The much-hyped ice wall at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has failed to stop groundwater from flowing in and mixing with highly radioactive water inside the wrecked reactor buildings, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. has admitted.
Tepco officials also said at a meeting of the Nuclear Regulation Authority in Tokyo that it is not the utility's ultimate goal to shut out groundwater with the ice wall, which has been built around the four damaged reactor buildings at the plant.
Tuesday's announcement was apparently the first time the utility publicly said it is technically incapable of blocking off groundwater with the frozen wall.