Spent Fuel Pool Leak Discovered at Fukushima

TEPCO had to stop the cooling of a spent fuel pool in Unit 5 at the Fukushima Daiichi power station last weekend after a seawater leak was discovered in a pipe, the company announced yesterday. The leak has since been repaired partially, with some work still needed to be done. “After investigation on July 6, the company found seawater leaking from a hole approximately 3mm in diameter, on a valve that is used to control amount of water flow,” TEPCO said in a release. “The leak was stopped after the suspension of the system, and the hole was immediately repaired inserting a hardener. The company said it is planning to restart the SW cooling system after further repair is done.” Unit 5 achieved safe shutdown during the disaster at the site enabling the fuel inside to remain undamaged. The spent fuel pool will be maintained through the use of the Residual Heat Removal (RHR) System, which is normally used to cool the reactor, TEPCO said.