Removing highly toxic water remains difficult task at nuke plant

[nadinbrzezinski]

TOKYO, April 14, Kyodo

The government's nuclear safety agency on Thursday continued to grapple with pools of highly radioactive water at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as the level of polluted water filling an underground trench edged up again after it finished pumping out around 660 tons of water.

The removal of around 60,000 tons of contaminated water from the basements of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactor turbine buildings as well as trenches connected to them is vital because the water is hampering work to restore the cooling functions of the reactors lost since the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

The pools of contaminated water are believed to be a side effect of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s emergency efforts to continue injecting water into the reactors and their spent nuclear fuel pools from outside to cool them down.

The operator known as TEPCO pumped out around 660 tons of highly radioactive water Tuesday and Wednesday from one of the trenches to a ''condenser'' inside the nearby No. 2 reactor turbine building, where during normal operation steam from the reactor is converted into water.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/85506.html