MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Thursday, TEPCO issued a report on the project’s progress stating that 99 percent of their thermometer readings showed that the wall’s temperatures are at or below the freezing point, proposing to embed in concrete the remaining one percent of the barrier which compromises the success of the project.
"The plan to block groundwater with a frozen wall of earth is failing. They need to come up with another solution, even if they keep going forward with the plan," panel member Yoshinori Kitsutaka said on Friday, as quoted by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Measurable radiation leaking into the atmosphere, soil and sea began immediately after the tsunami hit.
TESCO began its work on the $344-million project to create the ice barrier in late March, injecting a freezing solution into as many as 1,700 pipes drilled into the ground around the plant.
