» TEPCO left radioactive water issue untouched since 2011 April

2013/08/01

Tokyo Electric Power Co.left radioactive water issue untouched more than two years despite having pledged to seal a leaking hole in a turbine building.

TEPCO said in April 2011 that it would block the connection between a turbine building and an underground pit to prevent radioactive water from leaking into the sea. However, TEPCO only began preparing for shielding tests this summer, after contaminated water was found to be leaking into the sea.

During the early phases of the nuclear meltdowns, water, used to cool the overheating reactors, filled the reactor and turbine buildings as well as adjacent underground pits.

On March 27, 2011, TEPCO workers found that radioactive water, measuring more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour, lay in an underground pit adjacent to the turbine building for No. 2 reactor.Radioactive water was found leaking into the sea near a water intake for the No. 2 reactor on April 2, 2011.

On April 17, 2011, TEPCO released a public announcement that explicitly mentioned “shielding the connection between the pit and the turbine building,” alongside two other measures it had already taken.TEPCO, in fact, had yet to seal that connection, and left it unattended afterward.

<Media Report>

TEPCO took no action about radioactive water leak for 2 years (Asahi Newspaper)

Tags:leakage, news, radioactive water, reactors

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