Leak opening detected at crippled Japanese nuclear plant

(Source) http://nuclear-news.net/2013/09/05/new-%E2%8C%82-noticias-mundo-leak-opening-detected-at-crippled-japanese-nuclear-plant/

“…The ongoing difficulties in dismantling Fukushima represent a blow to Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Olympics candidacy. The latest reports about the leaks come just days before the International Olympic Committee selects the host city for those Games…”

Sept. 5, 2013

http://www.vidalatinasd.com/news/2013/sep/05/leak-opening-detected-at-crippled-japanese/

Tokyo, Sep 5 (EFE). — The operator of Japan’s disabled Fukushima nuclear power plant for the first time has detected an opening through which groundwater is penetrating the basements of the reactor buildings.

After drilling a hole in the soil around the bottom floor of the Unit 1 reactor and inserting a camera, Tokyo Electric Power Company obtained video footage released Thursday of the spot where water is leaking into the building.

TEPCO now will evaluate how much groundwater is flowing into the building through that opening.

Water must be pumped in to cool the reactors after the plant’s refrigeration systems were knocked out by a devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

But, as a result, an estimated 70,000 tons of radioactive water have seeped through cracks and accumulated in the basements of the Unit 1 and Unit 4 reactors and their adjacent turbine buildings.

An additional 400 tons of groundwater also is believed to flow into the basements of the reactor buildings, mixing with water that has already been contaminated.

Some 300 tons of contaminated water, meanwhile, is estimated to make its way every day from the basements into the Pacific Ocean. That water is being pumped out of the basements and moved to an evergrowing number of temporary storage tanks, but some of it escapes into the ground through additional cracks.

To stop the leaks, the Japanese government this week approved a budget of 47 billion yen ($468.6 million), 32 billion yen of which is to be invested to build a wall of frozen earth around the reactor buildings.

Another portion of the budget will be allocated to stop recently detected leaks of radioactive water from the temporary storage tanks.

The ongoing difficulties in dismantling Fukushima represent a blow to Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Olympics candidacy. The latest reports about the leaks come just days before the International Olympic Committee selects the host city for those Games.