Tepco Electric Power (TEPCO), is the owner of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and has recently detected an increase in temperature in the underground frozen wall that was built to prevent the leaks of chemicals and radiation after the nuclear incident in 2011.
This increase in temperatures could affect the construction of the wall and the dismantling of the plant, so it must be corrected as soon as possible. This increase in temperature in the frozen wall is known to have been due to heavy rains events that occurred in recent days caused by typhoons that hit the entire area of the plant and its surroundings.
The temperature of the south wall of reactor number 4 has increased its temperature by more than 6 degrees. In its construction, the temperature of that area of the wall It was -5 degrees and now it's 1,8 degrees. They have also detected an increase in temperature in other areas of the wall, such as in the area of reactor 3. The temperature has increased from -1,5 degrees to 1,4 degrees.
In order to alleviate the problem of the increase in temperature and to freeze the wall again, it is injecting a chemical agent in those places of the wall where the greatest increase in temperature has been detected in order to solidify the earth, reduce the flow of water and accelerate the freezing of the wall.
Temperatures in these areas of the wall were already higher than the others before the storms in mid-August. It is feared that some sections may have melted due to increased groundwater flow.
TEPCO affirms that this incident could affect the deadlines for completion of the construction of the wall whose main objective is to avoid polluting discharges into the sea isolating the subsurface around the four reactors that were most affected in the 2011 Fukushima incident.