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 around 12:50 PM on March 5, a TEPCO employee found a trace of gas oil dripping on the road in the power station site. Upon site investigation, it was confirmed that the gas oil filled in a tank truck under gas oil tank inspection had dripped onto the ground. The gas oil dripping from the tank truck has been stopped. The gas oil dripped onto the ground has dried and the area has been covered by sand. The cause of the incident is to be investigated. The incident was reported to Tomioka Fire Department at 1:23 PM on the same day. As a result of investigation, the tightening handle of the manhole on top of the tank truck was found to be loose. Considering that rainwater was found to be accumulated in the protection frame of the manhole on top of the tank truck, it is assumed that a mixture of rainwater and the gas oil leaked from the manhole dripped onto the ground while the tank truck was running. The amount of leakage is estimated to be approx. 8L (Gas oil: approx. 5L, rainwater: approx. 3L).

-At 10:00 AM on March 6, we started transferring the accumulated water in Unit 6 Turbine Building basement to the temporary tank. At 3:00 PM on the same day, the transfer was stopped.

-On March 6, dust sampling was performed at the opening (blow-out panel) of Unit 2 Reactor Building.

-On March 6, sampling was conducted at the charcoal filter and the particulate filter of Unit 2 PCV gas control system

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

-During the replacement of the rupture disk^* of Unit 1 residual heat removal system cooling seawater system (B) which has been ongoing since February 26, 2013, a piece of the polyethylene liner attached on the inside surface of the system pipe (approx. 1.2m x 0.9m) was found to be attached on the disk. In response to this, a soundness investigation of the area where the liner had come off was performed while considering the repair method on March 5. As a result, the repair of the liner has been judged to require about 2 months which will affect the planned timing of restoration completion of Unit 1 (based on the restoration plan). As the rupture disk is installed on the downstream side of the heat exchanger, the incident will have no impact on the cold shutdown of the reactor. Also, the pipe wall thickness on the area where the liner came off has been confirmed to fulfill the required thickness. The incident has no impact on the radiation to the outside environment.
*Rupture disk: In the case that the water discharge channel which returns seawater used for equipment cooling to the sea is clogged for some reason, the rupture disk bursts to create a line for seawater flow allowing for continuous equipment cooling.

* Revised past progress

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We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.