Regarding the removal of "fuel debris", which is said to be the biggest difficulty in decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the government and TEPCO have decided to postpone the plan to start at Unit 2 by the end of the year for up to about a year and a half. Announced.
This is the second time that fuel debris retrieval has been postponed.
At the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, melted nuclear fuel mixed with surrounding structures under the reactors of Units 1 to 3 that caused the "meltdown" and the containment vessels covering the reactors, so-called "fuel debris". ” is believed to be accumulated.
Of these, the national government and TEPCO had planned to start a trial retrieval by the end of the year using a robot arm developed in the United Kingdom for Unit 2, where investigations have progressed the most. announced that it will be postponed.
Regarding the reason for the postponement, TEPCO said that it was necessary to improve the robot arm used and review the design, and aims to start in the second half of next fiscal year.
The government and TEPCO have said that the decommissioning work will be completed 30 to 40 years after the accident in 2011, and that there will be no impact from this postponement.
The initial plan was to start removing fuel debris from Unit 2 last year, but this is the second time it has been postponed.