Water Leaks May Become New Japan Nuclear Disaster

Friday, August 23, 2013

Water Leaks May Become New Japan Nuclear Disaster

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
© REUTERS/ Air Photo Service

09:42 22/08/2013

TOKYO, August 22 (The Associated Press) — Japan's nuclear watchdog said a leak of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant could be the beginning of a new disaster — a series of leaks of contaminated water from storage tanks.
The plant operator has built hundreds of steel tanks to store massive amounts of radioactive water coming from three melted reactors, as well as underground water running into reactor and turbine basements.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. says about 300 tons (300,000 liters, 80,000 gallons) of contaminated water leaked from one of the tanks, possibly through a seam. The leak is the fifth, and the worst, since last year involving tanks of the same design at the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, raising concerns that contaminated water could begin leaking from storage tanks one after another.
"That's what we fear the most. We must remain alert. We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more," Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a news conference. "We are in a situation where there is no time to waste."
The watchdog also proposed at a weekly meeting Wednesday to raise the rating of the seriousness of the leak to level 3, a "serious incident," from level 1, "an anomaly," on an International Nuclear and Radiological event scale from 0 to 7.
The watchdog urged TEPCO to step up monitoring for leaks and take precautionary measures.

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Japan nuke watchdog may raise latest radioactive Fukushima leak to ‘serious incident’

By Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press

TOKYO – The Japanese nuclear watchdog on Wednesday said they are taking the leakage of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant seriously, and proposed raising the rating to describe it from “an anomaly” to a “serious incident.”

The operator of the plant said about 300 tons (300,000 litres, 80,000 gallons) of contaminated water has leaked from one of hundreds of steel tanks around the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co. hasn’t figured out how or where the water leaked, but suspects it did so through a seam on the tank.
The leak, the fifth since last year involving tanks of the same design, also raised concerns that this could be the beginning a new disaster – contaminated water leaking from storage tanks one after another.
“That’s what we fear the most. We must remain alert. We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more,” watchdog chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a news conference. “We are at a situation where there is no time to waste.”
The watchdog proposed at a weekly meeting Wednesday to raise the rating of the leak to level 3 from an earlier level 1 on an International Nuclear and Radiological event scale of eight. The watchdog, however, plans to consult with the U.N. nuclear regulatory agency over whether it is appropriate to use the INES evaluation scale on the already wrecked Fukushima plant.
The watchdog also urged TEPCO to step up monitoring for leaks and take precautionary measures.

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