contaminated water fukushima

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun moving contaminated water from leaking underground storage pools to tanks above ground.Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, plans to move most of the contaminated water to tanks above ground after a series of leaks were found in some of the 7 underground storage pools.On Tuesday, TEPCO began transferring about 20 tons of water per hour from the No. 2 pool to a tank more than 400 meters to the southeast. The No. 2 pool is the first of those where leaks were found.More than 23,000 tons of contaminated water is scheduled to be transferred by early June.Priority will be on the No. 1 and 2 pools, as they are thought to be leaking the most.TEPCO says because the pipes being used to move the water will cover a long distance it will step up monitoring activities to ensure no water escapes.The underground pools will continue to leak during the operation. The firm plans to pump the contaminated water that leaks back into the pools, to minimize effects on the environment.TEPCO plans to quickly install more tanks, as contaminated water at the plant is continuing to increase by about 400 tons per day. This will not fundamentally solve the problem and the firm will explore other ways to try to deal with this situation.

Apr. 16, 2013 - Updated 07:22