At the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the government and TEPCO were planning to start taking out "fuel debris", which is considered to be the biggest difficulty, at Unit 2 next year, but the start is due to the influence of the new coronavirus. It has revealed that it will be delayed by about a year.
The government and TEPCO have been developing a robot arm in the United Kingdom to start the first removal of melted-down nuclear fuel, so-called "fuel debris," at Unit 2 next year.
However, due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, development has been delayed due to the inability to conduct tests in the United Kingdom, making it difficult to transport it to Japan, which is scheduled for next month.
For this reason, the government and TEPCO have announced that the start of removal will be delayed for at least a year.
Robot carries in Japan in prospect next year in April, perform the remainder of the test in the country, we want kept the delay to a minimum.
Also, regarding the investigation inside the containment vessel of Unit 1, which was supposed to be started within this year, it was announced that the investigation will be postponed to next year because the work to create a route for the robot is difficult due to the complicated piping etc. Did.
Regarding this delay in work, Akira Ono, representative of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Decommissioning Promotion Company, said, "I don't think it will lead to a delay in the entire decommissioning process. Do what you need to do, not on a schedule. I want to go. "