Delays in Water Removal Stall Cooling System Restoration at Fukushima Daiichi

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources East Asia (Kofu-shi, Japan)--At approximately 7:30 a.m. JST on Tuesday, March 29, the removal of standing water from Unit 1 at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was suspended when the unit's condenser reached full capacity. About half of the water from the unit had been removed. Tokyo Electric Power Company Incorporated (TYO:9501) (TEPCO) (Tokyo) is now looking into disposal options.

At about the same time, authorities switched Unit 1's coolant from salt water to fresh water to help prevent corrosion. TEPCO plans to switch all reactor coolant to fresh water as soon as possible, and then do the same for spent fuel pool replenishment efforts. Unit 1's reactor temperature was lower than it was on Monday, following increased cooling efforts on Tuesday. To control increasing pressure, TEPCO decreased the flow of fresh water into Unit 1's reactor on Wednesday, March 30.

TEPCO currently estimates that water removal from units 2 and 3, the condensers and condensate storage tanks of which are full, will take approximately three days. Water in the condensate storage tanks must be moved to surge tanks before condensers can be emptied. Once the condensers are empty, removal of the standing irradiated water from both units can begin. Officials began moving water to the surge tanks at 4:45 p.m. JST on Tuesday, March 29.

All standing irradiated water must be removed from these units before power to the cooling systems can be restored.

TEPCO resumed spent fuel replenishment efforts at Unit 4 at 4:00 p.m. JST on Wednesday, March 30. Unit 4 was not active at the time of the earthquake, and all of its fuel is currently located in the spent fuel pool. Fifty-three members of the Kobe city fire department were dispatched to aid other involved organizations at Fukushima Daiichi on Tuesday, March 29.

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