Radioactive Water Tanks at Fukushima Plant Almost Full

Nuclear waste disposal tanks that hold radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are almost full, officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, said on Monday.

TEPCO said that the storage tanks will be filled in four days, yet a system to treat the water—already reaching levels of more than 80,000 tons—for reuse in the reactors will not be completed until mid-June, Kyodo News reported.

TEPCO said they could also use a temporary storage tank, but that will not be ready until early July.

Compounded by the expected rise in leaks and the coming rainy season, the radioactive water could pose another challenge for the beleaguered facility. The contaminated water could overflow into the sea again. In April, the No. 2 reactor leaked contaminated water into the ocean, triggering a sharp rebuke inside and outside of Japan.

Contaminated water has pooled inside reactor and turbine buildings via cracks and fissures since the March 11 earthquake damaged the plant’s cooling systems as well as several key containers.

TEPCO workers can only pump more water into the reactors to cool them down, which ends up producing more radioactive water.

TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said that officials believe the basements in the buildings can hold the water for two more weeks, according to The Associated Press.

Fully ridding the plant of the radioactive water could take up until the end of the year, he added.