*The 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, 2011. It was assumed to be hydrogen
explosion.
- At 3:37 pm on March 25, 2011, 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.
- At 10:11 am on December 10, 2011, in addition to water injection from
water feeding system, we started water injection from piping of core
spray system to the reactor.
The current water injection amount from the reactor feed water system is
approx.4.4 m3/h and that from the core spray system is approx. 1.9 m3/h.
- At 1:31 am on April 7, 2011, we commenced injection of nitrogen gas into
Primary Containment Vessel.
- At 11:22 am on August 10, 2011, we started cyclic cooling for the water
in the spent fuel pool by an alternative cooling equipment of the Fuel
Pool Cooling and Filtering System.
- On October 28, 2011, we completed installation of the cover for the
Reactor Building in order to contain dispersion of radioactive
substances.
- At 4:04 pm on November 30, 2011, we started operation to inject nitrogen
into the reactor pressure vessel.
- At 6:00 pm on December 19, 2011, a full-scale operation of the PCV gas
management system started.
Unit 2 (Shut down)
- At approximately 6:00 am on March 15, 2011, an abnormal noise began
emanating from nearby Pressure Suppression Chamber and the pressure
within the chamber decreased.
- At 10:10 am on March 26, 2011, 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.
- At 2:59 pm on September 14, 2011, in addition to water injection from
feed water system, we started water injection from piping of core spray
system to the reactor.
Because the tendency of temperature rise at the bottom of PCV had been
accelerated since February 2, we increased the amount of water injected
to the reactor and continued monitoring the tendency of the temperature
fluctuation. The temperature remains high around 70.0 °C. On February 6,
2012, according to the gas sampling result of Primary Containment Vessel
gas control system, the density of Xe-135 was below measurable limit at
the outlet of the system, satisfying the criteria to judge the
possibility of re-criticality, less than 1Bq/cm3. Therefore we confirm
that there is no re-criticality. In order to avoid the increasing
possibility of re-criticality to occur, which might be brought up by
sudden cold water injection, resulting in the rise of water density
inside the reactor, we injected boric acid into the reactor as a safety
countermeasures against the re-criticality from 0:19 am to 3:20 am on
February 7, which was before increasing the amount of injection water,
and changed the amount of the core spray system injection water from 3.7
m3/h to 6.7m3/h at 4:24 am (the amount of the continuing feed water
system injection is 6.8m3/h). Currently, the temperature is approx. 66.0
°C (as of 11 am on February 8). We will monitor the progress
continuously.
The current water injection amount from the reactor feed water system is
approx. 6.5 m3/h and that from the core spray system is approx. 6.8 m3/h.
- At 5:21 pm on May 31, 2011, we started cyclic cooling for the water in
the spent fuel pool by an alternative cooling equipment of the Fuel Pool
Cooling and Filtering System.
- At 8:06 pm on June 28, 2011, we started injecting nitrogen gas into the
Primary Containment Vessel.
- At 6:00 pm on October 28, 2011, a full-scale operation of the PCV gas
control system started.
- At 10:46 am on December 1, 2011, we started the nitrogen injection to
the Reactor Pressure Vessel.
- At 11:50 am on January 19, 2012, we started the operation of the spent
fuel pool desalting facility.
- At around 5:00 am on February 8, the alarm of "abnormally low suction
pressure of the high pressure RO pump" in the desalination apparatus for
the Unit 2 spent fuel pool went off, and the its operation was
automatically stopped. The interlock arrangement closed all the
isolation valves in the system, and the alternative cooling system for
the spent fuel pool continues its operation. Therefore, there is no
impact on the cooling. We also confirmed by the site investigation that
there was no leakage from the apparatus.
Unit 3 (Shut down)
- Explosive sound and white smoke were confirmed at approximately 11:01 am
on March 14, 2011. It was assumed to be hydrogen explosion.
- At 6:02 pm on March 25, 2011, 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.
- At 2:58 pm on September 1, 2011, we started water injection by core
spray system in addition to water injection by the reactor feed water
system piping arrangement.
The current water injection amount from the reactor feed water system is
approx. 2.9 m3/h and that from the core spray system is approx. 6m3/h.
At 7:47 pm on June 30, 2011, we started cyclic cooling for the water in
the spent fuel pool by an alternative cooling equipment of the Fuel Pool
Cooling and Filtering System.
- At 8:01 pm on July 14, 2011, injection of nitrogen gas into the Primary
Containment Vessel started.
- At 4:26 pm on November 30, 2011, we started operation to inject nitrogen
into the reactor pressure vessel.
- At 3:18 pm on January 14, we started operation of the radioactive
material removal instrument for the spent fuel pool in Unit 3
Unit 4 (Outage due to regular inspection)
- At around 6 am on March 15, 2011, we confirmed the explosive sound and
the sustained damage around the 5th floor rooftop area of Reactor
Building.
- At 12:44 pm on July 31, 2011, we started cyclic cooling for the water in
the spent fuel pool by an alternative cooling equipment of the Fuel Pool
Cooling and Filtering System.
- At 10:58 am on November 29, 2011, in order to decrease more salinity, we
installed Ion exchange equipment and started the operation of such
equipment.
- At this moment, we don't think there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside the primary containment vessel.
Unit 5 (Outage due to regular inspection)
- Sufficient level of reactor coolant to ensure safety is maintained.
- At 5:00 am on March 19, 2011, we started the Residual Heat Removal
System Pump in order to cool the spent fuel pool.
- At 2:45 pm on July 15, 2011, we started the operation of the original
Residual Heat Removal System (System B) by its original seawater pump.
- At 10:11 am on December 22, 2011, since we finished the recovery work of
seawater pump (System B) of equipment water cooling system, we made a
trial run. At 11:25 am on the same day, we confirmed no abnormalities
and restarted the operation.
- At this moment, we don't think there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside the primary containment vessel.
Unit 6 (Outage due to regular inspection)
- Sufficient level of reactor coolant to ensure safety is maintained.
- At 10:14 pm on March 19, 2011, we started the Residual Heat Removal
System Pump of Unit 6 to cool down Spent Fuel Pool.
- At 2:33 pm on September 15, 2011, we started separately cooling the
reactor through the Residual Heat Removal System and the spent fuel pool
through Equipment Cooling Water System and Fuel Pool Cooling System.
- At this moment, we do not think there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside PCV.
Others
- At around 10:00 am on June 13, 2011, we started the operation of the
circulating seawater purification facility installed at the screen area
of Unit 2 and 3.
- At 8:00 pm on June 17, 2011, we started operation of Water Treatment
Facility against the accumulated water. At 6:00 pm on July 2, we started
the circulating injection cooling to inject the water, which was treated
by the accumulated water treatment system, to the reactors through the
buffer tank.
- At 7:41 pm on August 19, 2011, we started treatment of accumulated water
by parallel operation of one line from the cesium adsorption instrument
to the decontamination instrument and the other treatment line of the
cesium adsorption instrument No.2.
- At 2:06 pm on October 7, 2011, we started to spray purified accumulated
water brought from Unit 5 and 6 continually in order to prevent dust
scattering and potential fire outbreaks from the cut down trees.
- On October 28, 2011, we started installation of the water proof wall at
the sea side, in front of the existing shore protection, Units 1-4, in
order to contain marine pollution by underground water.
- At 12:25 pm on December 13, 2011, we started the re-circulating
operation of desalination facility (reverse osmosis membrane type) for
the purpose of suppression of condensed water after desalination
treatment.
- As finding of accumulated water containing radioactive materials at the
trench between the Process Main Building and the Miscellaneous Solid
Waste Volume Reduction Treatment Building [High Temperature Incinerator
Building] (December 18, 2011), we started the inspection of other
trenches at the site on January 11.
As a result of the inspection made on February 7, the location where the
accumulated water was found and the preliminary results of the nuclide
analysis are as follows:
·Inside the Unit 5 intake power cable duct
I-131: below the detectible limit, Cs-134: 1.4 X 10-1 Bq/ cm3,
Cs-137: 2.0 X 10-1 Bq/ cm3
·Inside the Unit 5 seawater piping duct
I-131: below the detectible limit, Cs-134:8.2 X 10-2 Bq/ cm3,
Cs-137: 1.1 X 10-1 Bq/ cm3
·Inside the Unit 5 Main transformer cable duct
I-131: below the detectible limit, Cs-134:7.3 X 10-2 Bq/ cm3,
Cs-137: 1.3 X 10-1 Bq/ cm3
·Inside the Unit 5 Booster transformer cable duct
I-131: below the detectible limit, Cs-134:2.0 X 10-1 Bq/ cm3,
Cs-137:2.9 X 10-1 Bq/ cm3
- At 9:18 am on January 31, we started transfer of Sub-drain Water of Unit
6 to the temporary tank. We will conduct transferring to the temporary
tank appropriately.
- At 2:14 pm on February 7, 2012, we started transferring the accumulated
water from the basement of turbine building of Unit 2 to Centralized
Radiation Waste Treatment Facility (Miscellaneous Solid Waste Volume
Reduction Treatment Building [High Temperature Incinerator Building]).
- At 10:00 am on February 8, 2012, we started transferring the accumulated
water from inside the turbine building of Unit 6 to the temporary tank.
- At approximately 9:40 am on February 8, 2012, workers of the partner
company confirmed the water overflow from the temporary water pool
located at the east side of Unit 2's turbine building. At the temporary
pool of the field site, for the purpose of sub-drain purification test,
sub-drain water was pumped up using pumps. Therefore, water overflow has
been stopped by the stop of the pumps' operation at around 10:15 am on
the same day. Later, as a result of field check, we confirmed that there
was no water at the drainage channels around the area. Based on these
facts, we concluded that the water did not flow into the drainage
channels and did not flow into the sea either. According to the result
of the nuclide analysis of water sampled from the tank, the density of
Cs-134 was 3.4 X 10-1Bq/cm3 and that of Cs-137 was 5.2 X 10-1Bq/cm3,
both of which were equal to the level of the result for the sub-drain
water sampled today. Therefore we concluded that the water overflowed
was the same water as the sub-drain water. The amount of water
overflowed from the tank is currently under estimation.