Japan:Decontamination equipment failure to be analyzed

Laaska News  June 19,2011
Tokyo Electric Power Company started an experiment on Sunday night to determine the cause of a sudden rise in radiation levels that caused a water decontamination system to shut down.

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suspects that greater than anticipated amounts of contaminated oil and sludge entered part of the system.

The utility put the new system into full operation on Friday night to remove radioactive materials from the highly contaminated water that has accumulated in the plant.

The operation had to be suspended after just 5 hours as the radiation level of equipment that removes oil and sludge rose to 4 millisieverts per hour, the level at which it needs to be replaced.

TEPCO had initially expected the equipment to last for about a month before it had to be changed.

The utility says greater than anticipated amounts of material containing radioactive substances may have flowed into the device, causing the radiation level to rise rapidly.

The company started an experiment on Sunday night to compare an oil absorbent with the material currently being used, to determine the cause of the sudden rise in radiation levels.

The resumption of a full-fledged operation will depend on the outcome of the experiment.

The amount of contaminated water is growing by 500 tons a day as fresh water is continuously being injected into the reactors to cool them down.

TEPCO is working to identify the cause of the series of problems and to take measures to resolve them, as the storage facilities for the contaminated water are filling up.

A delay in resuming the system could cause the water to overflow in about a week.

 

NHK.

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