Japan finally plugs radioactive leak
Nuclear plant operator says engineers stop radioactive water leak but more contaminated water to be pumped into the sea.
Published 4/6/11on Al Jazeera English

Engineers have stopped highly radioactive water leaking into the sea from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant, the facility's operator said.

The development at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, announced on Wednesday, is a breakthrough in the battle to contain the nuclear crisis caused by last month's earthquake and tsunami.

However, the company operating the plant, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), still needs to pump low-level contaminated water into the sea because of a lack of storage space at the facility.

"The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected a mixture of liquid glass and a hardening agent and it has now stopped," a TEPCO spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

Engineers had been desperately struggling to stop the leaks and had used sawdust, newspapers and concrete as well as liquid glass to try to stem the flow of highly-contaminated water.

The liquid glass was injected into the ground beneath the leaking storage pit on Tuesday and stopped the leak after solidifying the earth.

Engineers are still faced with the massive problem of how to store 60,000 tonnes (60 million litres) of contaminated seawater used to cool over-heated fuel rods and are being forced to pump 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive water back into the sea.

'Not yet under control'

"The situation is not under control yet," Thomas Grieder, Asia analyst at forecasting firm IHS Global Insight, said.

"TEPCO's decision to displace the contaminated water into the ocean reflected the urgency of clearing the turbine buildings and trenches of radioactive water so as not to damage equipment needed for restoration of cooling systems."

Workers are struggling to restart cooling pumps - which recycle the water - in four reactors damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that hit northeast Japan.

Until those are fixed, they must pump in water from outside to prevent overheating and meltdowns.

On Tuesday, Japan asked Russia to send a floating radiation treatment plant, which would solidify contaminated liquid waste from the nuclear plant, Russian media reported.

The Suzuran is one of the world's largest liquid radioactive waste treatment plants. It treats radioactive liquid with chemicals and stores it in a cement form.

It can process 35 cubic metres of liquid waste a day and 7,000 cubic metres a year.

Engineers also planned to build two giant "silt curtains" made of polyester fabric in the sea to block the spread of more contamination from the plant.

They had resorted to desperate measures to contain the damage, such as using bath salts as a dye to try to locate the source of leaks at the complex, 240km north of Tokyo.

'Condolence money'

TEPCO said on Tuesday it had started paying "condolence money" to local governments to aid people evacuated from around its stricken plant or affected by the radiation crisis.

The company is facing a huge compensation bill, but said it must first assess the extent of damage before paying compensation.

The quake and tsunami left nearly 28,000 people dead or missing, thousands homeless and Japan's northeast coast a wreck.

Radiation fears have also seen several countries ban Japanese food imports from the nuclear zone; India is the first to ban food imports from all areas of Japan over radiation fears.

Japan has called for calm over radiation concerns, but is itself considering imposing radioactivity restrictions on
seafood for the first time after contaminated fish were found.

Samples of the water used to cool reactor No. 2 were five million times the legal limit of radioactivity, officials said on Tuesday, adding to fears that contaminants had spread far beyond the disaster zone.

Small levels of radiation have been detected as far away as Europe and the west coast of the United States.