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Up to 8.5 tons of
radioactive water has leaked from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
TEPCO, the plant’s operator, failed to winterize the reactor’s cooling system,
leading to fractures in its pipes due to frozen water inside.
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| The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma. |
TEPCO claims that most of
the leaked water is not radioactive, and has come from a dam. Though the
company admitted that some of the water could be radioactive, it stressed that
none of it has leaked to the sea.
Acknowledging its
insufficient planning, TEPCO began replacing older pipes with new, plastic
versions to prevent further leaks, while all leaks discovered so far have been
stopped.
Many of the cooling
system's pipes are exposed to the outside – and can run for several
kilometers without insulation. Some of the plant's workers
reportedly informed TEPCO's managers about the possibility of such a problem
during the summer.
“It was predicted that the pipes would freeze and
cause water leakage,”
said one TEPCO employee cited in fukushima-diary.com.
The Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant was damaged by a devastating earthquake and tsunami that
hit Japan last March. Radiation leakage forced tens of thousands of people to
leave their homes in and around the Fukushima region in central Japan.
(rt)
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