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Shares in Tokyo Electric Power plunged as much as 15 per cent on Wednesday as Japan’s nuclear regulator raised concerns over a huge leakage of contaminated water at Tepco’s stricken Fukushima plant.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said that the latest incident – in which 300 tons of contaminated water seeped from a storage tank – could rank as a “level 3” classification on an international eight-point scale. That marks a “serious extraordinary event”.
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At a press conference on Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power said it had detected a leak in one of the tanks that store water used to cool melted uranium fuel rods. A puddle that formed near the tank was emitting a radiation dose of 100 millisieverts an hour when measured a short distance above the surface, Tepco said – about 350,000 times higher than natural background levels.
It is the worst leak in more than 2½ years of efforts to contain the effects of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The NRA classified the leak as a “level 1” incident, the lowest on an eight-point international scale. A spokesman confirmed that it is the first time the NRA has attached a so-called INES rating to an incident at Fukushima since the government-linked watchdog was established last September.
The disclosure of the leak, the fifth in a series of similar incidents since January, is likely to increase pressure on the Japanese government to deal more urgently with the flow of toxic water into the soil and seas surrounding the plant.
This month, after Tepco admitted that water laced with radioactive particles was probably ending up in the sea, having mixed with natural groundwater, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would “take steps” to deal with the problem “instead of leaving everything to Tepco”.
Tepco has launched an operation to pump some of the groundwater into wells before it reaches the stricken plant and mixes with dangerously irradiated coolant water. A panel of government experts is also considering an ambitious proposal to freeze soil around the plant to prevent groundwater from seeping in.
Last year Tokyo effectively nationalised Tepco, Japan’s largest utility by number of customers, by injecting Y1tn ($10.3bn) of public funds. The government has also set aside taxpayer money for the development of robots to help in the process of decommissioning the plant.
Before the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, Japan depended on nuclear power for about 30 per cent of its electricity generation. Now that almost all of the nation’s 50 operable reactors have been taken offline for safety inspections, the annual bill for fossil fuel imports has risen to about Y25tn from Y18tn before the disaster, leading to huge losses at utilities and dragging Japan’s trade balance into deficit.
Since coming to power in December, Mr Abe has abandoned a plan by the previous government to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s, while urging faster restarts of idled plants. Some now expect the prime minister’s pro-nuclear position to harden, following his party’s victory in last month’s upper house elections.
“His stance is now clearer,” said a government adviser. “He understands without a certain share of nuclear, the Japanese economy cannot survive.”
Shares in Tokyo Electric Power plunged as much as 15 per cent on Wednesday as Japan’s nuclear regulator raised concerns over a huge leakage of contaminated water at Tepco’s stricken Fukushima plant.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said that the latest incident – in which 300 tons of contaminated water seeped from a storage tank – could rank as a “level 3” classification on an international eight-point scale. That marks a “serious extraordinary event”.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power said it had detected a leak in one of the tanks that store water used to cool melted uranium fuel rods. A puddle that formed near the tank was emitting a radiation dose of 100 millisieverts an hour when measured a short distance above the surface, Tepco said – about 350,000 times higher than natural background levels.
It is the worst leak in more than 2½ years of efforts to contain the effects of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The NRA classified the leak as a “level 1” incident, the lowest on an eight-point international scale. A spokesman confirmed that it is the first time the NRA has attached a so-called INES rating to an incident at Fukushima since the government-linked watchdog was established last September.
The disclosure of the leak, the fifth in a series of similar incidents since January, is likely to increase pressure on the Japanese government to deal more urgently with the flow of toxic water into the soil and seas surrounding the plant.
This month, after Tepco admitted that water laced with radioactive particles was probably ending up in the sea, having mixed with natural groundwater, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would “take steps” to deal with the problem “instead of leaving everything to Tepco”.
Tepco has launched an operation to pump some of the groundwater into wells before it reaches the stricken plant and mixes with dangerously irradiated coolant water. A panel of government experts is also considering an ambitious proposal to freeze soil around the plant to prevent groundwater from seeping in.
Last year Tokyo effectively nationalised Tepco, Japan’s largest utility by number of customers, by injecting Y1tn ($10.3bn) of public funds. The government has also set aside taxpayer money for the development of robots to help in the process of decommissioning the plant.
Before the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, Japan depended on nuclear power for about 30 per cent of its electricity generation. Now that almost all of the nation’s 50 operable reactors have been taken offline for safety inspections, the annual bill for fossil fuel imports has risen to about Y25tn from Y18tn before the disaster, leading to huge losses at utilities and dragging Japan’s trade balance into deficit.
Since coming to power in December, Mr Abe has abandoned a plan by the previous government to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s, while urging faster restarts of idled plants. Some now expect the prime minister’s pro-nuclear position to harden, following his party’s victory in last month’s upper house elections.
“His stance is now clearer,” said a government adviser. “He understands without a certain share of nuclear, the Japanese economy cannot survive.”
