#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Radioactive Material Processing Facility Flooded with Water, TEPCO Discloses

From TEPCO's latest Plant Report (as of 8:00PM JST 3/30/2011) in Japanese (English report is not issued yet for the same time period):

New Information on the report:

On March 28, a water puddle was found in the central environmental facility's main processing building (集中環境施設プロセス主建屋). A sample of the water was taken for analysis, and on March 29 the radiation of 1.2×10Bq/cm3 within the [nuclear safety] control area, and the radiation of 2.2×10Bq/cm３ in the non-control area were detected.

３月28 日、集中環境施設プロセス主建屋で水溜まりを確認し、放射能分析の結果、３月
29 日、管理区域内で総量約1.2×10Bq/cm３、非管理区域で総量2.2×10Bq/cm３の放射能を検出しました。

If the water "puddles" in the turbine buildings are any indication, this water "puddle" is probably a flood.

And sure it is, it's a flood. Asahi Shinbun (in Japanese; 12:22AM JST 3/31/2011) says:

TEPCO announced on March 30 that the basement of the central environmental facility is flooded, probably from the tsunami. The building is right next to the Reactor 4 building, and it holds the facilities to boil down the radioactive water to further eliminate radioactive materials. It was hoped that the facility could be used to process the contaminated water in the turbine buildings and tunnels. The processing of the contaminated water is expected to be delayed because of the flood.

東京電力は３０日、福島第一原子力発電所（福島県大熊町、双葉町）の集中環境施設の地下が冠水していることを明らかにした。津波の影響とみられる。 この施設は４号機の原子炉建屋の隣にあり、液体を煮詰めて蒸留し、放射性物質をより分けるための施設。タービン建屋や坑道にたまった汚染水の処理に活用で きると期待されていた。冠水によって汚染水の処理は遅れる見通しという。

According to TEPCO's plant facility manager Kobayashi, "Flooding is worse than we thought. It will take time to restore the facilities." Tanks, pumps, and other equipments like electric boiler are submerged under water and unusable.

　東電原子力設備管理部の小林照明課長は「思いの外浸水がひどい。復旧には時間を要する」と説明した。タンクやポンプのほか、電気ボイラーを含む機器も水没して使えなくなっている。

So again, the flooding of the building was discovered on March 28, TEPCO didn't disclose until March 30, and from the way the article is written, the Asahi reporter didn't bother to find out when TEPCO discovered the flooding. (Not to embarrass TEPCO or just too lazy, I don't know which.)

So what exactly is this building that TEPCO has admitted is flooded with radioactive water?

In TEPCO's own words [emphasis added]:

The central environmental facility is where we condense the radioactive water, dry the extracted radioactive materials, compress them into solids; we also incinerate flammables like cloth and paper. It is to reduce the volume of radioactive wastes. After the processing at this facility, the radioactive wastes are sealed inside the barrels and stored in the solid waste storage within the power plant.

集中環境施設は、放射性物質を含んだ液体を濃縮した後、さらに乾燥させて圧縮して固めたり、布や紙などの燃えるものは焼却して灰にして、廃棄物の容積を減らすための施設なんだ。ここで処理した廃棄物は、ドラム缶に閉じ込めて、発電所内の固体廃棄物貯蔵庫で保管するんだよ。

In other words, the building itself is "radioactive" by nature.

(Photo from TEPCO's webpage: from left - building exterior, central control room, laundry sorting area)

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