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SALT LAKE CITY — EnergySolutions, which operates a landfill in Tooele County for low-level nuclear waste, will design and install the system to clean up more than 160,000 tons of contaminated water from Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-chai Nuclear Power Plant.
The announcement came Wednesday and was timed with the Salt Lake City-based company's quarterly conference call with investors.
The Toshiba Corp. selected EnergySolutions, to be its "technology provider" in the design and installation of a system to decontaminate water in more than 1,000 tanks.
The tsunami-hit plant remains vulnerable more than a year after the devastating disaster left three of it reactors on a multi-meltdown cycle. The plant's extensive and vital cooling system remains a patchwork of fixes, in addition to equipment installed to process the massive amounts of water that have leaked from the impaired reactors.
Company officials stressed that none of the contaminated water will come to Utah, but instead will be managed in Japan.
"We are honored to have been chose to work alongside Toshiba and (the plant operator) in tackling this complex problem on behalf to the Japanese people," said Val Christensen, chief executive officer and president.
"It is an unprecedented challenge, but we are confident that by applying our proven technology and decades of waste experience, EnergySolutions can deliver the uniquely high levels of decontamination demanded and take the site a step closer to its ultimate remediation."
Company officials stressed that none of the contaminated water will come to Utah, but instead will be managed in Japan. The technology to be used — the Advanced Liquid Processing System — will remove radionuclides, in addition to the cesium that has already been removed.
Related:
Health uncertainties torment Japanese in nuke zone
Yoshiko Ota keeps her windows shut. She never hangs her laundry outdoors. Fearful of birth defects, she warns her daughters: Never have children.The amount of contaminated water that has to be handled is the equivalent to 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools — or nearly 40 million gallons. Two operating treatment systems will enable EnergySolutions to process up to 130,000 gallons of contaminated water per day under a contract that will support decontamination activities through fall of this year.
EnergySolutions will also provide treatment and packaging of secondary wastes that come from the water decontamination process.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., (TEPCO), the plant operator, opened up the fragile facility for a tour late last month in advance of March 11 — the one year anniversary of the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
Although no one has died from radiation exposure, a 12-mile area around the plant remains off limits and it will take decades to decommission the plant.
An independent report released by a private foundation in Japan said the nuclear meltdown was downplayed by the Japanese government, even as secret discussions were happening about possible evacuations that would have extended as far as Tokyo.
In response to the Fukushima disaster, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this month ordered a major safety overhaul of existing U.S. nuclear reactors and improvements that will have to be incorporated in plants under construction. Those mandates include new safeguards to handle prolonged power-blackouts or the simultaneous failure of multiple reactors.
Both of those were components of the Japanese nuclear crisis.
Email:aodonoghue@ksl.com
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