The stakes of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s fight against flooding in basements of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant grew even higher Friday as the utility announced the contaminated water could reach ground level this month.
Since Japan's devastating March 20 earthquake and tsunami that blacked out the plant, operators have searched for ways to deal with irradiated water flooding units from the tsunami and leaking reactors. As of the end of May, estimates place the total amount of contaminated water within buildings at the plant at 105,100 metric tons, which TEPCO said it believes contains 720,000 terabecquerels of radioactive contaminants.
A network of conduits and tunnels connect reactor and turbine buildings at the plant and lead to small pits outside. As of 7 a.m. Friday, Japan time, water from units 2 and 3 was 21.8 centimeters from the top of pits outside, the Asahi Shimbun quoted TEPCO officials as saying. At the rate water levels have been rising, the utility expects pits could overflow by June 20. That could happen sooner in the event of heavy rains, in which case TEPCO said it may reduce the amount of water injected into damaged reactors to cool them.
A treatment facility to desalinate, decontaminate and reuse the water engineered by Areva and Veolia is expected to come online June 15. TEPCO pumped 14,000 tons into a converted storage building until it reached capacity May 26. A number of other storage containers have been brought on site to date. And on Saturday night, TEPCO began shipping 370 additional containers to the plant by truck, the Daily Yomiuri reported. Each has a capacity between 100 and 120 tons, and TEPCO said their shipment is expected to take place until mid-August.