Six years after the largest nuclear disaster in a quarter-century,
Japanese officials have still not solved a basic problem: what to do
with an ever-growing pile of radioactive waste. Each form of waste at
the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, where three reactors melted
down after an earthquake and a tsunami on March 11, 2011, presents its
own challenges.
The
Tokyo Electric Power Company is pumping water nonstop through the three
reactors to cool melted fuel that remains too hot and radioactive to
remove. About 400 tons of water passes through the reactors every day,
including groundwater that seeps in. The water picks up radiation in the
reactors and then is diverted into a decontamination facility.
But
the decontamination filters cannot remove all the radioactive material.
So for now, all this water is being stored in 1,000 gray, blue and
white tanks on the grounds. The tanks already hold 962,000 tons of
contaminated water, and Tokyo Electric is installing more tanks. It is
also trying to slow the flow of groundwater through the reactors by
building an underground ice wall.
Within
a few years, though, and no one is sure exactly when, the plant may run
out of room to store the contaminated water. “We cannot continue to
build tanks forever,” said Shigenori Hata, an official at the Ministry
of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Data: 11.03.2017
Fonte: www.nytimes.com
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