What's more worrisome than SARRY being stopped (TEPCO does have backups - Kurion's cesium absorption towers and AREVA's decontamination system if they really need treatment) is how little capacity left in storing the highly contaminated water (7 days worth).
According to TEPCO's email notice for the press (7/31/2013):
７月30日、「ブースターポンプ停止／漏えい検知」の警報が発生し、第二セシウム吸着装置（サリー）が停止したことについての続報です。
SARRY (cesium absorption system) stopped after an alarm sounded on July 30 signaling "Booster pump stopped/leak detection".
今回停止したブースターポンプはＢ系であり、現場の警報盤を確認したところ、セシウム吸着塔に異常を示す警報が発生していることを確認しました。
The booster pump that stopped is on Line B. On checking the alarm board on site, we confirmed that there was an alarm indicating there was something wrong with the cesium absorption tower.
停止に至った詳細な現場調査および待機中のブースターポンプ（Ａ）の起動準備を、本日（７月31日）朝から開始いたします。
We will conduct a detailed investigation this morning (July 31) to understand how the system stopped and prepare to start the backup booster pump on Line A.
なお、第二セシウム吸着装置（サリー）の処理が停止しても滞留水の受け入れは、集中廃棄物処理施設（高温焼却炉建屋）と集中廃棄物処理施設（プロセス主建屋）を合わせて約７日分の余裕があること、また、原子炉への注水は復水貯蔵タンクと淡水化装置を合わせて約12日分が確保されていることを確認しました。
Even if processing [of contaminated water] by SARRY is stopped, we have about 7 days worth of capacity to store contaminated water in Solid Waste Processing Facilities buildings. We have confirmed that about 12 days worth of reactor cooling water is secured in the condensate storage tank and the desalination apparatus.
In the desalination apparatus?? I suppose TEPCO means tanks that store water treated by the desalination apparatus.
I knew TEPCO had long stopped using Kurion's cesium absorption system and AREVA's co-precipitation system, but I don't think I read or heard anywhere why they stopped using them.
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The absence of factual information about Fukushima is just toxic to public understanding and to confidence in the institutions and people charged with dealing with this disaster.
We know that TEPCO has treated at least 250,000 tons of water, but we don't know how effectively.
The stored water may be high in tritium, so even if the cesium level is down to 0.1% of what it was initially, it may still be undesirable to release. However, TEPCO is running low on storage space while the ground water is getting more contaminated from the escaped reactor fuel.
The latter should be of concern, the reactor fuel contained about 850kg of cesium, of which about 4kg were estimated to have been emitted in the accident. The rest is or was still in the fuel and is presumably getting leached out by the water around it. That suggests that the contamination could become about 200 times worse than it is currently. That obvious prospect however is not getting discussed, nor are the hard choices that may have to be made. Dumping still contaminated water to prevent the outflow of much more contaminated groundwater may be in the public interest, but without public knowledge, there can be no real public consent.
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