'Ice wall' fails to freeze Fukushima's toxic water buildup

OKUMA, Japan - A costly "ice wall" is failing to keep groundwater from seeping into the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, data from operator Tokyo Electric Power Co shows, preventing it from removing radioactive melted fuel at the site seven years after the disaster.

When the ice wall was announced in 2013, Tepco assured skeptics that it would limit the flow of groundwater into the plant's basements, where it mixes with highly radioactive debris from the site's reactors, to "nearly nothing".

However, since the ice wall became fully operational at the end of August, an average of 141 metric tons of water has seeped into the reactor and turbine areas each day, more than the average of 132 tons a day during the prior nine months, analysis of the Tepco data showed.