An International Atomic Energy Agency fact-finding mission of 18 experts from 12 nations has visited three Japanese nuclear power plants, including Fukushima Daiichi, on 27 May, and held meetings with Japanese officials.
The group has now begun drafting its report on lessons to be learned, for the IAEA ministerial conference on nuclear safety in Vienna, 20-24 June. The mission is led by Mike Weightman, head of the UK's nuclear safety regulator.
In other news, one of the waste processing buildings receiving radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi turbine buildings is leaking, utility TEPCO reports. It said that the level of water in the miscellaneous solid waste volume reduction treatment building is decreasing. Because about 2m of water was found puddling in an outdoor trench that connects to the building, it concludes that the water is leaking from the building into the trench. TEPCO said that it expects that the leak will stop when the water level is balanced, but it did not explain what balancing the water level would involve. It did say that there have been no signs of the leak spreading underground or to the sea.
•In other news, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum reported that at a Board of Directors meeting on May 20, TEPCO officially decided to decommission Units 1 to 4 at Fukushima Daiichi, and also to abandon a plan to build units 7 and 8. These were to have been ABWRs.
Regular updates may be found on the website of our sister journal, Nuclear Engineering International, reachable on <www.neimagazine.com> or by clicking on the link in the navigation bar to the left of this page.
The following sites are also posting continuing updates:
<http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html>
<http://www.iaea.org/>
<http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/>
<http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/15/tepco-reactor-status/>
<http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/>
<http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/index-e.html>
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