» TEPCO might be split into two companies in order to concentrate on decommissioning work

2013/09/22

A senior official of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has proposed that TEPCO be split up through the creation of a company in charge of decommissioning reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Tadamori Oshima, head of the LDP committee for the recovery of the 2011 March earthquake and tsunami, made the proposal so that TEPCO will be able to focus on compensation for those affected by the nuclear crisis.

Of the plant’s six reactors, TEPCO is moving ahead to decommission the Nos. 1 to 4 units that suffered meltdowns or hydrogen explosions in the early days of the crisis.

On the other hand, even after the formal decision is made to decommission the No. 5 and 6 reactors,TEPCO will not immediately begin decommissioning work. TEPCO officials intend to maintain the major facilities.

A major reason is that those two reactors, which are similar in structure to the No. 1 to 4 reactors, could be used as training centers. Workers who would decommission the No. 1 to 4 reactors would train in the No. 5 and 6 reactors.
<Media Report>

LDP bigwig pushes Tepco split to speed up Fukushima No. 1 decommissioning (Japan Times)

TEPCO split proposed to speed up Fukushima reactors’ scrapping (Mainichi Newspaper)

Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to become training center (Asahi Newspaper)

Tags:decommissioning, news, politicians, reactors, TEPCO

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