TEPCO starts test for more water injection
Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun testing one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to check its plan to submerge and cool the hot fuel rods.
The utility firm began pumping more water into Reactor Number 1 on Wednesday in order to monitor changes in the water depth in the containment vessel and check for leaks.
After increasing the amount of water from 6 to 10 tons per hour on Wednesday the firm says it has delayed further raising the amount injected due to data showing some instability in the state of the reactor.
The company initially planned to increase the amount to 14 tons per hour at around 4 PM, but is now keeping the injection at 10 tons per hour.
Tokyo Electric plans to examine the possibility of an increase in the water amount again at around 10 PM on Wednesday.
The utility originally planned to decrease the flow back to 6 tons per hour on Thursday morning, and then check for water leaks inside the reactor building by using a remote-controlled robot.
The test is part of a plan to fill the Number 1 and 3 reactors’ containment vessels with water by July, to cool the fuel rods in a stable manner.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 20:02 +0900 (JST)
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