More than 1000 tonnes of rainwater has been dumped into soil and the Pacific Ocean after a typhoon lashed the area around Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has revised down the amount of rainwater it drained into the soil and Pacific Ocean at the wrecked nuclear power plant after the typhoon lashed the area.
The utility siphoned off about 1130 tonnes of rainwater from behind concrete barriers in front of seven areas with storage tanks holding radioactive water, it said in a statement.
Bloomberg newsagency reports that’s 100 tonnes less than earlier estimated.
Radiation levels were within the safety standard of 30 becquerels a litre, spokesman Masayuki Ono said at a briefing.
The rainwater accumulated in the barriers as a result of Typhoon Man-Yi passing over the site.
The plant escaped any major damage from the typhoon, Mr Ono said.
Levels of radiation in the drained water ranged from three becquerels a litre to 24 becquerels a litre, the Tokyo-based utility said in a statement reported by Bloomberg.
Hundreds of thousands of people were advised or ordered to evacuate in Japan as Typhoon Man-Yi brought flooding, power blackouts and flight cancellations to the western and central parts of the country.
At least one person died, while three were missing and 96 reported injured in 19 prefectures, public broadcaster NHK said.
Dale Klein, the chairman of an advisory panel to TEPCO and a former head of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission has spoken to Bloomberg about the ongoing problems at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant and the prospects for the decommissioning of its reactors.
The plant was seriously damaged in a earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and TEPCO has struggled to deal with the clean up since then.
