3 overseas firms picked to help tackle Fukushima plant toxic water
20:12, 26 August 2014
TOKYO. KAZINFORM Japan picked three overseas companies Tuesday to participate in a subsidized project to determine the best available technology for separating radioactive tritium from toxic water building up at the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Currently, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled plant, is test-running a system said to be capable of removing 62 types of radioactive substances from the contaminated water, but not tritium. Thus tritium-laced water is expected to accumulate at the plant in the absence of any method to remove it.
The three firms chosen from a total of 29 applicants are U.S. firm Kurion Inc., which offers technologies to treat nuclear and hazardous waste; GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada Inc., a joint venture of Japanese maker Hitachi Ltd. and U.S. firm General Electric Co.; and Federal State Unitary Enterprise RosRAO, a Russian radioactive waste management firm.