The extraction of spent nuclear fuel from a pool of the sixth power unit of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant (NPP) in northeast Japan will be completed in the first half of 2025 instead of 2023, the Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday, citing plant operator TEPCO
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2023) The extraction of spent nuclear fuel from a pool of the sixth power unit of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant (NPP) in northeast Japan will be completed in the first half of 2025 instead of 2023, the Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday, citing plant operator TEPCO.
The work on extracting fuel from the pool at the sixth power unit began in May last year. The fuel was first transferred to a common pool in another building, after which spent fuel assemblies were placed in special air-cooled containers that could be left at the station. The process was halted when employees found a rust-like plaque on the lid of one of the containers, the report said.
After the plaque was detected, the tightness of the containers could no longer be guaranteed, and work had to be suspended, Kyodo said.
In 2011, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was severely damaged as a result of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami in what is considered to be the worst global nuclear disaster after Chernobyl in 1986.
