Groundwater flooding reactors to be diverted

Kyodo - Groundwater is seeping into the damaged reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to build about a dozen wells to redirect and halve the flow.

Groundwater from precipitation is mixing with highly radioactive cooling water gathering in the reactor buildings, turbine buildings and basements, increasing the volume of tainted water at the complex.

The utility thus wants to use the wells to direct some of the groundwater into the Pacific Ocean — likely about 1,000 tons per day — before all of it seeps into the reactor buildings and elsewhere.

Tepco says it will check the contamination level of any groundwater before releasing it into the sea.

"By creating a groundwater bypass, the amount of water flowing (into the) reactor buildings is expected to be reduced by about 50 percent," ...