Fukushima water decontamination suspended indefinitely

Treatment of radioactive water at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant might be indefinitely suspended after malfunctions crippled the water purification process and recontaminated thousands of tons of partially purified water, Japanese media report.

I think RT is being a bit sensational here. Notice the "might be".

The failure in the system, known as the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), is the latest setback in Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO) uphill battle to stockpile radioactive water, which is ballooning at a rate of 400 tons per day.

I'm actually amazed they even have this system. It was only theoretical the last time I read about it. So I cannot bash them for that they get an A for effort.

TEPCO said up to 900 tons of water, which had not been sufficiently cleaned in the ALPS equipment, flowed into a network of 21 tanks that were holding 15,000 tons of treated water. Not only have the 21 tanks been rendered unusable, but all 15,000 tons of previously cleaned water will now have to be retreated.

Anyhow this is just a slight update on whats happening at the plant you can read the full article at RT.

rt.com...

reply to post by Pimpintology


I think they are being sensational as well...

The chance might be .001% lol.

There is no way they would be allowed to let it go.

What are they attempting to do? Contaminate all of the worlds oceans?

Well, I take this as a thumb in the dyke type scenario.

What little they decontaminate, is a drop in the bucket, and is out paced by their abillity to even store new, let alone handle the back log of water.

It would make sense to focus the efforts somewhere where it could pay off better.

Fukishima is not about getting it better, its about minimizing how bad its going to be.

The math is way out in the boonies...they are talking about 24 days or so water when they have been going 2 years....what about the rest?
How much has seeped into the water table?Gone out to sea?Turned into rain|?
Bah!

Update on the ALPS system. As I said before it appears RT was a bit sensational.

TEPCO fails to restart Fukushima water decontamination process

The water decontamination process at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has once again been halted, only about six hours after the plant’s operator TEPCO announced it was resuming the purification process following a previous failure. Six days ago, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) detected a failure in what is known as the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). The company said that up to 900 tons of water, which had not been sufficiently cleaned in the ALPS equipment, flowed into a network of 21 tanks that were holding 15,000 tons of treated water. Not only have the 21 tanks been rendered unusable, but all 15,000 tons of previously cleaned water has to be retreated.

The ALPS can remove 62 different types of radionuclides, including strontium and cobalt, from contaminated water. While the system cannot remove tritium – a radioactive isotope of hydrogen – the purification of water through the system is expected to reduce damage levels if water leaks from storage tanks.

The equipment, which is supposed to be able to treat up to 750 tons of contaminated water a day, has been undergoing trial runs since March 2013. The system, however, has been plagued with problems from the outset. The latest glitch and subsequent recontamination was caused when one of the three ALPS lines failed to remove radioactive substances to a sufficient level.

Like I said last I read about this is was theoretical and they were only planning prototypes in 10 years or so. That's rather fast. Anyhow just an update on that system.