TEPCO restarts water treatment system at Fukushima nuclear plant

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has restarted operations of the radioactive water treatment system at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan which suffered meltdowns following a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

However, the advanced liquid processing system (ALPS) of the plant is still doing test runs, as its three treatment lines have been suspended due to filter gasket corrosion caused by radiation and other problems. It is unclear when the test runs will complete and full operations will commence.

The system holds the capacity to remove most of the radioactive materials from toxic water except tritium. The materials are generated in the process of cooling the plant’s reactors.

Around 360,000t of toxic water requiring processing by the ALPS had been stored in tanks at the complex as of 18 June. TEPCO plans to complete processing the water by March 2015.

It also intends to construct two more facilities, including one with increased performance. The system will be capable of processing around 750t of water a day once fully operational.