Workers at Fukushima Daiichi have begun building an underground structure to block contaminated groundwater from reaching the ocean, while a recent power outage has resulted in temporary pay cuts for Tokyo Electric Power Co. executives.
Developments in the last week related to the nuclear plant blacked out following Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami include:
Wall Progressing at Edge of Harbor
On Tuesday, crews began driving the first of about 600 piles into the earth at the edge of the plant in a project to isolate groundwater contaminated by damaged reactors. According to TEPCO, the pilings will support buried steel sheets to create an underground wall spanning 2,500 feet inside and outside the plant's manmade harbor. The pilings will be driven through porous layers of soil and then about five feet into a layer that is mostly impermeable. Plans call for the last metal sheets to be installed in April of next year.
Executives Fined Over Power Failure
TEPCO has disciplined several people after a rat in a temporary switchboard caused a power failure at Fukushima spent fuel pool cooling systems last month. On Wednesday, the company said it has ordered one-month 5 percent pay cuts for the company's president, managing executive officer and an executive vice president, in part because of delayed public reporting of the incident.
TEPCO Criticized for 2011 Lobbying Payment
On Sunday, the Asahi Shimbun reported that TEPCO paid $189 million to a nuclear power lobbying group for a period that began just one month after the Fukushima accidents. The paper noted that the payment occurred at roughly the same time the utility began seeking financial assistance from the government to deal with the crisis. The 2011 payment to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan was accounted for in operating costs factored into electric rates, although a TEPCO spokesman said future fees will be paid from different sources.