Approximately 5.5 tons of water containing radioactive material has leaked from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in northeastern Japan.
According to state broadcaster NHK, a leak was detected in the ventilation of the building housing the system that purifies radioactive materials from contaminated water accumulated at the plant.
About 5.5 tons of contaminated water containing radioactive material was found to have leaked around the building’s ventilation outlet. The leakage was stopped by stopping the flow of contaminated water into the system.
Officials at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the plant operator, estimated that the water “could contain 22 billion becquerels of radioactive material, including cesium and strontium.”
While most of the water containing radioactive material seeped into the soil, no significant abnormalities were detected in drainage channels in the immediate area.
It was reported that the operating company has given “no-entry” status to the area where the water leaked and has immediately initiated procedures, including the collection of soil in and around this area.
Waste water discharge
TEPCO started discharging radioactive wastewater from the plant into the ocean in August 2023. The first discharge was completed on August 24-September 11, the second on October 5-23, and the third on November 2-20.
The wastewater is discharged 1 kilometer off the coast through a tunnel built under the sea. A total of 31,200 tons of wastewater will be discharged into the Pacific Ocean by March.
Thanks to the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), radioactive materials in the pure water that cools the reactors at the plant are separated except for tritium material.
In its final report in July 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that Japan’s wastewater discharge plan complied with safety standards.
In 2011, a 9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused nuclear meltdowns in the plant’s reactor and the area around the plant was declared an evacuation zone.
