TEPCO finished the testing of Areva's decontamination system (no word yet as to how successful it was) and started the test run of the entire system (oil/strontium removal - cesium removal (Kurion) - decontamination (Areva) - desalination) at 12:20AM JST, June 16.
The test is scheduled to run for 30 to 40 hours before the full run starts with the high contamination water sometime on June 17.
I still don't quite get it. Why did TEPCO (or the Japanese government) need both Kurion's and Areva's systems? They both treat the same radioactive materials - strontium and cesium. It looks like a political arrangement to me, as the US couldn't just let France's Areva take the credit for cleaning up the contaminated water at a nuke plant with the wrecked GE reactors.
NHK World English: (6/16/2011):
The operator of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant has begun testing a complex system to decontaminate highly radioactive wastewater.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, began the test run early on Thursday ahead of full-fledged operation on Friday.
More than 110,000 tons of the toxic wastewater has accumulated at the plant after months of using water to cool overheating nuclear fuel. The water is hampering work to bring the facility under control.
TEPCO is struggling to find storage space for the water, which is accumulating at a rate of 500 tons daily.
The treatment system combines 4 devices, including those made by French and US makers.
The French-made device uses a special chemical agent to treat the contaminated water. The US-made device is designed to remove radioactive cesium. Tuesday's testing showed it reduced cesium by one-3,000th.
TEPCO plans to reduce the level of radioactive substances to one-10,000th before moving decontaminated water to temporary tanks.
Technical problems delayed the test by 4 days.