On 19 April Tepco began pumping high-level radioactive water from the basement of the Fukushima Daiichi unit 2 turbine building to the centralised radiation waste treatment facility.
The process of pumping out the water, the necessity for which was discovered in late March, was delayed to allow for several operations: the purging of 10 000 tons of low-level waste already in the facility, into the sea; inspection of the store building for cracks; installation of leakage barriers including silt fences, steel panels and caesium-absorbing zeolite sandbags in the unit 1-4 water intake and outflow area; and government approval of the plans. The Tepco report to the government included the necessity of the operation, a safety assessment, and plans for permanent water storage and treatment facilities.
According to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, the unit 2 basement and external tunnel alone contain 25 000 tons of water. Transferring just 10 000 tons of it is expected to take 26 days.
Also, following surveys of units 1 and 3, a remote-controlled robot entered and surveyed the unit 2 reactor building.
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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