Nuclear
Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has promised to act quickly to address the buildup of huge quantities of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Abe, who recently suggested that the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), was incapable of overseeing the operation on its own, said the government would soon announce a comprehensive plan to deal with the world's largest nuclear cleanup.
The prospect of greater state involvement in decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi – the scene of a triple meltdown after it was hit by a tsunami in March 2011 – comes amid growing concern that Tepco is ill-equipped to cope with the scale and complexity of the cleanup.
Those doubts were fuelled by evidence that the plant is seeping up to 300 tonnes of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean every day. In a separate incident, a water storage tank was found to have leaked about 300 tonnes of highly toxic water, some of which could have found its way into the sea.
At the weekend, radiation near another tank was measured at 1,800 millisieverts an hour – a level that could kill an unprotected person in just four hours – and 18 times higher than previously thought.
Tepco had initially recorded radiation near the tank at about 100 millisieverts an hour, but admitted that this was because the equipment used could only read measurements up to that level. The latest reading came from a more advanced device capable of reading up to 10,000 millisieverts.
The buildup of water at the site is close to becoming unmanageable. Experts say that Tepco will soon be left with no choice but to release the water into the ocean or evaporate it.
At present, water is used to cool melted nuclear fuel in three reactor basements, where it becomes contaminated and then mixes with groundwater seeping down from the hills behind the plant. The site's tanks, basements and pits contain an estimated 338,000 tonnes of tainted water.
The chairman of the
Abe, who recently suggested that the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), was incapable of overseeing the operation on its own, said the government would soon announce a comprehensive plan to deal with the world's largest nuclear cleanup.
The prospect of greater state involvement in decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi – the scene of a triple meltdown after it was hit by a tsunami in March 2011 – comes amid growing concern that Tepco is ill-equipped to cope with the scale and complexity of the cleanup.
Those doubts were fuelled by evidence that the plant is seeping up to 300 tonnes of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean every day. In a separate incident, a water storage tank was found to have leaked about 300 tonnes of highly toxic water, some of which could have found its way into the sea.
At the weekend, radiation near another tank was measured at 1,800 millisieverts an hour – a level that could kill an unprotected person in just four hours – and 18 times higher than previously thought.
Tepco had initially recorded radiation near the tank at about 100 millisieverts an hour, but admitted that this was because the equipment used could only read measurements up to that level. The latest reading came from a more advanced device capable of reading up to 10,000 millisieverts.
The buildup of water at the site is close to becoming unmanageable. Experts say that Tepco will soon be left with no choice but to release the water into the ocean or evaporate it.
At present, water is used to cool melted nuclear fuel in three reactor basements, where it becomes contaminated and then mixes with groundwater seeping down from the hills behind the plant. The site's tanks, basements and pits contain an estimated 338,000 tonnes of tainted water.
The chairman of the