At the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the alarm went off a month ago, but no measures were taken to prevent the leak
In connection with the leakage of large volumes of radioactive water from the territory of the damaged Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima, an investigation was launched. The cause of the leak, as previously reported, was faulty filters. But how did it happen that with the total control of the situation at the nuclear power plant declared by Japanese experts, the filters turned out to be inoperative? Moreover, the very possibility of reacting to the identification of a malfunction was not provided.
All these questions were asked to the management of the company, which is the operator of the emergency nuclear power plant.
Officials acknowledged that the filters had already been changed twice before due to the fact that their service life expired earlier than planned. At the same time, recently, as noted by the Japanese press, the filters have not been changed. In fact, there was an admission that the company was well aware that overdue filters were being used for a certain period. This automatically led to the ingress of radioactive water into the ocean.
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has repeatedly been caught in Japan for hiding information on the state of affairs at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. In particular, in February of this year, TEPCO concealed the fact of failure of two seismometers at one of the reactors. Then it turned out that the seismic sensors had not worked since at least December 2020 - about 2 months. Therefore, in the event of an earthquake, the station simply could not assess the risks.
Problems with 24 filters out of 25, as it turns out, the company discovered a month ago. And then, when the radioactive sludge was moved into special containers, an alarm was triggered, indicating the threat of infection. But the company did not take any measures.
Japan Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Satoru Tanaka:
The company had to respond quickly to the problem to minimize the risk of radioactive water leaking into the environment. But this was not done.
TEPCO officials said that after the alarm was triggered, they monitored the situation, but did not identify any leak outside the perimeter.
Akira Ono, Head of TEPCO Fukushima Decommissioning Unit:
We regret. We will definitely improve the security management system.
They regret ... And that's all? .. The colossal harm to the environment was inflicted, the concealment of information about the threat was revealed, the use of inoperative filters was discovered, but the company again may not bear any responsibility.
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