Radioactive water leak into sea stops at Fukushima: Jiji
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) Apr 06, 2011
Radioactive water stopped leaking into the Pacific Ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant Wednesday, Jiji Press reported, citing the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).
TEPCO had on Tuesday injected sodium silicate, a chemical agent known as "water glass", to solidify soil near a cracked pit, from where large volumes of highly radioactive water had been seeping through and running into the sea.
Run-off from the plant has measured more than 1,000 millisieverts and is believed to be the source of radioactive iodine-131 readings in ocean waters more than 4,000 times the legal limit.
The pit, which has a 20-centimetre crack in its wall, is linked to the plant's reactor No. 2, one of those which had its cooling systems put out of action by the quake and tsunami of March 11, triggering the nuclear crisis.
Several unsuccessful attempts had been made to try to plug pipes that run to the pit, using a polymer and even newspapers and sawdust, and an effort to seal the crack with cement had also failed to stop the leak.
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Japan dumps low-level radioactive water into sea
Ofunato, Japan (AFP) April 4, 2011
Japan on Monday started to dump more than 10,000 tons of low-level radioactive water into the Pacific as part of emergency operations to stabilise its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The last-resort measure came after the Bank of Japan said business confidence had plummeted since the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, plunging the country into its worst crisis since World War ... read more
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