TEPCO Expels Water from Fukushima Daiichi to Make Way for Heavily Irradiated Water

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources East Asia (Kofu-shi, Japan)--On Monday, April 4 at 9:00 p.m. JST, Tokyo Electric Power Company Incorporated (TYO:9501) (TEPCO) (Tokyo) began expelling water with low-level radiation from the sub-drain pits of units 5 and 6 of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station into the Pacific Ocean. At approximately the same time, TEPCO also began expelling water from the site's wastewater treatment facility. Twelve hours later, on the morning of Tuesday, April 5, a total of 2,800 tons of irradiated water had been expelled into the ocean. As of now, TEPCO plans to release 11,500 tons in total, which could take up to 50 hours.

According to TEPCO, the levels of radiation in the water being released exceed lawful limits, but will not affect human health. If a human were to eat fish from the area every day for one year, that person would only be exposed to a total of 0.6 milliSieverts of radiation. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries has announced that sea life monitoring will be increased to ensure the safety of seafood and edible seaweeds from the area. For a brief explanation on Sieverts, see March 17 IIR article Radiation Levels at Fukushima Daiichi Fall; Radiation and Sieverts Explained.

Water expulsion from these three areas is an emergency measure facilitated by high-level radioactive water leaking from a crack in a trench leading from Unit 2 to the ocean. TEPCO was in the process of moving irradiated, standing water from units 1, 2 and 3. However, efforts to stem the leak from Unit 2 have failed. Therefore, once the water from units 5 and 6 and the wastewater treatment facility has been expelled, TEPCO will be able to move the highly irradiated water from units 1 through 3.

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