Tokyo Electric Power Co said the tsunami generated by last month’s earthquake was as high as 15 metres at its crippled nuclear station, which has been leaking radiation since the surge knocked out backup power systems.
The utility provided its first assessment of the height of the tsunami since the March 11 quake, after criticism from the government and evacuees that it was slow in responding to the disaster. The base of the station is about 10 metres (33 feet) above sea level. “Most of the area around the reactor buildings and turbine housings was swamped,” the utility known as Tepco said late yesterday.
Almost one month on from the disaster, Tepco is still using emergency equipment to try to cool reactors damaged at the Fukushima Daiichi station north of Tokyo after mains electricity was knocked out. The company is trying to prevent further explosions after blasts damaged containment structures, releasing radiation into the air and sea. Tepco plans to start transferring high-level radioactive water in a trench at the station’s Number 2 reactor to a condenser. “We aim to drain the contaminated water away immediately as the level has risen to less than one metre below the top of the trench,” said Teruaki Kobayashi, the head of the company’s nuclear maintenance group, today in Tokyo.
About 60,000 metric tonnes of contaminated water lies in the basements of turbine buildings and trenches around the Number 1, 2 and 3 reactors, the company said last week. Tepco needs to drain the water to restore reactor cooling systems in the turbine buildings.
