Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report 2014

Expected to be major step toward meeting water treatment goals

FUKUSHIMA, October 21 2014—A new high-performance water treatment system has been placed online at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, and is expected to boost water treatment capacity by 500 tons a day while dramatically reducing its waste output, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced today.

The new system is a high-performance version of the "ALPS" water treatment system, two earlier versions of which are already in place at Fukushima. Testing began on Oct. 18, and when fully operational it is expected to raise total water treatment capacity to 2,000 tons a day. That is expected to help the company to meet water treatment commitments it has made, and to dramatically reduce the storage of highly contaminated water on the site.

In particular, it will reduce strontium to non-detectable levels, which will reduce the risk of leakage and protect the safety of workers.

Testing of the system will begin by running the high-performance ALPS for six hours a day, ultimately increasing operations to 24 hours a day after the first week or so. It will augment the existing ALPS systems, which consist of Japanese and international technologies, and which were first installed in October 2012. The systems have so far treated approximately 158,000 tons of water from which Cesium had been previously removed by the SARRY or Kurion systems.

Compared with the earlier ALPS systems, the high-performance system will produce 90 percent less radioactive waste. Rather than producing the "slurry" waste of the older systems, the new system uses a filter.

Four Additional Systems

Beyond the ALPS systems, four other water treatment facilities are now in place to reduce Strontium levels in water: Kurion's Strontium removal facility has a capacity of 300 tons of water per day. Strontium removal capabilities have been added to two existing Cesium-removal facilities, Toshiba's SARRY and Kurion's system, with capacities of 1,200 tons/day and 600 tons/day, respectively. And a reverse osmosis facility has a capacity of 500-900 tons per day.

Overview of the three ALPS systems is explained at:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/planaction/images/141021_01.pdf

Overview material of the seven treatment facilities is obtained at:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_141016_04-e.pdf

Kurion's mobile strontium removal facility is explained at:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_141002_06-e.pdf

About TEPCO

Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. (TEPCO) is Japan's largest power company, supplying energy to the greater Kanto area, including Japan's two most populous cities, Tokyo and Yokohama. Its 35,000 employees are committed to providing safe, reliable power to its 29.0 million customers, diversifying energy resources to ensure sustainability, and contributing to economic growth while fully meeting its responsibilities after the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
TEPCO website: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html
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