A makeshift storage area for contaminated water at Japan's badly damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will reach capacity in the next week, Japanese media reported Monday.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials told reporters that a building converted to store 10,000 tons of irradiated water contained 8,700 tons of water as of Monday morning, Japan time. At the current transfer rate of 12 tons per hour, the facility will reach its capacity in about five days, at which point the water removal operation will stop until a treatment facility is completed, Japan Today reported.
Areva engineers in several countries, in concert with specialists from Veolia Water, have spent the last month designing a treatment system for the plant that will use a chemical process to remove radioactive contaminants and salt from the water. Once installed, the technology will be able to treat 50 tons of water per hour, which will then be used to cool reactors instead of seawater or fresh water brought from off site. In the best-case scenario, Areva indicated the system could be operational by the end of the month. TEPCO has indicated it expects treatment to begin in June.
In the meantime, TEPCO will leave contaminated water in the basements of units 1 though 4. An estimated 80,000 tons of water from the March 11 tsunami and subsequent efforts to cool reactors at the blacked-out plant flooded the units, elevating dose levels and filling tunnels that have leaked into the ocean. In addition to a waste-storage building converted to hold the water, storage containers have been brought on site, including the 10,000-ton-capacity Mega Float that arrived at the plant Saturday.