Tepco begins removal of radioactive spent fuel from Fukushima No. 2 reactor
Removed fuel assemblies are transferred to a safer common storage pool at the nuclear plant, which was heavily damaged in the March 2011 powerful earthquake and tsunami.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings announced on Monday that it has initiated the removal of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from the pool of the No. 2 reactor at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. In a previous operation last month, the company successfully extracted 28 unused nuclear fuel assemblies, which pose a relatively lower risk, from the same reactor.
Tepco aims to complete the entire process of removing spent fuel by the end of the current fiscal year, 2028. To date, the company has already removed seven out of the total 587 spent fuel assemblies from the No. 2 reactor. The moved fuel assemblies are then transferred to a safer common storage pool within the nuclear plant located in Fukushima Prefecture.
However, the fuel removal process will be temporarily halted in October due to necessary inspections of the facility and to ensure sufficient space in the common pool. The work related to transferring spent fuel commenced in June. Once the casks containing the spent fuel are filled, they are carefully lifted up from the pool using a remote-controlled crane and then transported down to a trailer outside the reactor building. The assemblies are subsequently moved to the common pool.
Earlier this year, Tepco has successfully completed the fuel removal process from the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the same nuclear power station, which suffered significant damage from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The fuel removal procedure is expected to begin at the No. 1 reactor in either fiscal 2027 or fiscal 2028, pending the ongoing efforts to remove debris from that reactor.
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Written by urgent.news from Japan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
