Nuclear plant clean-up in Japan with technology

TOKYO: Kurion, Inc., a player in nuclear and hazardous waste management, announced it was awarded a contract by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for a second Kurion Mobile Processing System for deployment at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant site.

The first system started operating at the site in early October 2014 and has exceeded its performance targets during this period. Kurion recently completed construction and testing of a second system identical to the first, which arrived in Japan last week.

“We are honored to be entrusted by TEPCO to build and deliver a second mobile system to remove strontium from the tank water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant site,” said Kurion Founder and President John Raymont. “The successful performance of the first mobile processing system demonstrates that our novel, at-tank approach is effective and can help improve the safety of the site by reducing strontium levels."

This at-tank mobile isotope removal system was designed to help TEPCO reduce strontium (Sr) from the hundreds of tanks on-site that contain approximately 400,000 metric tons of water, a volume that is expanding at 400 tons per day, the company explains.

Since beginning operations in October, the first Kurion Mobile Processing System has processed more than 11,000 metric tons of water. During this time, the system removed better than 99.95 per cent of the strontium from the water, surpassing decontamination targets.

The second Mobile Processing System will also remove strontium and is intended to help TEPCO accelerate treatment of the water at the site. The system will begin commissioning this week at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant site and is expected to begin operations in mid-January 2015.

In 2011, as Kurion says, it played the key role in delivering the cesium removal/adsorption system as part of an unprecedented effort by an international team of leading nuclear waste management companies to quickly deliver the first-ever external reactor cooling and purification system, which continues to operate today. That system has processed about 240,000 m3 (about 63 million gallons) of water and is responsible for removing nearly 70 per cent of all cesium activity at the site to date. The company’s robotics team created a remote inspection manipulator that was sent into the Unit 2 reactor building this summer to detect leaks within the primary containment vessel.