Inside a giant decontamination facility at the
destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant,
workers in hazmat suits monitor radioactive
water pumped from three damaged reactors,
making sure it’s adequately — though not
completely — treated.
Three lines of equipment connected to pipes
snaking around in this dimly lit, sprawling facility
can process up to 750 tons of contaminated
water a day. Four other lines elsewhere in the
plant can process more.
From there, the water is pumped to a complex of
about 1,000 temporary storage tanks that crowd
the plant’s grounds, where additional tanks are
still being built. Officials say the huge tanks will
be completely full by the summer of 2022.