Water recycling at Japan nuclear plant stops again (AP)

TOKYO – A water recycling system at Japan's damaged nuclear power plant was halted for repairs Monday after a brief run that had been hailed as major progress in restoring control and improving conditions at the crippled plant.

Tons of fresh water has been pumped to the plant to cool its reactors, a process that taints the water with radiation. About 110,000 tons of tainted water has accumulated and could overflow by early July if the recycling system fails or other storage options are not enough.

Workers have struggled for weeks to use a new system to clean the tainted water and reuse it in the cooling process. The water treatment components fully operated for five hours earlier this month, and test-runs were conducted before it went fully operational Monday. It also pumped treated water into the reactors — a long-awaited new phase that lasted only briefly.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the recycling system was halted about an hour and a half after it began operating. Workers spotted water leaking from a hose that was sending the processed water into the reactors, TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.

The leak shut down the recycling segment of the system, while the cleaning segment is continuing to operate. Workers switched back to fresh water injection into the reactors, Matsumoto said.

No new leakage outside the plant has been reported. TEPCO plans to start repair work early Tuesday to restore the recycling segment as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of the day.

The multinational system has reprocessed 1,850 tons of contaminated water as coolant to be pumped back into the reactors. In full capacity, the system can treat up to 1,200 tons of contaminated water per day, more than twice as much as needed to cool the three reactors.

The March earthquake and tsunami destroyed power and cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, melting reactor cores and leaking massive amount of radiation. Some contaminated water seeped into the ocean in April and May, causing criticism and concerns in and outside of Japan.

Some of the tainted water is stored in temporary tanks, but the rest has still pooled inside reactor and turbine basements and utility pits, hampering workers and risking radiation exposure.

TEPCO has sealed cracks, set up oil fences around the coastal plant, and acquired more storage tanks in case of emergency. But as long as the cleaning segment of the recycling system is functioning, the volume of tainted water will not grow.

Announcing the launch of the recycling system earlier Monday, Goshi Hosono, newly appointed nuclear crisis minister, called the system "a major step forward" toward stable cooling of the reactors. But he said he was not fully confident about the system.

"It's a problem if the system continues to be unreliable," he said. "We must turn it into something that can feed water stably."

TEPCO and the government have said they hope to achieve a cold shutdown of the reactors by January by bringing the core temperatures to below 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit).

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Tainted water swells at Japan nuke plant (AP)

TOKYO – The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is preparing to open a door of a reactor building to allow workers to install a cooling system and equipment to prevent an explosion.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. says radiation that will be released by ventilating the Unit 2 reactor Sunday will be too small to threaten human health.

Meanwhile, more radioactive water is pooling at the tsunami-hit nuclear plant as workers scramble to restart a key cleanup system. It was shut down Saturday, hours after beginning full operations, because a component reached its radioactivity limit faster than expected.

Contaminated water could overflow within two weeks if action is not taken. At one location, water is 14 centimeters (5.6 inches) from spilling.

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Water cleanup system shut down at Japan nuke plant (AP)

TOKYO – A system to clean massive amounts of contaminated water at the site of Japan's nuclear disaster was shut down Saturday, just hours after it began full operations, because a component filled with radioactivity much more quickly than expected.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, is investigating the cause and isn't sure when it will restart the system, company spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.

Fresh water is being pumped in to cool damaged reactor cores, and is getting contaminated in the process. Some 105,000 tons of highly radioactive water have pooled across the plant, and could overflow within a couple of weeks if action is not taken.

In earlier tests, the water treatment system reduced cesium levels in the water to about one-10,000th of their original levels. The system began full operations Friday night after a series of problems involving leaks and valve flaws.

The system was suspended in early Saturday when workers detected a sharp radiation increase in the system's cesium-absorbing component, Matsumoto said. Radioactivity in one of 24 cartridges, which was expected to last for a few weeks, had already reached its limit within five hours, he said.

Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out power to the nuclear plant, incapacitating its crucial cooling systems and causing three reactor cores to melt. TEPCO aims to bring the reactors to a stable cold shutdown state by early January.

The water treatment system is to be eventually connected to a cooling system so the treated water can be reused. But treating the water will create an additional headache — tons of highly radioactive sludge will require a separate long-term storage space.

The Fukushima crisis shattered Japan's confidence in the safety of nuclear energy and prompted anti-nuclear sentiment. But there are also concerns that Japan will face a serious summertime power crunch unless more of its reactors get back on line.

Of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors, more than 30 — including six at Fukushima Dai-ichi and several others that stopped due to the quake — are out of operation.

Economy and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda said Saturday that the rest of the nuclear plants in Japan are safe and their reactors should resume operations as soon as their ongoing regular checks are completed. He said nationwide inspections this week have found that Japanese nuclear power plants are now prepared for accidents as severe as the one that crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi.

Resumption of about a dozen reactors undergoing regular checkups is up in the air amid growing local residents' fear of nuclear accidents. Many of the plants' hometown officials have said restarting any pending reactors would be impossible amid the ongoing crisis.

Kaieda, however, said Japan needs the power. "Stable electric supply is indispensable for Japan's reconstruction from the disaster and its economic recovery," he said in a statement.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency instructed Japanese nuclear operators to improve their preparedness for severe accidents earlier this month and conducted nationwide on-site inspections this week.

The inspections focused on measures to reduce the risk of hydrogen explosions inside containment buildings as one of the lessons learned from the Fukushima crisis, the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl.

Japanese nuclear plant operators have already taken other steps to improve accident management since the disaster to maintain core cooling capacity during blackouts.

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Japan nuke plant set to treat contaminated water (AP)

TOKYO – The operator of Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear plant made final preparations Thursday to launch a crucial system to treat highly radioactive water that has hampered efforts to achieve the primary goal of cooling and stabilizing the damaged reactors.

More than 100,000 tons of radioactive water have pooled across the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, and it could overflow within a couple of weeks if action is not taken.

Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said workers Thursday made final tests on a treatment system ahead of full operation planned for Friday. In test runs earlier this week using highly radioactive water kept temporarily in tanks, the machines successfully reduced cesium to about one-10,000th of the earlier levels, TEPCO said.

Three reactor cores had melted after the March 11 tsunami destroyed both power and backup generators, knocking out critical cooling systems.

Fresh water pumped into the reactors becomes contaminated and goes right through the damaged cores, seeping into reactor and turbine basements, utility pits and other parts of the plant.

Some radioactive water has leaked into the ocean, causing concerns about contamination of seafood. The leakage stopped after the operator sealed cracks, built oil fences around the coastal plant and took other steps.

The water treatment system employs key components provided by Kurion Inc. of the United States and French nuclear fuel company Areva SA to reduce cesium and other radioactive materials.

The treatment system is expected to cost at least 53 billion yen ($660 million) through December. TEPCO aims to process up to 1,200 tons of water per day and plans to eventually reuse the water as core coolant, spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.

TEPCO is also taking steps to improve the environment inside and outside the plant. Tents to cover reactor buildings to contain radiation are being built, and the operator is also setting up tents for workers to rest and avoid heat-induced problems during the summer. Last week, the health ministry said 12 people came down with heatstroke, while eight workers may have exceeded the radiation exposure limit.

TEPCO and the government have said they aim to bring the reactors to "a stable and cold shutdown" by January. But some experts say the plan is too optimistic because high radiation, contaminated water, debris and other obstacles have already caused delays.

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Google's new Finland data center is cooled by Baltic Sea's water (Digital Trends)

Google is once again showing off its big environmental conscience with video of the new Hamina, Finland data center, due to open up towards the end of the year. The new center, much like Google’s Saint-Ghislain center, will not be using chillers in its cooling system. Instead, waters from the Baltic Sea will be harnessed to keep servers cool.

Google paid $52 million for the Summa paper mill that yielded the 410 acres of land where the new data center is being built. Stora Enso, the paper-making company that formerly owned the land, closed the paper mill down in 2008 because of the drop in newspaper and magazine-paper production.

According to the video, the center collects cool water through an inlet pipe and travels through granite tunnels built by the paper mill in the 1950s. The Register has found that the pipes are two meters in diameter and “the system uses 20-year-old water pumps installed by the mill.” The tunnels and pipe are kept clear of blockage by using a small submarine to explore regularly.

The water travels through four straining systems and meets a water-to-water heat exchanger. The heat exchanger cools a separate stream that carries on to the data center. Google senior director of data center construction Joe Kava says that once the watera€™s purpose is met, a€?we return the temperature that is much more similar to the inlet temperature, so we minimize any environmental impact in that area.a€

The total costs for the structure comes to roughly $260 million, including the purchase price but the money Google saves from cooling costs will be significant. The Register also reports that the Finland data center will use wind power from the wind park next to the facility.

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Water shortages hit eastern China

This picture taken on January 28, 2011 shows a Chinese farmer holding dried vegetable seedlings at his drought-striken fields in Zhouping, east China's Shandong province.Jiangxi Province has received half its normal rainfall in 2011The province is in the midst of a months-long drought

Beijing (CNN) -- Drinking water is in short supply in parts of eastern China where a months-long drought has reservoirs tapped, state-run media reported.

More than 230,000 people -- mostly in rural areas of Jiangxi Province -- are bearing the brunt of the water shortage, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said Tuesday.

For the first four months of 2011, the province has received about half its normal rainfall, the agency said.

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Pa. sees threat to drinking water from natural gas drilling waste

s regulation of gas drilling and came the same day that an industry group said it now believes drilling wastewater is partly at fault for rising levels of bromide being found in Pittsburgh-area rivers.

Gas drilling that uses millions of gallons of chemical-laden water has rapidly grown in the past three years in Pennsylvania.

STORY: Pa. permit process is lax, AP saysSTORY: States scramble to prevent pollution from gas drillingIn other major gas-drilling states, drilling wastewater is kept out of rivers largely by injecting it deep underground into disposal wells. But in Pennsylvania, some wastewater is treated by sewer plants, largely in western Pennsylvania, and discharged into rivers.

Those wastewater plants, however, are ill-equipped to remove all the pollutants, and Pennsylvania still allows hundreds of millions of gallons of the partially treated wastewater to be discharged into rivers, from which communities draw drinking water.

The state Department of Environmental Protection cited elevated levels of bromide in rivers in western Pennsylvania in its announcement.

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Radioactive water leaks from Japan nuclear plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. via AP

Workers for the company experimentally spray adhesive synthetic resin over the ground at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant Friday.

EnlargeCloseTokyo Electric Power Co. via AP

Workers for the company experimentally spray adhesive synthetic resin over the ground at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant Friday.

The plant has been spewing radioactivity since March 11, when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing massive wave knocked out power, disabling cooling systems and allowing radiation to seep out of the overheating reactors.

VISIT: Japan PM travels to tsunami-hit villagePHOTOS: Landscape of lossGRAPHIC: Nuclear emergencies grip JapanFULL COVERAGE: Latest photos, videos and storiesThe water was seeping Saturday from a newly discovered crack in a maintenance pit on the edge of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear site into the Pacific Ocean, Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said.

Measurements show the air right above it contained 1,000 millisieverts of radioactivity. Exposure to 500 millisieverts over a short period of time can increase the long-term risk of cancer. But experts say radiation is quickly diluted by the vast Pacific and even large amounts have little effect.

It wasn't immediately clear if workers who have been rushing to bring the reactors under control were exposed. People living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been evacuated.

Nishiyama said officials will check the level of radiation in seawater near the reactor and also seawater around 9 miles (15 kilometers) off the reactor. They will use concrete to seal the 20 centimeter crack and try to stop the radiation from leaking.

"This could be one of the sources of seawater contamination," Nishiyama said. "There could be other similar cracks in the area, and we must find them as quickly as possible."

Over the past week, radioactivity beyond the legal limit has been detected in seawater just off the plant.

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