation everywhere, so there were really two, but all the others are fine.” Two months later, “We found out that reactor 3 actually leaked radiation everywhere along with reactor 1, 2, and 3, but 4, 5 and 6 are fine”.
And they continue to do this every two or three months, giving this controlled release story when in actuality, the real truth is that the whole damn thing melted down and if they tell the whole world the truth, the nuclear power plants will be out of business, people will be in a panic and the government will not be able to control the masses and the corporations and the elite will be pissed. So they recite this lie over and over again like slowly cooking the frog.
Face it everyone, ALL of the reactors at the Fukushima have melted down and are continuing to leak radiation in the water and in the air. It is here on our West Coast and most likely in the air we breath. The first step to fixing the problem is admitting that the problem exists. So let’s not kid ourselves anymore. It’s time to admit it and deal with it. Anyone who doesn’t admit it, throw them in the Pacific waters and let them swim for a day and tell them how green they look. And if they say it’s just “seasickness” then just laugh and nod your head and tell them, “Yep, thanks to Fukushima, that’s EXACTLY what it is.”