December 04, 2022 at 10:38 pm
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan.
[Chinanews.com]According to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, Tokyo Electric Power Company will soon suspend excavation of the underwater tunnel used to discharge nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The start of the dumping at sea “around next spring” that the Japanese government and Tepco are bidding for is likely to be postponed until after the summer.
TEPCO fully launched the nuclear wastewater discharge equipment project in August this year. As of December 2, it has dug about 780 meters to the seabed, and will temporarily suspend work when it reaches about 800 meters.
According to reports, although about 80% of the 1 kilometer tunnel has been excavated, projects around the drain need to be prioritized. The time to resume excavations will be around April next year,
During this period, concrete work and other reinforcement work will be carried out around the concrete “caisson” installed at the exit of the offshore submarine tunnel. It is expected to take around 4 months but could be delayed depending on weather conditions and waves. Taking advantage of the dead times, the work on the inner wall of the well that introduces the treated water during the discharge will also be brought forward.
It is reported that around April next year, when the two projects are completed, the tunnel excavation will be restarted, and the remaining 200 meters will be completed in 2 to 3 months. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan and triggered a massive tsunami. Affected by both the earthquake and tsunami, a large amount of radioactive material leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. On April 13, 2021, the Japanese government formally decided to filter and dilute Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater and discharge it into the sea, a decision that was however widely contested and opposed by the international community and also raised serious concerns in Japan.
