'Ice wall' test to begin at leaking Fukushima nuke plant

3gzylon 2013-09-05

展开全文

'Ice wall' test to begin at leaking Fukushima nuke plant

(Xinhua) 15:21, September 05, 2013

Email|Print|Comments

twitter

facebook

Sina Microblog

TOKYO, Sept. 5 -- The Japanese government will soon conduct a test to build a frozen wallat the leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as part of a wider plan to preventleaking radioactive water flowing into the Pacific Ocean, government officials confirmedThursday.

The feasibility test will start by mid-October at the earliest and will involve driving steelpipes 30 meters deep into the soil near the No. 4 reactor building.

The pipes will surround a 10 meter square area, initially, the officials said, and liquidcalcium chloride at minus 40 degrees Celsius will be injected into the pipes to freeze thesurrounding soil.

The test is designed to check whether such an "ice wall" is capable of stopping the flow ofcontaminated groundwater and the duration of the test period will be for five months, saidthe officials.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, along with Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi andother members of the government's nuclear disaster task-force on Tuesday approved thebasic plan to construct a 1.4 km-long underground frozen wall around four damagedreactors at the stricken facility.

By freezing the soil around the reactors and creating an ice wall, the government and thetask-force believe that groundwater will be prevented from mixing with coolant water thatis becoming contaminated after coming into contact with melted nuclear fuel.

Under its current plans and provided that the tests prove to be successful, the wall will beoperational by the end of March 2015, government officials confirmed Thursday.

The government has come under increasing pressure to take a more proactive role intacking the Fukushima crisis after a series of gaffes by the plant's operator, Tokyo ElectricPower Co. (TEPCO) , including hugely inaccurate reporting of radiation levels, shoddyefforts to patch up a leaking tank responsible for 300 tons of toxic water flowing freely intothe Pacific, and failing to detect the leak in the first place.