Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) temporarily suspended the discharge of contaminated water (referred to as "treated water" by the Japanese government) from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant due to a power outage on the 24th.
According to NHK and other sources, at around 10:43 a.m. that day, part of the power supply system providing electricity to the facilities within the Fukushima nuclear plant stopped operating. As a result, the discharge of contaminated water into the ocean was automatically paused.
Storage and measurement tank groups for contaminated water at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant [Image source=Yonhap News]
TEPCO stated that there were no abnormalities detected in the radiation measurement instruments around the nuclear plant. The reactor feedwater systems for Units 1 to 3 and the cooling systems for the spent fuel storage pools were not affected by the power outage and continued to operate.
TEPCO is currently investigating the cause of the power outage.
This is the second time the discharge has been halted since the release of contaminated water began in August last year. When a magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurred off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture on the 15th of last month, TEPCO manually stopped the discharge of contaminated water into the ocean but resumed it later that same day.
Since the first ocean discharge began in August last year, TEPCO has released a total of 31,145 tons of contaminated water into the ocean off the Fukushima nuclear plant in four separate instances up to last month.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
