Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s “frozen wall of earth” has failed to prevent groundwater from entering the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and the utility needs a new plan to address the problem, experts said. An expert panel with the Nuclear Regulation Authority received a report from TEPCO on the current state of the project on Aug. 18. The experts said the ice wall project, almost in its fifth month, has shown little or no success. “The plan to block groundwater with a frozen wall of earth is failing,” said panel member Yoshinori Kitsutaka, a professor of engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University. “They need to come up with another solution, even if they keep going forward with the plan.” One big problem hampering work at the nuclear plant, which was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011, has been the tons of groundwater entering the buildings housing the No. 1 through No. 4 reactors every day. The water becomes contaminated with radioactive materials within the reactor buildings. TEPCO’s plan was to create a frozen wall of earth around the reactor buildings to divert the groundwater away from the plant and into the ocean.
Asahi Shimbun 19th Aug 2016 read more »
The latest attempt to seal off the disaster zone, a wall of frozen earth around it, appears to have failed. A panel of experts with the Nuclear Regulation Authority said readings from the ocean-side of the wall continued to remain high. While radioactivity is still being found on the other side of the Pacific, off America’s west coast, according to US media reports. Now, with the 34.5billion yen (£263m) scheme in peril, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been told to find a new solution.
Daily Star 19th Aug 2016 read more »