TOKYO: Workers at a quake-hit nuclear plant in Japan on Tuesday began removing highly radioactive water from a reactor turbine building, a key step towards restoring cooling systems, the government said.
The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeast coast of Japan on March 11 knocked out power systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing cooling systems to fail and triggering a series of explosions.
To prevent a nuclear catastrophe, crews have pumped thousands of tonnes of seawater and later freshwater into the reactors and pools, creating a massive amount of radioactive runoff, some of which has leaked into the ocean.
About 10,000 tonnes of highly radioactive water will be transferred from the turbine building of reactor no. 2 to a treatment facility inside the plant for processing, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said.
NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said the operation would allow emergency crews battling to stabilise the plant to "pour more water into the reactor in order to gradually decrease the amount of water dousing".
"We expect to purify and remove salt from water transferred to the waste treatment facility so that it can be poured into the reactor core again."
The move is necessary in order to start work to restore cooling functions at the nuclear plant, where workers have found turbine buildings, trenches and shafts submerged in highly radioactive water.
Tens of thousands of people living near the 1970s-era plant have been forced to evacuate their homes as radiation has leaked into the air, soil and sea.
Embattled operator Tokyo Electric Power Company said Sunday it hopes to reduce radiation leaking from the plant in three months and to achieve "cold shutdowns" of all reactors within six to nine months.
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