Frozen Wall Poorly Working

When Japan was selling itself as safe for hosting Olympic games, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe boasted that contaminated water around broken First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was completely under control. How is it now? Tokyo Electric Power Company and the government of Japan made a plan to build frozen wall underground the plant. The most unique management of nuclear accident in the world has yet shown expected outcome so far.

The frozen wall is conceptually built with 1,568 of piles driven into 30 meters depth, surrounding four broken reactors in Fukushima plant. By freezing those piles with circulation of cold liquid in -30°C, they expects the soil around the wall to be frozen, blocking water approaching that radioactively contaminated plant. TEPCO started freezing the soil in March last year and 99% of the wall is reconfirmed as being frozen. The government of Japan poured ¥34.5 billion from the national budget into the project and 260 thousand of total workforce.

The contaminated water has reduced from 400 metric tons at the time right after the accident to current 130 tons. Although the government realizes some achievements of frozen wall, the reduction includes contribution of 40 wells, which scoop contaminated water around the plant. TEPCO has not presented obvious effect of frozen wall. It is unlikely for the wall to be the final solution of contaminated underground water.

The plan was approved by a committee of experts nominated by the government in May 2013. According to a report of Mainichi Shimbun, the idea of freezing the soil was chosen from some proposals of major general constructors in Japan. The government was in need of appealing its effort for dealing with contaminated water before the selection of the host of 2020 Olympic planned in coming fall. Although there was a concern in spending money for recovery of a severe accident of private business, the experts thought it was possible, if it had been a challenging project.

The project faces an unexpected dilemma. When the level of underground water gets low, contaminated water in the plant may be dropped down and flowing out of the site. Because the freezing of soil is not fully achieved, the level of contaminated water is ironically maintained. This can be a fundamental error of the project of post-accident management of the nuclear plant.

There is 800 thousand metric tons of radioactively polluted water accumulated in the backyard of Fukushima Plant. While TEPCO wants to pour that water into the sea, fishermen are strictly opposing it. The problem of that water going nowhere has not solved at all.