Company says ‘no abnormalities’ in plant parameters or equipment
The owner and operator of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan has suspended the discharge of treated water into the sea and evacuated all staff to higher ground following a tsunami warning this morning.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the discharge of treated water was stopped at 09:05 local time.
The company confirmed all staff had left the Fukushima site, about 250 km north of Tokyo, and “no injuries have been reported at this time”.
Tepco said there are no abnormalities in plant parameters or equipment at both plants.
“We will continue to closely monitor tsunami information and any impacts to the plants,” it said.
Tsunami waves have hit Hawaii after a powerful 8.8-magnitude quake struck a remote part of the Russian coast, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuations across the Pacific region.
The earthquake, one of the strongest ever recorded, struck at a depth of 19.3km and was centred 126km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city along Avacha Bay in Russia’s far east, the US Geological Survey said.
In Japan, 1.9 million people were told to evacuate and a tsunami wave of 1.3m reached the northern Iwate prefecture, according to the country’s weather agency.
The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear station was irreparably damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that saw a partial meltdown and radioactive leak from the facility.
Fukushima-Daiichi has not operated since and nearly all of the reactors in Japan were shut following the accident for the implementation of new, more stringent regulatory safety requirements.
The water being discharged into the sea from Fukushima-Daiichi was largely used to cool the three damaged reactor cores, which remain highly radioactive. Some of it has since leaked into basements of the reactor buildings, but was collected and stored in tanks.
Over 1.3 million tonnes of water – cleansed of all its radioactive material except tritium – is being released into the ocean through an underwater tunnel near the nuclear station.
Tritium levels are thinned down to 1/40 of the concentration allowed by Japanese standards. Japan has said tritium levels in the water will be below those considered safe for drinking under World Health Organisation standards.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said the plan for “controlled, gradual discharges of the treated water to the sea,” would have a “negligible radiological impact” on people and the environment.
Water is being stored in tanks at the site before being treated and released into the sea. Courtesy IAEA/Dean Calma.
