EnergySolutions will announce today that it has been selected by Toshiba Corporation to clean up radioactively contaminated water at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. Toshiba was previously been selected as a preferred bidder for the work by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the owner of the plant. EnergySolutions will aid in designing and installing the system to decontaminate the water down to strict safety levels required by the Japanese Government. An EnergySolutions spokesman told RW Monitor that the work will be on-site, and that company representatives already at the site will begin work on the project immediately.
EnergySolutions said the water to be treated was used in TEPCO’s ongoing efforts to stabilize the plant. Treatment of the cooling water to date has centered on sufficient decontamination to allow its continued use as a coolant for the reactors. TEPCO and EnergySolutions will now use the Salt Lake City-based company’s Advanced Liquid Processing System to remove the wide range of radionuclides present, in addition to the cesium which has been removed to date. EnergySolutions and Toshiba will also provide the treatment and packaging of secondary wastes resulting from the water decontamination process. EnergySolutions President Val Christensen will discuss the work in greater detail during the company’s fourth quarter 2011 earnings call, to be held at 10 a.m. EST today.