The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) plans to start work on decommissioning its tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan's northeast, first by removing spent fuel rods by November this year. The decommissioning process is expected to take 40 years, Japanese media reported on Thursday.
The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors of the plant into meltdown spewing radiation into the air and ocean, forcing the evacuation of more than 160,000 residents in a 30-kilometer radius of the plant. Besides, a hydrogen explosion had damaged the structure that houses a fourth reactor.
During the initial stages of decommissioning, TEPCO workers will need to remove the spent fuel and dismantle reactor buildings while keeping melted fuel cool, the NHK public broadcaster reported.
The first step in that process involves removal of 1,533 spent fuel rods stored in the pool in the reactor-4 building. It will be a delicate operation, made even more sensitive by the fact that the hydrogen explosion raised concerns about the earthquake resistance of the structure.
The work, planned to start in mid-November, is expected to finish by the end of 2014. Cranes and other heavy machinery needed for the job have been brought to the site, where high levels of radiation and other problems continued to slow down the decommissioning process.
TEPCO is also required to speed up a survey in preparation for its plan to remove the melted fuel within ten years and accelerate efforts this year to develop remote-controlled robots to assist the workers in removing the spent fuel rods.
Besides the huge expenditure involved in the decommissioning work, TEPCO, Asia's biggest power company, has to raise funds for compensating the displaced that would run into more than $30 billion.
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