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2013 June 19 - 25 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Radiation-contaminated water again detected at Fukushima plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company at a news conference on June 19 announced that it again detected highly-concentrated 90-strontium and tritium (3H) in groundwater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The utility did not deny the possibility of their release into the sea.

The substances detected in water from an inspection site under the turbine buildings of Units 1 and 2 included 1,000Bq/liter of 90-Sr and 500,000Bq/liter of 3H, corresponding to about 33 times and eight times, respectively, more than the government limit for concentration of these radioactive substances.

TEPCO late last year detected 3H at the same inspection site. The company estimates the volume of radioactive materials in the contaminated water that leaked soon after the nuclear accident in March 2011 to have been 4,700 terabecquerels. (1TBq=1,000,000,000,000Bq)

A total of about 100,000 tons of contaminated water has already accumulated and is being stored at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. About 400 tons daily are still flowing under the reactor and turbine buildings there. The Fukushima plant is in a critical state in terms of the ever-increasing amount of water contaminated with high levels of radiation.

Not until December last year did TEPCO set up observation sites on the ocean side of the plant to check if contaminated water was entering into the sea. The company, however, installed only three sites near the sea and has conducted only a minimal number of water sampling inspections so far.

Therefore, TEPCO officials during the session with reporters could not respond to questions like, “Why were 90-Sr or 3H found in the groundwater from that particular observation site and not others?” and “Are you sure they are not spreading to other areas and being discharged into the sea?”