Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Kurion: Systems Have Removed 70 Percent of Radioactivity at Fukushima

Irvine-based Kurion, the venture-backed developer of nuclear cleanup technology, reported progress of its cleanup efforts at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant today. The firm said that since it began processing the highly contaminated water at the plant, it has processed more then 36 million gallons of waste water, and removed approximately 3.5 x 1017 Becquerel (9.4 million curies) of cesium. The firm said that the figure is approximately 70 percent of the radioactivity removed from the doomed nuclear plant. Kurion was boosted from an obscure startup based on research from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to a key part of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant cleanup efforts, after the devastating tsunami in Japan one year ago. The firm is venture backed by Lux Capital Management and Firelake Capital Management. Kurion had just set up shop in Irvine in December of 2010 when it was suddenly pulled into the Fukushima cleanup efforts after the tsunami disaster.

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