Fukushima plant steps closer to fuel-rod removal

More than two years after Japan's nuclear disaster, damaged vehicles, twisted metal and other debris remains strewn about the Fukushima plant. Scores of black and gray pipes and hoses cover the ground in some places, part of the company's makeshift system to pump water into the damaged reactors to keep them from overheating.
Plant chief Takeshi Takahashi told journalists given a tour of the plant today that workers have cleaned up much of the debris in their work areas, but that the priorities are keeping the plant stable and working toward shutting it down -- a process that operator Tokyo Electric Power Co estimates will take 40 years.

"It's a long road, but we will tackle the decommissioning process by paying special attention to safety," he said.
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, showed off a massive steel structure designed to help workers extract more than 1,500 fuel rods from a damaged reactor building -- Unit 4 -- at the center of international concerns.
The potentially risky procedure, expected to begin in November and take about a year, would be the first major step in the decommissioning of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where three reactors melted down after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, spewing radiation into the surrounding soil and water and forcing about 160,000 people to evacuate.

Concerns have focused on the fuel rods in the cooling pool of Unit 4 because the pool sits atop the damaged building and remains vulnerable to earthquakes. Currently, a jury-rigged system of pipes and hoses sprays water into the fuel pool to keep it cool, as well as into the reactor cores and fuel pools of nearby Units 1, 2 and 3.

TEPCO built the 52-meter tall structure next to and partially over the remains of Unit 4, which suffered a hydrogen explosion after the disaster, to safely remove the 1,533 fuel rods. The rods will be transferred to a joint cooling pool inside a nearby lower building.

After that project is completed, TEPCO will turn its attention to removing the melted fuel from the reactors of Units 1, 2 and 3. The company still isn't sure exactly where the fuel has fallen inside the reactors because radiation levels remain dangerously high inside the buildings.
The Fukushima plant has been hit with a series of problems in recent months, including a rat-induced blackout, adding to concerns about TEPCO's ability to safely shut down the plant.