The company that operates the damaged nuclear plant on the northeast coast of Japan began pumping high-level radioactive water from the basement of one of the reactor's turbine building to a temporary water tank, a crucial step in the process of stabilization the complex. The removal of 25,000 tons of polluted water that has accumulated in the basement of the Unit 2 nuclear plant Fukushima Dai-ichi will allow workers to try to restore the critical cooling systems that were destroyed by the tsunami of March 11 that left more than 27 000 dead or missing.
The action taken Tuesday was one of many in the long process of resolving the crisis. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. released a work plan for the weekend, which will take nine months to restore the cooling system of the plant. But government officials admitted that they could produce setbacks that delayed the recovery process.
The water will be removed in stages with the first third to be handled in the next 20 days, said Hidehiko Nishiyama Agency Nuclear and Industrial Safety. Overall, it is 70 thousand tons of contaminated water to be removed from the reactor of the plant and turbine buildings, plus the accumulated water in the zonjas adjacent to the complex.
The whole process could take several months. TEPCO moves water to a storage building that was flooded during the tsunami slightly polluted water shortly after he was thrown into the ocean to make room for the water with a high level of contamination. The company also is developing a system for decontamination of water to enter so that they can be used again to cool the reactors at the plant, Nishiyama said.
"We hope to gradually reduce the polluted water through that process," he said, adding it would take "several months" to get ready this system. Once the contaminated water from plant buildings be removed safely and the level of radioactivity has declined, workers can begin to repair the cooling systems for reactors of 1.2 and 3 units, which were in operation when the tsunami happened.
Workers also have to restore the function of cooling in the five ponds of spent fuel from the plant, and each of the units 1 to 4 and a common pool of units 5 and 6, temperatures were stable on March 11 , below 100 Celsius. 
The action taken Tuesday was one of many in the long process of resolving the crisis. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. released a work plan for the weekend, which will take nine months to restore the cooling system of the plant. But government officials admitted that they could produce setbacks that delayed the recovery process.
The water will be removed in stages with the first third to be handled in the next 20 days, said Hidehiko Nishiyama Agency Nuclear and Industrial Safety. Overall, it is 70 thousand tons of contaminated water to be removed from the reactor of the plant and turbine buildings, plus the accumulated water in the zonjas adjacent to the complex.
The whole process could take several months. TEPCO moves water to a storage building that was flooded during the tsunami slightly polluted water shortly after he was thrown into the ocean to make room for the water with a high level of contamination. The company also is developing a system for decontamination of water to enter so that they can be used again to cool the reactors at the plant, Nishiyama said.
"We hope to gradually reduce the polluted water through that process," he said, adding it would take "several months" to get ready this system. Once the contaminated water from plant buildings be removed safely and the level of radioactivity has declined, workers can begin to repair the cooling systems for reactors of 1.2 and 3 units, which were in operation when the tsunami happened.
Workers also have to restore the function of cooling in the five ponds of spent fuel from the plant, and each of the units 1 to 4 and a common pool of units 5 and 6, temperatures were stable on March 11 , below 100 Celsius.
- "Japan: Melting of Nuclear Plant’s Fuel Rods Confirmed" and related posts (16/04/2011)
- New problems at Japan nuclear plant (31/03/2011)
- First Japanese radioactive particles reach U.S. West Coast but UN officials claim they're a 'billion times' beneath danger levels (18/03/2011)
- You: Latest nuclear plant explosion in Japan raises radiation fears (16/03/2011)
- Possible new leak at nuclear plant in Japan (16/04/2011)
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