An event that happened not long ago at Japan’s nuclear power plant Fukushima-1 has reinstated concerns related to the site’s long-term safety. It was on August 9 that Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) reported a 25-ton leak of radioactive water from Reactor Unit 2, thus pinpointing another alarming history of the plant. The water, according to TEPCO, had been used in cooling the nuclear fuel and leaked into the basement of the reactor building. Fortunately, the company assured that contaminated water did not escape into the environment but remained within the facility.
At first, the leak was identified by observing an atypical drop in the water level within one of the control tanks for this pool. TEPCO later deployed a robot to check further, confirming that the source of the leak was in fact radioactive water that had leaked into the basement of the plant through its sewage system.
In response to the incident, TEPCO has halted the pumping of water into the cooling pond. The company has emphasized that this will not cause the fuel to exceed the safety threshold temperature of 65 degrees Celsius. A more detailed examination of Unit 2 is planned, to be conducted by a robot.
This event comes after a comparable leak that TEPCO discovered in February, when they discovered 5.5 tons of radioactive water seeping into a space that was around 4 by 4 meters. In another contentious move that has received criticism, the corporation recently began releasing treated radioactive water from the plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Since Chernobyl in 1986, the Fukushima accident—which started on March 11, 2011, following an earthquake and tsunami of magnitude 9.0—remains the most catastrophic nuclear accident involving civilians. It was categorized as a Level 7 major accident by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the highest level on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. As a result of the incident, tens of thousands of people had to be evacuated and there was extensive radioactive pollution. The latest disclosure highlights the continuous difficulties in maintaining the site’s security and the disaster’s lingering effects.