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Japan nuke plants starts pumping radioactive water

By Mari Yamaguchi and Yuri Kageyama

LAST UPDATED: 4:48 a.m. HST, Apr 19, 2011




The water will be removed in stages, with the first third of it to be handled over the coming 20 days, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. In all, there are 70,000 tons (about 18.5 million gallons) of contaminated water to be removed from the plant's reactor and turbine buildings and nearby trenches, and the entire process could take months.


The operator plans to use technology developed by French nuclear engineering giant Areva to reduce radioactivity and remove salt from the contaminated water so that it can be reused to cool the plant's reactors, Nishiyama said, adding that this process would take "several months."

Once the contaminated water in the plant buildings is safely removed and radioactivity levels decline, workers can begin repairing the cooling systems for the reactors of Units 1, 2 and 3, which were in operation at the time of the tsunami. Workers must also restore cooling functions at the plant's six spent fuel pools and a joint pool for all six units.

When the tsunami struck, units 5 and 6 were going through a regular inspection. On March 20, they were put in cold shutdown, which is when a reactor's core is stable at temperatures below 212 Fahrenheit (100 Celsius).



"I don't understand what the politicians are doing, there are new committees and meetings everyday," said Hiroshi Sato, who lost his house in Kesennuma and now lives in a fabric warehouse from his old business.

"We need support, financial assistance, and nothing has come yet," he said.




But the high level of humidity inside the reactor building fogged up the robot's camera lens, making it difficult to see conditions inside. They were pulled out after less than an hour, officials said.

"We didn't want to lose sight of where the robot was and then not be able to retrieve it," TEPCO manager Hikaru Kuroda said.

The reason for the higher humidity wasn't clear, but it suggests that workers — if they were to go inside — also would have difficulty seeing through their masks, Kuroda said.


Associated Press Writer Jay Alabaster in Kesennuma contributed to this report.


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