Temporary water storage tanks at the Storage Area (North Side) of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. These tanks are used for storing low-level radioactive materials in Unit 5 and 6, 27 May 2011. TEPCO

By Tsuyoshi Inajima
2 Jun 2011 Radioactive water accumulating in Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant may start overflowing from service trenches in five days, potentially increasing the contamination from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been manually pumping water into overheating reactors after cooling systems broke down and much of that has overflowed into basements and trenches. The water is rising at a rate that means it will overflow as early as June 6, Bloomberg calculations from the company’s data show. “There is still a risk of radioactive water leaking into the sea,” Hikaru Kuroda, an official at the utility known as Tepco, said in Tokyo today. “We may have between five and seven days before the water levels reach the top of the trenches.” … “Solving the problem of contaminated water is critical,” said Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan. Tepco has pumped millions of liters of cooling water into the three reactors that melted down. By May 18, almost 100,000 tons of radioactive water had leaked into the basements of reactor and turbine buildings, connecting tunnels and service trenches at the plant, according to Tepco’s estimates. Water levels are between 27.7 centimeters (11 inches) below the top of a shaft leading to a trench connected to the No. 2 building and 23.9 centimeters below the ground at the No. 3 unit today, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tepco, said. The levels were 64.1 centimeters for the No. 2 building and 45.6 for No. 3 on May 27, showing a rate of increase that will reach the lip of the trenches as early as June 6. … The rate of increase in water level quickened because of three days of rain from typhoon Songda that weakened as it swept past Japan earlier this week. Namie, a town near the Fukushima Dai-Ichi station, had 112 millimeters of rain on May 30, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. …

Fukushima Radioactive Water May Breach Plant’s Storage Trenches in 5 Days

June 3 (Yomiuri Shimbun) – The level of radioactive water has fallen significantly in the No. 1 reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday. The water level, which had risen 376 millimeters in the 24 hours from 7 a.m. on Monday, fell one millimeter in the following 24 hours, and plunged 79 millimeters from 7 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. on Thursday. The underground water level around the No. 1 reactor facility is higher than the water level in the reactor building. TEPCO is checking whether the water is leaking from the No. 1 reactor building into the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor. … Regarding the No. 3 reactor, TEPCO said it would transfer contaminated water accumulated in the turbine building to a condenser. However, as the condenser is already used to store contaminated water, TEPCO will transfer 2,000 tons of contaminated water to a condensate storage tank first to provide space.

Radioactive water level plunges in No. 1 reactor