The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said it
had made the decision after consulting with the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency, said Juntaro Yamada, a spokesman
for the regulator.
As news emerged last week of the leak of
hundreds of tons of radioactive water from a storage tank, the NRA
said it was planning to issue the alert, its gravest warning since
the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami that sent three reactors at
the plant into meltdown.
The leak had previously been assigned a level 1
"anomaly rating" on the International Nuclear and
Radiological Event Scale, which ranges from zero, for no safety
threat, to seven, for a major accident like the meltdowns.
The
decision to issue the level 3 alert came two days after a Japanese
government minister had compared
the plant operator's efforts to deal with worrying toxic water leaks
at the site to a game of "whack-a-mole."
Toshimitsu Motegi, the industry minister, said
Monday after visiting the plant that "from now on, the
government is going to step forward." His ministry has been
tasked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to come up with measures to
tackle the mounting problems at Fukushima Daiichi.
Huge
volumes of toxic water
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power
Company (Tepco), has been struggling to deal with the high volume of
contaminated water at the plant.
Last month, Tepco admitted that radioactive
groundwater was leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the site,
bypassing an underground barrier built to seal in the water.
About 400 tons of groundwater flow into the
site each day, and Tepco also pumps large amounts water through the
buildings to keep the crippled reactors cool.
The operator has stored hundreds of thousands
of tons of the contaminated water in huge tanks at the site. There
are now about 1,000 of the containers, 93% of which are already full
of radioactive water.
Around 350 of the tanks were built as temporary
storage units in the aftermath of the meltdowns. But more than two
years later, they are still being used.
It was one of those makeshift tanks where the
leak was detected, setting off the latest crisis.
Tepco says it has transferred the remaining
tainted water from the faulty tank to another container. But it
hasn't said what caused the leak in the first place.
I don't know if we should worry too much about this. But according to this post, we should.
Christine,
ReplyDeleteThat website seems to be down...maybe the toxic waste melted its servers? :/
Nicoenarg
LOL
ReplyDeleteI was able to get it to load. It was slow though. Me thinks there is a lot of traffic. ;)
hiya this is a good interview,,
ReplyDeletehttp://vimeo.com/73322328
And this is the site I read daily, best site on the net, that I have found
http://enenews.com/
I think they have to really change their entire plumbing setup system already and stop using makeshift tanks and water storage units for the job. They should have been solely for temporary arrangements because of their non-durable nature which definitely cannot last for an extended period of time. A small amount of toxins in every pump would eventually accumulate to a humongous settlement of toxicwater at the end of the entire process which poses many risks like health concerns and more.
ReplyDelete