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[이데일리 김보겸 기자] It has been found that part of the frozen soil wall that freezes the ground around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant building and blocks the inflow of groundwater has melted. It is believed to be the cause of the rise of groundwater near the nuclear power plant.
According to NHK on the 26th, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said that there is a possibility that a part of the frozen ground wall may have melted due to groundwater gushing up near the nuclear power plant.
As one of the measures to reduce contaminated water, the frozen soil wall is a structure that prevents groundwater from flowing into the building by burying a pipe around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant building and pouring a liquid at minus 30 degrees Celsius. TEPCO installed a thermometer on the frozen soil wall to measure the temperature, and in some areas close to the nuclear power plant unit 4, it exceeded 0 degrees since mid-September and rose to 13.4 degrees on the 18th.
When TEPCO dug the frozen soil wall in the area, water was filled with water where it should have been frozen. As the groundwater rose, the temperature rose, and some of the frozen soil walls were analyzed to have melted.
TEPCO plans to begin construction of steel pipes and steel pipes to prevent groundwater from flowing into the frozen soil wall from early December at the earliest, and then review future measures.
TEPCO said, “There is no change in the water level inside the frozen soil wall close to the nuclear power plant, and the function of the frozen soil wall is maintained overall.”
Fukushima contaminated water is caused by the flow of rainwater and groundwater into the accidental nuclear power plant. The amount of polluted water generated in this way amounts to about 150 tons per day, and TEPCO cleans it up with an ALPS device and stores it in a storage tank inside the nuclear power plant site. However, even if the purification treatment is performed, the radioactive material called tritium (tritium) contained in the contaminated water is not removed.
It is pointed out that the storage space is reaching its limit as a large amount of polluted water has been generated for 10 years from 2011. The Japanese government plans to discharge the contaminated water into the ocean in 2023.
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