Fukushima: the puzzle of contaminated water - BBC

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has amounted to 360 million euros the cost of the action needed to resolve recurrent problems of the leaks in the plant.

Fukushima nuclear plant devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 is leaking everywhere. It is not a week goes past few months without the operator Tepco announced a new contamination of the soil or the ocean by water containing radioactive elements.

Annoyed by this calamitous crisis management, both on the operational and media plan, the Japanese government is trying to regain control. On Tuesday, the Japanese Prime Minister has promised to implement “quick” action plan of 360 million euros to “solve dramatically trouble in Fukushima,” in the words of spokesman of the executive.

This amount will serve two-thirds to erect “a wall of ice” underground around the four reactors to prevent fresh water, used to cool open waste heat from nuclear core circuit to flow to the Wed For now, the water escapes from the speakers damaged containment pouring into basements and groundwater surrounding. Surveys in the soil between the plant and the ocean show for months of well above normal levels of radioactivity.

New ways of decontamination

hundred million remaining will be invested in new ways to decontaminate radioactive water. For now, the processing capacity of 250 m3 per day. But Tepco needs daily 350 m3 of water cleaned to maintain nuclear reactors at a temperature below 50 ° C. 100 m3 surplus that can not be reprocessed are stored every day in thousands of tanks installed in a rush on the site.

the incompressible volume, add hundreds of tons drawn every day by Tepco in the basement of the plant where the rain water and the contents of the surrounding water table are continuously pouring in and load elements radioactive.

ads to burnish the country’s image abroad

hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of water accumulate dangerously in the tanks. The resolute Japanese government prevent these vessels difficult to escape as is the case today. Some observers point out that the official announcements are designed to improve the image of the country abroad before the Olympic committee decides on the allocation of Saturday Summer Games in 2020 that the capital Tokyo, located less than 250 km Fukushima is a candidate.

On the domestic front, the Prime Minister still hopes for a swift resolution of the crisis of contaminated water. It would indeed be able to gradually restart the fleet of 50 nuclear reactors. For now, only two had restarted. But the first was off Tuesday morning for an indefinite period of maintenance. The second stop for the same reasons on September 15. After that, Japan will again deprived of nuclear power. Abe would like to see this period as short as possible.