TEPCO Briefly Halts Fukushima Water Release Due to Power Outage

Jiji Press

16:39 JST, April 25, 2024

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. on Wednesday temporarily halted the release into the sea of tritium-containing treated water from its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan.

The suspension came after the power supply to the plant was partially cut off at around 10:45 a.m. According to TEPCO, a worker was injured during drilling work at the time. The worker may have accidentally damaged a power cable.

The water discharge was resumed at 5:16 p.m. The company confirmed no abnormalities at related facilities.

The worker, in his 50s and from a partner company, suffered burns to his face and arms and is receiving treatment at a hospital.

The outage occurred in one of the plant’s main systems that supply power to equipment for cooling spent nuclear fuel and facilities for releasing the treated water. It is uncertain when the problem will be resolved.

The cooling of spent fuel is continuing without problems, thanks to electricity from a separate system, and no significant changes in radiation levels have been observed at the plant site.