Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
6/13/2014
Kurion announced this week that it has been awarded a new contract by Tokyo Electric Power Company to provide a system to treat the water tanks at the Fukushima-Daiichi Power Station. Kurion previously provided treatment at the cleanup site to remove cesium from groundwater back in 2011, and this contract calls for the removal of strontium from the water that is currently being stored in the tanks. “Kurion has been honored to work alongside TEPCO in the initial 2011 recovery and since to address cesium, which presented the greatest immediate threat to human safety and the environment,” Kurion President John Raymont said in a statement. “Today, strontium is the greatest emitter of radiation impacting site dose-rates. So, reducing strontium in tank water stored on-site will significantly improve worker safety and reduces the risk to the surrounding environment.”
The arrangement of the tank farm called for a special modification to the water treatment system, Kurion CEO Bill Gallo said. Kurion used its ion specific media technology as a basis to form the Kurion Mobile Processing System, which is capable of moving from tank to tank to treat the tanks for strontium. The tanks hold around 400,000 tons of contaminated water. “Due to the nature of the tank farm and the distribution of the tanks, it is necessary to develop a mobile processing system, which is what we have done with this technology,” Gallo told RW Monitor this week. “In addition to our ion specific media technology to remove ionic strontium, this system also employs sulfation technology to remove colloidal strontium, and in addition, this system will also reduce some of the calcium and magnesium contents in the tank water. It’s a very significant project for us.”
The water in the tanks had previously been treated by Kurion and other similar systems to remove cesium. “At the time of the tsunami and the immediate aftermath, the biggest dose driver was cesium, and this is normally the case,” Gallo said. “It’s a strong gamma emitter, so the immediate mission was to remove the cesium from the water to reduce the dose to workers and to the environment. Now the biggest dose driver in the tank farms is strontium, so if you will, it’s the next isotope of concern.”
The first set of equipment has already arrived in Japan with the rest arriving in the coming weeks, Kurion said. ATOX, a Japanese nuclear power company, will operate the system for the TEPCO. ATOX had previously operated Kurion’s system, and it has emerged as a partner of Kurion at the Fukushima site, Gallo said. The new system is a bit more complex, so some additional training will be needed for the company, but due to its similarities with the other treatment technology, it should not take long to get up to speed, Gallo said.
