» Fuel removal test will conduct at No.4 reactor

2013/11/05

TEPCO will conduct a test for nuclear fuel removal at the No. 4 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, delaying the start of the actual fuel removal operation by up to two weeks.

The test was requested by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization. The test would include transporting a protective fuel cask from the No. 4 storage pool to another pool in a different building about 100 meters away, to provide more stable conditions for cooling spent fuel.

Of the four reactors in use at March 11, 2011, only the No. 4 unit avoided meltdown because it had been defueled for maintenance and all its rods were sitting in its spent fuel pool. However,the building housing of the No. 4 reactor and the storage pool were hit by fires and a hydrogen explosion after the station lost power, disrupting the pool’s cooling system. More than 1,300 spent fuel assemblies and more than 200 fresh ones, including some containing plutonium-infused mixed-oxide fuel, remain in the pool.
<Media Report>
Tepco to conduct fuel removal test at reactor 4 (Japan Times)

TEPCO to conduct test for Fukushima No. 4 unit fuel removal (Mainichi Newspaper)

Japan OKs fuel removal from pool at nuclear plant (Asahi Newspaper)

Tags:news, NRA, reactors, spent fuel, TEPCO

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