Highly radioactive water leaking into sea stops: TEPCO
Apr. 6, 2011
Tokyo Electric Power Co. succeeded in stopping highly radioactive water from leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant early Wednesday morning after injecting a chemical agent, it said.
In a bid to stem the leak, the utility, known as TEPCO, injected about 6,000 liters of ''water glass,'' or sodium silicate, and another agent around a seaside pit located near the plant's No. 2 reactor water intake, through which the highly radioactive water had been leaking heavily.
The leak has apparently seriously contaminated the marine environment, as a seawater sample taken near the water intake Saturday showed a radioactive iodine-131 concentration of 7.5 million times the maximum level permitted under law.
As the first case of contamination levels in seafood have exceeded the limit, radioactive cesium over the limit was detected in young launce in the sea near the northern part of Ibaraki Prefecture.
The highly radioactive water has been filling up the basement of the No. 2 reactor turbine building and the trench connected to it. The water, believed to have come from the No. 2 reactor core, where fuel rods have partially melted, ended up in the pit.
In order to make room for the storage of the highly contaminated water, TEPCO also continued to dump low-level contaminated water into the sea.
The nuclear plant has been severely damaged by the March 11 mega earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on April 6, 2011)
In a bid to stem the leak, the utility, known as TEPCO, injected about 6,000 liters of ''water glass,'' or sodium silicate, and another agent around a seaside pit located near the plant's No. 2 reactor water intake, through which the highly radioactive water had been leaking heavily.
The leak has apparently seriously contaminated the marine environment, as a seawater sample taken near the water intake Saturday showed a radioactive iodine-131 concentration of 7.5 million times the maximum level permitted under law.
As the first case of contamination levels in seafood have exceeded the limit, radioactive cesium over the limit was detected in young launce in the sea near the northern part of Ibaraki Prefecture.
The highly radioactive water has been filling up the basement of the No. 2 reactor turbine building and the trench connected to it. The water, believed to have come from the No. 2 reactor core, where fuel rods have partially melted, ended up in the pit.
In order to make room for the storage of the highly contaminated water, TEPCO also continued to dump low-level contaminated water into the sea.
The nuclear plant has been severely damaged by the March 11 mega earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on April 6, 2011)
