Posted on 06/30/2011 6:22:10 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Circulation cooling system hits another snag
The newly installed reactor-cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered another problem, as its water treatment equipment has stopped.
The system that decontaminates and re-uses radioactive water from the facilities is believed to be the key to the stable cooling of the reactors.
But Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says the decontamination equipment stopped automatically on Thursday afternoon when the alarm went off.
TEPCO says the problem turned out to be a malfunction of a gas exhaust on a French-made device that removes radioactive material from the water.
The utility says the device was undergoing engineering work to prevent gases from flowing backward, when the alarm set off.
It is looking into the cause of the malfunction, including a possible link to the engineering work.
TEPCO says it has continued injecting circulated water into the reactors, as it has already treated about 2,000 tons of water to be used for cooling.
Since its start on Monday, the cooling system has experienced a series of problems, including leaky piping.
Thursday, June 30, 2011 20:03 +0900 (JST)
P!
New day = new problem
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