TEPCO Finds Entry Point of Groundwater to Basement of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On September 5, Tokyo Electric Power Company Incorporated (TEPCO) (Tokyo, Japan) (TYO:9501) confirmed the location of where the groundwater was flowing into the basement of Unit 1reactor's turbine building at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

TEPCO confirmed the situation of the inflow of groundwater from mountains west of the site by lowering a camera through a hole in the first floor. They found that the groundwater was flowing in from pipes that run through the ground on the mountain side of the site and are connected to basement.

It is estimated that 400 tons of groundwater per day have flowed into the basements of the plant's four reactors, creating radioactive wastewater. According to TEPCO, this is first time that groundwater inflow has been located, and there may be other entry points into the basements of other buildings.

TEPCO also found out that groundwater was also flowing from an underground passageway to the basement of Miscellaneous Solid Waste Reducing Building, on the south side of Reactor 4.

In last week's press release, TEPCO said that it has detected 650 becquerels per liter of radioactive materials such as strontium from monitoring this water. The well is about 50 feet south of the tank where the radioactive wastewater has leaked. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has five monitoring wells on-site. Two monitoring wells are located near the tanks, and the remaining three monitoring wells are located near the sea walls of the plant.

TEPCO said, "There is the possibility that the contaminated water from the tank may have seeped into the soil and reached the underground water."

TEPCO will collect waters from the remaining monitoring wells, conduct additional boring investigation around the tanks, and analyze the soil to see the effects on the groundwater.

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