TOKYO, April 14 (RIA Novosti) – Around 240 tons of highly radioactive groundwater stored at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has been dumped into an unprepared facility due to a technical malfunction, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Monday.
NHK cited TEPCO, the ill-fated operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, as saying the contaminated water had been sucked out of the first, second and third blocks when an additional four pumps suddenly sprung back to life and undid some of the work.
The pumps reportedly moved groundwater back into the submerged portion of the plant late last week. Some of the toxic water was also pumped into a waste disposal room. The devices normally pump water from the Fukushima basement into special tanks for indefinite storage.
According to TEPCO, the misplaced groundwater has an extremely high level of radionuclides. The level of accumulated Cesium has reached several million becquerels per liter, while the safety limit stands at 25 becquerels or lower.
TEPCO told reporters the contaminated water has not leaked outside the facility.
The Fukushima operator has been plagued with disasters, including continued toxic water leaks and equipment failures since the plant suffered a partial meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck in March 2011.
Last August, TEPCO said some 300 tons of radioactive water used to cool nuclear reactors had seeped out of a tank. The leak provoked additional concerns about the site’s safety, which was evaluated as a level 3 on the international INES scale of nuclear disasters.
The Fukushima catastrophe has been dubbed the world's worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl, after radiation leaked into the atmosphere, soil and seawater from three of the plant’s damaged reactors.
