The operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant revealed a new leak, which was caused when workers overfilled a storage tank without a gauge to warn them of the danger.
The leak was small compared to previous ones , measuring at a little more than 110 gallons. In contrast, thousands of gallons of radioactive water have seeped into the Pacific Ocean in the years since Japan’s deadly earthquake and tsunami.
The most recent error is just one of many plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has committed since the crisis started in 2011. Fukushima’s operator explained that workers noticed the leak on Thursday when they were patrolling the site.
TEPCO explained that workers saw water spilling from the top of the tank, which is one of about 1,000 temporary storage tanks erected to hold water that was used to cool the melted nuclear reactors. After it was released from the tank, the water spilled out of a concrete barrier and seeped into the ocean via a ditch.
All of the temporary tanks were hastily built in the aftermath of Fukushima’s meltdown. As such, the tank where the latest leak happened was built on uneven ground, making it more difficult for workers to judge how much water it could hold. The company is filling the tanks to the brim while it struggles to find a place to hold all the contaminated water.
TEPO spokesman Masayuki Ono explained at a news conference, “We could have, and should have, prevented the overflow.” He explained that the tank was already 98 percent full when workers decided to put more radioactive water in it. While Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga criticized TEPCO’s inability to stop leaks, he added that the company detected the problem faster than the last time.
Unfortunately, this week’s radioactive water leak likely won’t be Fukushima’s last problem.
[Image by Kawamoto Takuo via Wikimedia Commons ]
