Japan’s Regulator Approves Completion Of ‘Ice Wall’ At Fukushima-Daiichi

21 Aug (NucNet): Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has given the go-ahead for Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to freeze the remaining section of a “wall of ice” in the hope of blocking groundwater from entering the reactor buildings at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station. The NRA said Tepco could start the final freeze of a seven-metre section of the 1.5-kilometre long frozen underground soil wall on 22 August 2017, industry group the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (Jaif) told NucNet. Jaif said it is not known if the move will prove effective in cutting the volume of groundwater mixing with radioactive water at the station, and it is expected to take months to completely freeze the final section. The government has spent about $318m (€270m) on the ice wall project, which began in March 2016 to help deal with about around 400 tonnes of contaminated water being produced daily. The project involves 1,568 pipes that were placed into the ground 30 meters deep around the four reactor buildings to circulate liquid at minus 30 degrees and freeze the soil around them. The underground ice wall is intended to block the groundwater from flowing into the reactor buildings. Jaif said groundwater entering the reactor buildings has been coming into contact with melted nuclear fuel and other debris from the March 2011 accident, resulting in an increasing amount of contaminated water.