Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant’s New Crown Diagnosis Surge
2022-08-23 15:21:46Source: China News Network
China News Service, August 23. According to Kyodo News, recently, at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the number of new crown diagnoses among employees and operators of partner companies has increased rapidly. Although TEPCO emphasized that it “has no impact on the reactor scrapping operation”, nuclear sewage will be discharged into the sea around the spring of next year, and the expansion of the epidemic may lead to delays in the project.
According to reports, an average of regarding 4,000 people work a day at the nuclear power plant. The first confirmed infection was in December 2020, and the highest number of confirmed cases as of last year was 64 in August 2021. Entering this year, it has increased once more, with a total of 111 people hitting a new high in July. As of the 19th, the number of people diagnosed with the new crown in August reached 330, regarding three times the cumulative number in July. In some projects, up to 30% of the staff were infected.
In the work of erecting a work platform to remove the spent fuel of Unit 2 from the pool, 30 of the approximately 90 workers were infected in the past month, accounting for 30%. In the project of installing a large cover in Unit 1 to prevent the scattering of radioactive materials in the reactor building, 26 of regarding 140 people were confirmed to be infected, accounting for nearly 20%.
Tepco said that “this is not a collective infection at the job site”, and various projects are continuing, but the epidemic may continue to expand in the future. 15 people have also been infected in projects related to the discharge of nuclear sewage into the sea, which started in full on the 4th of this month.
According to reports, in the nuclear power plant, in addition to thorough disinfection, it is also called for the number of passengers traveling by vehicles to be reduced to regarding half of the capacity. The person in charge of TEPCO said: “At this stage, there is no project delay or shortage of workers. If the infection continues to increase, we will discuss and adjust the way the project is advanced.”
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 occurred in the waters off northeastern Japan and triggered a huge tsunami, causing heavy casualties. Affected by the earthquake and tsunami, a large amount of radioactive material leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
On April 13, 2021, the Japanese government decided to discharge a large amount of nuclear sewage from Fukushima into the sea. According to the plan, the nuclear sewage will be diluted with sea water and then discharged regarding 1 km offshore through an undersea tunnel.
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