Arrival of 'Mega Float' at the Yokohama port, 7 April 2011. The float is made up of huge boxes which now have holes in them to store up to 10,000 tons of contaminated water. TEPCO

BY EISUKE SASAKI STAFF WRITER
19 May 2011 Tokyo Electric Power Co. is sticking to its goal of stabilizing the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant by July despite radical revisions to its initial strategy after larger-than-expected damage was confirmed. … High radiation levels prevented workers from taking specific measures over the past month at the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, including injecting nitrogen gas to prevent hydrogen explosions Robots have been used to study the situation within the reactor buildings, but TEPCO could not determine specific levels of radiation in the No. 2 and No. 3 reactor buildings and whether workers could safely enter. The suppression pool in the No. 2 reactor building that is connected to the containment vessel is believed to have cracks. The TEPCO plan calls for closing those cracks with concrete, but work has not started on that task. One addition to the revised work schedule is consideration of ways to stop the flow of contaminated water underground or into the ocean. Until now, TEPCO officials were considering moving radioactive water and storing it before decontaminating it. Under the new plan, contaminated water will be recycled back into the reactor building to cool the core, meaning that radioactive water will accumulate in the building for long periods. TEPCO needs to come up with measures to prevent that water from leaking outside plant facilities. … If TEPCO is unable to come up with a way to purify the contaminated water before recycling it for cooling purposes, radioactive water will continue to increase in volume. About 87,500 tons of contaminated water is believed to have accumulated within the plant. That figure could increase to 200,000 tons by December. …

TEPCO drastically revises cooling plan, but sticks to cold shutdown schedule