#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Test Run of Areva's System Starts

Diposkan oleh Pengetahuan dan Pengalaman on Wednesday, June 15, 2011

TEPCO started the test run of Areva's decontamination system at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant using the "low" contamination water at 1:10PM JST on June 15, according to the information to the press for June 15 (in Japanese only; no foreign reporters attend TEPCO's pressers).

No word or information as to whether the test run has completed yet.

After the successful test run of the Areva system, TEPCO will start the test run of both Kurion and Areva's systems together on June 16. The company hopes to start processing the "high" contamination water right after the successful test run of both systems.

TEPCO is running out of storage space for the high contamination water at the plant. There is only 2,200 tons capacity left for the high contamination water at the plant before the water has nowhere else to go, according to Yomiuri Shinbun (link is in Japanese).

Incidentally, the same information sheet from TEPCO says one worker at the plant was caught smoking a cigarette at the dock. At least he wasn't carrying a bucket of uranium like those at Tokai Nuclear Power Plant in 1999.

What's interesting to me is the measurement of this worker's radiation, which was low. But the internal radiation exposure (0.24 millisievert) is almost twice as much as the external exposure (0.13 millisievert).

Of course it is quite possible (even likely) that the external exposure number is not very trustworthy because of the deliberate under-counting which was almost the norm at any nuclear power plant in Japan for the maintenance work.