Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–April 18, 2011 – UPDATE AS OF 5 P.M. EDT.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) estimates it will take up to nine months to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A plan released Sunday breaks the project into two steps, the first taking up to three months, the second up to six months more.
According to the company’s “Roadmap Towards Restoration,” TEPCO plans to:
- Fill the containment vessels of reactors 1 and 3 with enough water to cover the fuel in the reactors while it decides the best course of action to repair the damaged containment vessel of reactor 2. The goal is to lower the temperature of the water inside the reactors to below boiling.
- Install heat exchangers to help cool the reactors. TEPCO continues to inject water into the reactors to prevent overheating. TEPCO also continues to spray water onto the used fuel storage pools as needed.
- Use giant covers with filters to enclose the reactor buildings and control the release of radioactivity.
- Install additional water storage tanks and purification facilities to process the highly radioactive water that has accumulated in the plant buildings and nearby concrete enclosures. The decontaminated water then will be used to cool the reactors. Radioactive water that has accumulated in turbine room basements is hampering work to restore cooling operations.
- Expand monitoring of radiation in the 12.5-mile evacuation area and later decontaminate houses and soil.
TEPCO continues injection of nitrogen gas into the containment vessel of reactor 1 to stabilize the environment inside the reactor.
New Videos Posted
NEI has uploaded two new videos to its YouTube channel: “Health Physicist Explains the Differences in Health Impacts From Fukushima Versus Chernobyl” and “Health Physicist Says Fukushima Poses No Health Risk to Americans.” Both videos feature Barbara Hamrick, radiation safety officer and certified health physicist at the University of California’s Irvine Medical Center.
Source: nei.org
