Japan Radioactive Water Raises Alarm as Government to Intervene

Japan Radioactive Water Raises Alarm as Government to Intervene

Japan may announce measures today to contain the growing volume of radiated water at the Fukushima atomic station, following findings of radioactive hot spots and leaks more than two years after reactors melted at the plant. The Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters may present steps to tackle the leaks today and plans a “complete package” of measures on the water management crisis, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said yesterday, relaying earlier comments made by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.Managing the water used to cool melted fuel at the Fukushima plant’s reactors has become a challenge the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) cannot handle alone, the government has said. The utility known as Tepco has reported repeated leaks from storage tanks in the last month, including the loss of about 300 tons of contaminated water two weeks ago.

The Fukushima site now has more than 338,000 metric tons of water of varying levels of toxicity stored in pits, basements and hundreds of tanks. That’s enough to fill a very large crude oil tanker or 132 Olympic-size swimming pools. Levels of toxic water are rising at a rate of 400 tons a day as groundwater seeping into basements mixes with cooling water that has been in contact with highly radioactive melted reactor cores.

One measure being considered at the site is a controlled discharge of water into the ocean once radiation levels are brought within safety limits through filtration or other treatments, Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said yesterday.

At the weekend, more leaks were discovered along with a “hot spot” emitting 1,800 millisieverts of radiation per hour around the bottom of a water storage tank. That’s 18 times the level reported at the same spot on Aug. 22, Tepco said.

The weekend’s findings probably reflect Tepco’s beefed-up monitoring crews finding contamination that was missed earlier, former nuclear engineer Michael Friedlander said in a phone interview.

Tepco boosted the number of tank-inspection patrols from twice a day to three times a day after last month’s 300-ton leak, Yoshikazu Nagai, a company spokesman, said by phone. Patrols are increasing further to four times a day starting yesterday, when the number of inspection staff grows to 60 members from 10, he said.

Radiation levels Tepco disclosed at the weekend don’t raise an immediate concern for the general public because the site is off limits, Tetsuo Ito, head of Kinki University’s Atomic Energy Research Institute, said by telephone on Sept. 1.

Direct exposure to 1,800 millisieverts for four hours can be lethal, but it’s not life-threatening for Tepco’s inspectors as they don’t stay in one spot for four hours, he said.

Tepco said the 1,800 millisieverts reading was found 5 centimeters above the area that was checked, falling to 15 millisieverts at 50 centimeters. The reading was for beta radiation that travels short distances and can be blocked by use of metal sheet such as aluminum, the company said on its website.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month said Tepco isn’t able to handle the disaster recovery after the company acknowledged that contaminated groundwater at the plant was seeping into the ocean. Japanese government officials estimated that leak at 300 tons of irradiated water a day.

To contact the reporters on this story: Yuriy Humber in Tokyo at yhumber@bloomberg.net; Takashi Hirokawa in Tokyo at thirokawa@bloomberg.net