Press Releases 2013

Due to the Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake which occurred on March 11, 2011, TEPCO's facilities including our nuclear power stations have been severely damaged. We deeply apologize for the anxiety and inconvenience caused.
With regard to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, on April 17, 2011, we have compiled the roadmap towards restoration from the accident and on July 19 we accomplished the Step1 target "Radiation dose is in steady decline". Then on December 16 we confirmed the accomplishment of the Step 2 target "Release of radioactive materials is under control and radiation doses are being significantly held down".
In addition, on December 21, 2011, we have compiled the "Mid-to-long-Term Roadmap toward the Decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units 1-4, TEPCO".
In addition to the maintenance of the plant's stable condition, we will implement Mid-to-Long Term countermeasures towards the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units 1-4 to enable evacuees to return to their homes as soon as possible and reduce the anxiety of the people in Fukushima and the whole nation as soon as possible.

Below is the status of TEPCO's nuclear power stations (Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini).

* The updates are underlined.

[Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station]
・Unit 1 to 4: Abolishment (April 19, 2012)
・Unit 5 to 6: Outage due to regular inspections before the earthquake

- At 5:35 PM on January 17, the reactor injection water amounts at Units 2 and 3 were adjusted as follows since the amounts fluctuated after regular switching of reactor water injection pump.
[Unit 2] Feed water system: Increased from approx. 1.9m³/h to approx. 2.0m³/h, Reactor core spray system: Decreased from approx. 3.6m³/h to approx. 3.5m³/h.
[Unit 3] Feed water system: Increased from approx. 1.7m³/h to approx. 2.0m³/h, Reactor core spray system: Increased from approx. 3.3m³/h to approx. 3.5m³/h.

- At 10:51 AM on January 18, the reactor injection water amounts at Units 1 and 3 were adjusted as follows since the amounts fluctuated.
[Unit 1] Feed water system: Increased from approx. 2.3m³/h to approx. 2.5m³/h, Reactor core spray system: Increased from approx. 1.8m³/h to approx. 2.0m³/h.
[Unit 3] Feed water system: Decreased from approx. 2.1m³/h to approx. 2.0m³/h, Reactor core spray system: Maintained at approx. 3.5m³/h.

- At 1:48 PM on January 18, we started transferring the accumulated water in Unit 3 Turbine Building basement to the Central Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility (Process Main Building).

- On January 16, when a TEPCO employee was trying to close the sampling pipe of the reactor component cooling system heat exchanger (B) outlet pipe of Unit 6 component seawater system^*, seawater started leaking from the sampling pipe (where it's connected with the component seawater system main pipe) at around 1:38 PM on the same day. Later on, the leakage location was identified to be the flange area of the sampling pipe. The amount of seawater leaked on the floor was approx. 240L. The leakage stopped after isolating the leakage location at 3:33 PM on the same day. The cooling function of the spent fuel pool cooling purification system was suspended due to the isolation. In the case that the pool water temperature increases, an alternating operation between the shutdown cooling system (for cooling the reactor) and the emergency heat load operation (for cooling the spent fuel pool) of the residual heat removal system will be performed. On January 18, a closure panel was installed on the flange of the sampling pipe located in the upstream side of the leakage location. As a result of leakage check performed at 2:51 PM on the same day, no problem was found. At 3:07 PM, we started passing seawater through the reactor component cooling system heat exchanger (B) and the cooling function of the spent fuel pool cooling purification system was recovered. Though the spent fuel pool water temperature has increased from 19.6℃ (when the leakage area was isolated) to 29.0℃, there is no problem with the pool water temperature control considering that there is a sufficient margin to the maximum allowed temperature (65℃).
* Used for cooling the spent fuel pool cooling purification system.

[Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station]
・Unit 1 to 4: Shutdown due to the earthquake.

* Revised past progress

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