*Updates are underlined
All 6 units of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have been shut down.
Unit 1 (Shut down) - Explosive sound and white smoke were confirmed after the big quake
occurred at 3:36 pm on March 12. It was assumed to be hydrogen explosion.
- At approximately 2:30 am on March 23, seawater injection to the nuclear
reactor through the feed water system was initiated.
- From 3:37 pm on March 25, we started injecting freshwater and are now
injecting fresh water by a motor driven pump powered by the off-site
transmission line.
- As it is suspected that hydrogen gas is accumulated inside reactor
containment vessel, we commenced the valve opening operation concerning
injection of nitrogen gas into the reactor container vessel at 10:30 pm
April 6th and commenced injection at 1:31am April 7.
- At 10:01 am on May 6th, in order to make nuclear reactor flooded to the
top of Fuel range, we have increased the amount of injecting freshwater
from approximately 6m3/h to approximately 8m3/h.
Unit 2 (Shut down)
- At approximately 6:00 am on March 15, an abnormal noise began emanating
from nearby Pressure Suppression Chamber and the pressure within the
chamber decreased.
- From 10:10 am on March 26, we started injecting freshwater to the
reactor and are now injecting fresh water by a motor driven pump powered
by the off-site transmission line.
Unit 3 (Shut down)
- Explosive sound and white smoke were confirmed at approximately 11:01am
on March 14. It was assumed to be hydrogen explosion.
- From 6:02 pm on March 25, we started injecting fresh water to the
reactor and are now injecting fresh water by a motor driven pump powered
by the off-site transmission line.
Unit 4 (Outage due to regular inspection)
- At approximately 6:00 am on March 15, we confirmed the explosive sound
and the sustained damage around the 5th floor rooftop area of the
Nuclear Reactor Building.
- At this moment, we do not consider any reactor coolant leakage inside
the reactor happened.
Unit 5 (Outage due to regular inspection)
- Sufficient level of reactor coolant to ensure safety is maintained.
- At 5:00 am on March 19, we started the Residual Heat Removal System Pump
(C) in order to cool the spent fuel pool.
- At 2:30 pm on March 20, the reactor achieved reactor cold shutdown.
- At this moment, we do not consider any reactor coolant leakage inside
the reactor happened.
Unit 6 (Outage due to regular inspection)
- Sufficient level of reactor coolant to ensure safety is maintained.
- At 10:14 pm on March 19, we started the Residual Heat Removal System
Pump (B) of Unit 6 in order to cool the spent fuel pool.
- At 7:27 pm on March 20, the reactor achieved reactor cold shutdown.
- At this moment, we do not consider any reactor coolant leakage inside
the reactor happened.
Operation for cooling the spent fuel pools
- From 12:14 pm to 3:00 pm, May 9th, we conducted water spray by temporary
electrical pumps to Unit 3. We also injected hydrazine (corrosion
inhibitor) from 12:39 pm to 2:36 pm.
- We will continuously conduct further water spray depending on the
conditions of spent fuel pools, if needed.
Others
- The transfer of high level radioactive wastewater in Unit 2 to the
Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility was temporarily suspended
at 9:22am on May 7th, due to construction of injection piping (reactor
feeding water system) to reactor of unit3. The construction work has
completed and we re-started the transfer at 4:02 pm.
- As a preparation for the water injection to the reactor of Unit 3
through Feeding Water System, we started extracting water from the
condenser of the turbine building at 4:18 pm on May 8th.
- From May 2, we have started work relating to the set up of exhausters,
in order to improve the working environment inside the reactor building
of Unit 1. At 4:36 pm on May 5th, all of exhausters (6 units) were
started to operation. At 8:02 pm on May 8th, we stopped its operation,
removed a duct from double doors and opened a part of the doors. Then we
fully opened the double doors at 4:17 am on May 9th. We also opened the
door aside of the carry-in gate for large stuff of the reactor building.
We measured the air dose rate and confirmed no radiation impact to the
outside.
- From 2 pm May 9th, we started transfer of accumulated water from the
turbine building of unit 6 to a temporary storage tank.
- We will continue to take all measures to ensure the safety and to
continue monitoring the surrounding environment around the power
station.