With TV cameras rolling, the parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office, Yasuhiro Sonoda, downed a glass of water originally taken from a puddle located inside the building that houses reactors No. 5 and 6 at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant in an apparent attempt to prove that progress is being made in the plant clean-up work.
The water in question has been a sticking point at recent briefings. As one of the major pillars of its cleanup efforts, Tepco has been removing radioactive cesium from pooled water left behind the March 11 tsunami inside reactor buildings. But with temporary storage facilities approaching full capacity, the utility company said Oct. 7 it would start using treated water taken from close to the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors to spray on nearby trees to control dust movements and prevent potential fires.
Continue reading at Lawmaker Takes Acid Test on Fukushima Water
