Nuclear waste startup Kurion only came out of stealth back in
November to discuss its plan to modularize the process of
turning nuclear waste into glass (the generally accepted way of
dealing with the waste). Now this morning Reuters reports that
the beleaguered Japanese utility that owns the nuclear reactors
at Fukushima, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), plans to
start treating contaminated water at its reactors this Summer
with technology from Kurion, Toshiba, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy,
and Areva. TEPCO tells Reuters that the amount of water that it
has pumped into its reactors to stop them from overheating has
reached about 87,500 tons. That water, which is contaminated
with radioactive materials, needs to be cleaned, and the group’s
technology can “adsorb and isolate radioactive elements, then
the treated water would be re-used to cool down the reactors,”
reports Reuters. Kurion’s technology and business plan is to
make the process of vitrification — or turning nuclear waste
into glass — modular, whi