14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, another leak occurred at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. All in all, some 100 tons of highly radioactive water escaped a tank, and the spill is now referred to as the worst to have taken place at the facility in six months.
Yesterday, the nuclear plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., otherwise known as Tepco, issued a press release detailing how and why this latest contaminated water leak happened.
As it turns out, the incident was due to a couple of valves that somebody had mistakenly left open.
Despite the fact that it was closed, one other valve contributed to the leak, simply because it was a faulty one. Tepco explains that, because of the two valves left open and the one that was broken, the tank, in which water used to cool the reactors was stored, overfilled. Consequently, it spilled some of its content.
“The overfilling appears to have been caused by the improper flow of water through a pipe from the processing facility to the tank.”
“There are three valves on the pipe, of which two were improperly left open, and the other was closed but failed to function,” the plant's operator says.
“Tepco is continuing to investigate the reasons why the valves were open, and why the closed valve was not functioning,” it adds.
What's interesting is that, according to The Asahi Shimbun, the incident would not have been as grave as it was had Tepco workers not ignored an alarm telling them that the tank was close to full capacity.
Thus, the publication says that, at about 2 p.m. on February 19, local time, an alarm intended to alert workers that the tank contained a dangerously high amount of contaminated water sounded. However, this warning was ignored.
Commenting on the incident, Zengo Aizawa with Tepco said that, “We are deeply embarrassed that this sort of unacceptable event would occur after the many steps we have taken to improve the management of stored water.”
“We will therefore conduct a thorough investigation into what occurred and determine what additional steps must be taken to prevent any similar occurrence in the future, and will further strengthen field management of stored water,” he added.