More than three years after the earthquake and tsunami devastated
northeast Japan and left a major nuclear plant in Fukushima paralyzed,
efforts to contain the nuclear disaster are still facing major hurdles
as the area around it remains a ghost town. Last week, Tokyo Electric
Power Co (TEPCO), revealed that an ice wall that was designed to stem
the flow of radioactive water seeping from the crippled reactors at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant isn’t freezing as fast as they
hoped.
In the three months since construction began, temperatures in the
ground around the barrier meant to contain the contaminated water in
underground trenches have only fallen to around 15 degrees and TEPCO
announced a new plan to accelerate the freezing process — dumping 10
tons of ice every day until the wall forms.
TEPCO made the announcement during a meeting of Japan’s Nuclear
Regulation Authority on July 23. Apparently a small stream of water has
kept the ice wall from freezing properly. The Japanese electric company
said it has not been able to get temperatures down to about 5 degrees,
the ideal temperature to form the barrier. The original design of the
ice wall called for it to be completely formed by late May. So to
quicken the freezing process, TEPCO said it will start dumping huge
amounts of ice and also increasing the number of underground pipes to
quickly lower temperatures.
Starting Aug 1, TEPCO will drop about 10 tons of ice and one ton of
dry ice per day into the trenches surrounding the reactors. If
temperatures drop enough and the wall starts forming, the plan is to
reduce the daily ice dump to about four or five tons. And they will also
install an additional four pipes to bring the total up to 23 pipes
pumping coolant.
During the meeting last week, a building engineering professor, who
is part of the investigation panel charged with finding a solution to
the nuclear disaster, voiced concern over the logistics of the ice wall.
He doubted that the frozen barrier would be able to form and urged the
committee to consider just filling in the trenches with concrete to
prevent any of the contaminated water from flowing out.
The NRA seemed confident that TEPCO would be able to see results of
their ice dumping by the middle of next month. Although many remain
skeptical, hopefully there will be some good news about the ice wall
soon to give the people of Fukushima Prefecture who are still reeling
from the daily onslaught of bad news something to be happy about.
Sankei
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