Workers are using a milky white dye, while trying desperately to trace the path of highly radioactive water which is gushing from a Japanese nuclear plant damaged by the tsunami and leaking into the ocean.
A crack in pit of maintenance were found over the weekend - the most recent confirmation this radioactivity continues to spill into the environment. The leak is a symptom of the main difficulty of the Fukushima Daiichi complex: Radioactive water is pooling around the plant and prevent workers powerup stabilize reactor cooling systems to overheat.
Government officials conceded Sunday that it will be probably several months before the cooling systems are completely restored.
And even after this happens, there will be years of work before cleaning the area around the complex and understand what to do with it.
Until all pools of contaminated water are pumped to storage tanks and the restored cooling system, the methods of pumping water reactors and her fortune to gush out everywhere where it can is the only way to lower the temperature and pressure in the reactor corewhere the fuel rods to produce massive heat amounts, even if nuclear reactions have ceased.
"We must keep putting water in the reactor to cool down to prevent damage additional fuel, even though we know that there is a secondary effect which is the leak."-Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the nuclear safety and Industrial Agency
"We have to keep putting water in the reactor to cool down to prevent further damage of fuel, even though we know that there is a secondary effect, which is the leak," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety and Industrial Agency.
"We want to get rid of stagnant water and remediate the place so that we can return to our main task to restore sustainable cooling capacity as quickly as possible."
That system fortune complicates also another objective of the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.: containing the spread of radiation.
Radioactivity spread the plant since March 11, when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused a massive tsunami that wiped out large areas of the northeast coast of the Japan. It is believed that up to 25,000 people died in the disaster, and tens of thousands lost their homes. Thousands more have been forced to flee a 20 km radius around the plant due to radiation.
Over the weekend, a 20-centimetre-long crack has been discovered in a pit of maintenance, sending a jet of water in the sea. The region is normally blocked by a dam, but a crack was also discovered in this external barrier Monday.
A man is planned for the radiation as possible into a centre of evacuation in Fukushima, North of the Japan Monday. A Japanese Government official, warned that it could take months before the nuclear crisis caused by an earthquake on March 11 and tsunami is under control. Damir Sagolj/ReutersWhile radioactivity is quickly diluted into the ocean, a Government spokesman, said Monday that the volume of contamination becomes a concern. It is not clear how much water has a leak of the grave to this day.
"Even if they say contamination will be diluted in the ocean, more this continues, the more radioactive particles will be released and enjoyed the impact on the ocean," said the Secretary General of Government Yukio Edano. "" "". We are urging TEPCO that they take immediate measures to deal with this. ?
The operator said Monday that it is ordered fencing that is typically used to contain oil spills. The screens are not designed to trap radioactivity but could restrict the flow of water and reduce the spread of contamination, said TEPCO Manager Teruaki Kobayashi.
It was not step clear when they would arrive.
In the meantime, the company tried to seal the leak to concrete and by injection of a mixture of polymer, sawdust and log more shredded not a system of trenches, nearest then where they believed that the source was.
The failure of these efforts appeared to signal that officials were targeting the wrong pit of maintenance channel. Workers threw several kilos in the Monday system milky white bath salts, to see if they could trace the path of the water.
The dye has not yet reached the ocean.
"There could be other possible passages that water may be travelling." We must look carefully and contain as soon as possible, Nishiyama.
Before you restore the cooling system, workers must rid the plant of radioactive water basins that are collected under each buildings turbine three troubled reactors and poured in various trenches around the complex. TEPCO has proposed pumping it in tankers, barges and now plans to send to a facility on the site.
Work on these problems continue to grow, even as workers try to stop the latest leak, Nishiyama said.
"We need to implement affirmative action measures to everyday problems, such as well water leaks, but we continue on our effort to achieve the objective," said.
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