Post date: Apr 04, 2011 9:29:14 PM
Senior Japanese nuclear official says engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are to release radioactive waste water into the sea.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA (APRIL 4, 2011) REUTERS - Japan will need to discharge a total of 11,500 tonnes of of low-contaminated water into the ocean from the site of a stricken nuclear reactor, a senior Japanese nuclear official said in Vienna on Monday (April 4).
"The total amount of water is 11,500 tonnes," Koichiro Nakamura, a deputy director general of Japan's
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), told a news conference when asked how much water Japan needed to dump into the ocean.He said this was a required measure to avoid a more serious risk.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said earlier on Monday that it would release low-level radioactive seawater that had been used to cool overheated fuel rods after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water.
The water, which is being released to free storage capacity for more highly contaminated water, is about 100 times more
radioactive than legal limits.
Three weeks after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami hit northeast Japan, sending some of Daiichi's reactors into partial meltdown, engineers are no closer to regaining control of the power plant or stopping radioactive leaks.
The quake and tsunami left nearly 28,000 people dead or missing and Japan's northeast coast a wreck.
The world's costliest natural disaster has caused power blackouts and cuts to supply chains and business hours.