Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP), which experienced the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl back in 2011, has transferred the first portion of fuel from one of the damaged reactor's fuel storage pools to a nearby facility
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd April, 2019) Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP), which experienced the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl back in 2011, has transferred the first portion of fuel from one of the damaged reactor's fuel storage pools to a nearby facility.The company started removing fuel from a storage pool inside Unit 3, which contains 52 unused fuel assemblies and 514 spent fuel assemblies, on April 15, using remotely controlled equipment.
As of Tuesday, workers have put seven unused fuel units in a cask before transferring them to a storage facility located 328 feet from the damaged building, according to the NHK broadcaster.
The cask will reportedly later be transferred to a fuel rack in the facility's cooling pool, a step that will finalize the process of removing the first batch of fuel.
TEPCO now intends to overhaul the entire process, which was previously delayed to ensure workers were protected from radiation, and continue moving fuel in July.
The operator plans to transfer all 566 assemblies in Unit 3 by the end of March 2021.
The accident at the power plant was triggered by a 46-foot tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 following a 9.0 magnitude offshore earthquake. The meltdown at three of the plant's four units and hydrogen-air explosions, which were caused by the cooling systems' failure, led to the leakage of radioactive materials and the shutdown of the plant.
