The Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., having been selected by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE, METI, Japan), is now executing the tasks of the Project Management Office for the “Project on Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Management.” In this project, based on the “Grant Policy for Subsidy for the Project on Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Management,”we are assisting activities in support of the development of technologies that will be useful in decommissioning and contaminated water management. Through this, we aim to improve the level of science and technology and to advance decommissioning and contaminated water management smoothly in Japan.
At this time we are proceeding with the RFP(Request for Proposal) for entities to receive subsidies and implement the “Validation of technologies for contaminated water management” project in the FY2013 Supplementary Budget. With this news release, we are providing a preliminary announcement of the RFP. More detailed information shall be provided separately on our website in the near future.

Regarding the preliminary announcement for entities to implement with subsidies the “Validation of technologies for contaminated water management” project in the FY2013 Supplementary Budget

1. Purpose of this project

As for the countermeasures for contaminated water arising in Units 1 to 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Company (hereinafter referred to as the “Fukushima Daiichi NPS”), the Committee on Countermeasures for Contaminated Water Treatment released “Preventative and Multilayered Measures for Contaminated Water Treatment at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Company – Through completeness of comprehensive risk management -” (Summary, Text [Japanese text only]) on December 10, 2013, and based on this report, the Government published the “Additional Measures for Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Issues at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi NPS”(Summary [Japanese text only]).

The Additional Measures are expected to be highly effective but among the technologies which require confirmation and verification for their application, it was decided to carry out technology verification of those techniques that have a high degree of technical difficulty. In this project, we intend to implement validation of the technologies listed in Section 2, “RFP topics.” Additional RFP for other technologies is under consideration.

2. RFP topics

(1) Demonstration Project for Seawater Purification Technologies

At present, although the densities of radioactive substances outside of the port or at the port entrance of the Fukushima Daiichi NPS remain at a low level, in some areas in front of the water intakes of Units 1 to 4 in the port, the density has not decreased below a certain level. Considering this situation, a verification test shall be carried out to validate the performance of purification technologies for removing mainly radioactive cesium, radioactive strontium, etc. from seawater.

(2) Demonstration Project for Technologies for Capturing Radioactive Substances from Soil

At the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, considering the leakage of contaminated water from the tanks in the past, a verification test shall be carried out to validate the performance 3 of capturing technologies for removing radioactive substances (mainly radioactive strontium) from soil whose density of chloride ions exceeds a certain level (above 200 ppm).

(3) Demonstration Project of Technologies for the Decontamination of Contaminated Water Tanks

On the site of the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, bolted tanks will be replaced with welded-joint tanks. In order to reduce the radiation exposure of workers engaged in dismantling work, it is necessary to validate the performance of the decontamination methods of bolted tanks, whose inside structure is complex. In the decontamination of bolted tanks, the contaminated water stored inside the tanks will be discharged, and the decontamination work will be done as a preparatory step of their dismantlement.

(4) Demonstration Project for Unmanned Boring Technologies

At the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, borings will be indispensable, as before. In order to reduce the radiation exposure of workers engaged in boring activities, a verification test shall be carried out to validate the performance of unmanned boring technologies under conditions of high-dose radiation.