Review of decommissioning process at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Nuclear fuel removal Up to 5 years delay

Review of the decommissioning process at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Nuclear fuel removal Up to 5 years delayed December 27 11:53

The future process of the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station will be reviewed for the first time in two years, and measures will be taken to prevent the removal of nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pools of Units 1 and 2 and to prevent scattering of dust containing radioactive materials. It was decided to delay up to five years to do it.

The process of decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was reviewed for the first time in two years and approved at a government meeting on the 27th.

In the new process, Unit 1 will be four to five years later than the current plan due to measures to start the removal of nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pools of Unit 1 and Unit 2 due to measures to prevent scattering of dust containing radioactive materials. In 2027 or 28. Unit 2 was reviewed between FY2024 and FY2014, one to three years later.

The time to finish removing nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pool for all of Units 1 to 6 has been set to the end of 2031.

In addition, the goal is to reduce the amount of contaminated water generated around 170 tons daily by water injection and groundwater inflow to cool down melted-down nuclear fuel to less than 100 tons per day by the end of 2025.

On the other hand, the time to complete the removal of so-called “fuel debris” including burnt-down nuclear fuel and to complete all decommissioning work remained unchanged from 2041 to 2051.

"Safe decommissioning is a major premise for recovery"

At the end of the meeting, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kan said, "The safe and steady decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a major prerequisite for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Fukushima. In order to ensure that the measures are achieved, the relevant ministries and the Tokyo Electric Power Company should continue to implement decommissioning and contaminated water measures based on the medium- to long-term roadmap. "