Japan suspends waste water nuclear operation

Highlihts►Workers have pumped water into reactor cores and fuel rod pools, leaving more than 100,000 tonnes of contaminated water in basements, drains and ditches, some of which has leaked into the ocean.◄▬ Japan suspends waste water nuclear operation
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) June 18, 2011

Nuclear watchdog slams Japan reaction to Fukushima Vienna (AFP) June 18, 2011 - The UN's atomic watchdog on Saturday criticised Japan for failing to implement the agency's convention on dealing with nuclear emergencies after the accident at its Fukushima power plant. A report to be published Monday at a five-day ministerial conference on nuclear safety said Tokyo should have followed guidelines laid down by the document after the plant was crippled by a tsunami following an earthquake. The convention lays down the rules for cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and states that may need help, in the areas of security and communication. The report, which was seen by AFP and drawn up by experts who visited Japan last month, said Tokyo never implemented the convention. Japan also did not follow IAEA guidelines about tiered safety measures against outside threats, it said. IAEA safety standards are not binding for member states. The agency said that Japanese authorities had also failed to implement anti-tsunami measures that were tightened in 2002. The agency said earlier this month that Japan underestimated the hazard posed by tsunamis to nuclear plants, but praised Tokyo's response to the March 11 disaster as "exemplary". The experts' final report will be made available to the IAEA's 151 member states during the ministerial conference which starts Monday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Saturday halted an operation to clean highly contaminated waste water at a crippled Japanese nuclear plant due to higher-than-expected radiation levels.

The embattled operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi facility said it had suspended the procedure just hours after it started because a new part was needed, adding that it did not know when it would resume.

Part of the system that absorbs radioactive caesium had reached its processing capacity and needed to be replaced far earlier than expected, TEPCO officials said.

The operation started at 8:00 pm Friday (1100 GMT) and was stopped five hours later, said TEPCO, which had earlier expected the part to last for one month.

"We are studying the cause of this," said Junichi Matsumoto, TEPCO official in charge of nuclear operations.

TEPCO officials speculated that highly radioactive mud might have entered the treatment system or that waste water was more radioactive than previously measured.

"We do not have a firm timing as to when we can resume the operation of the water treatment facility," Matsumoto told a news conference.

TEPCO has struggled to cool overheating reactors at the plant, hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and deadly tsunami on March 11.

The wave knocked out reactor cooling systems and backup generators, sparking meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks. Aftershocks have continued to hit the area, with a 5.9 magnitude quake shaking the region Saturday evening.

The world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 has caused radioactive material to spew into the air, ground and sea and forced the evacuation of 80,000 people in a 20-kilometre (12-mile) radius.

Japan suspends waste water nuclear operation