TEPCO Nears 'Deep Freeze' Of Soil Wall At Fukushima Nuclear Plant

OKUMA, JAPAN - FEBRUARY 19: A large number of pipes and freezing equipment take up much of the space of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s refrigerator plant at the embattled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on February 19, 2016 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. The plan envisages a frozen soil wall built around the reactor buildings by inserting 1,568 pipes to a depth of 30 meters. Cooling agents, which register 30 degrees below zero, will be pumped into the pipes to freeze the surrounding soil. In theory, the flow of groundwater into the reactor buildings, which would mix with contaminated water and empty out in the sea, will be blocked. With approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority earlier this month, the utility plans to start freezing the area facing the sea as early as March, a process expected to take about two and a half months. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)