Fukushima is leaking again. A new earthquake is to blame

The level of cooling water in two reactors at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant fell after a strong earthquake.

The new damage could further complicate the already difficult process of decommissioning the plant, which is expected to takefor decades to come.

Representative of Tokyo Electric Power Co.(TEPCO) Keisuke Matsuo said the drop in water levels in reactors 1 and 3 indicates that existing damage to their primary containment chambers was exacerbated by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday, causing more water to leak.

According to him, the radioactive water presumably remained inside the reactor buildings, and there are no signs of any external influence.

Recall that in 2011 a powerful earthquakeA magnitude 9.1 and tsunami damaged the cooling systems of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, causing three reactor cores to melt and nuclear fuel to fall to the bottom of their main containment vessels.

TEPCO will continue to monitor the water and temperature at the bottom of the containers, Matsuo said.

After the 2011 disaster, cooling waterconstantly leaked from the damaged vessels of the primary containment into the basements of the reactor buildings. To compensate for losses, additional cooling water was pumped into the reactors to cool the remaining molten fuel in them. The recent drop in water levels indicates that more water is leaking out than before, TEPCO said.

Matsuo also stated that the level of cooling water had dropped by 70 cm in the main containment chamber of the reactor of the first unit and by about 30 cm in the third unit.

Increased leakage may require pumpingmore cooling water into the reactors, resulting in more contaminated water to be processed and stored in huge tanks at the plant. TEPCO says its 1.37 million ton storage capacity will be filled as early as next summer. The recommendation of the government commission to gradually release it into the sea met with fierce resistance from the local residents, and the decision is still pending.

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