Nuclear Watch: Fukushima ALPS Water treatment system fails again 9/26/2014

Water treatment system in Fukushima fails again Nuclear & Energy Sep. 26, 2014 - Upadated 22:01 UTC+2 A water treatment system to decontaminate radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been partially shut down again. Tokyo Electric Power Company suspects faulty filters caused the trouble. One of the 3 lines of the Advanced Liquid Processing System, or ALPS, was turned off on Friday after the treated water in the line remained cloudy. Engineers found that the water contained calcium, which hinders the elimination of radioactive strontium. TEPCO officials are examining the cause of the failure. They say faulty calcium filters may be to blame. The ALPS water treatment system has had a series of similar filter troubles since March that resulted in shutdowns. TEPCO resumed the operations after replacing the filters with ones less likely to be affected by radioactive substances. The operator installed a second ALPS system and began test-runs earlier this month to treat contaminated water stored in tanks at the Fukushima plant. TEPCO also plans to set up another facility to treat the tainted water.