» TEPCO starts yearlong fuel removing project

2013/11/19

TEPCO started a yearlong operation on Nov.18th to remove fuel from a pool at the No. 4 reactor building, which holds 1,533 nuclear fuel assemblies.

Although the process of removing fuel rods is a milestone toward the decommissioning of Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant that will be carried out over the next 30 to 40 years, the work will require careful attention to prevent another radiation leak.

Special equipment will lift the fuel assemblies, one at a time, and place them in a cask that can hold 22 units. The container will then be transported to another pool in a different building around 100 meters away, which is expected to provide more stable conditions for keeping the fuel cool. It is expected to take about a week to complete the work cycle.

The fuel removal operation at the No. 4 unit will continue until the end of 2014. TEPCO will then move to extract fuel from the spent fuel pools of the Nos. 1 to 3 units, and seek to start the removal of the melted fuel inside the damaged reactors in 2020 at the earliest.
<Media Report>
Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant begins fuel rod removal(BBC)

Fukushima operator starts hazardous year-long fuel removal (Reuters)

Fukushima operator starts removing fuel rods(Aljazeera)

Reactor 4 pool fuel removal begins(Japan Times)

Fuel removal starts at Fukushima Daiichi No. 4 spent fuel pool(Mainichi Newspaper)

TEPCO begins removing nuclear fuel at Fukushima plant (Asahi Newspaper)

Tags:news, reactors, spent fuel, TEPCO

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