Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report 2014

Extraction was safe and on schedule, and creates safer environment for workers

FUKUSHIMA, November 7—A major milestone has been reached safely and on schedule at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: for the first time, all spent nuclear fuel assembles have been removed from one of the four damaged reactor buildings, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced.

Removal of the 1,331 spent fuel assemblies from Unit 4 began last November after extensive preparations to stabilize the heavily damaged building. The assemblies have been moved from a spent fuel pool that is suspended four stories high to a pool in a separate building at ground level, together with 22 unused assemblies.

Now, only 180 unused fuel assemblies remain in the Unit 4 pool, and they will be removed by the end of the year, the company said. These assemblies pose far less radiation risk than the others because they have not been through the fissioning process in the reactor. They will be moved to a pool in Unit 6, one of two reactor buildings at the facility that was undamaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

"This is a great achievement by our workers and the partners with whom we are collaborating," said TEPCO President and CEO Naomi Hirose. "They combined brilliant engineering with hard work to make this operation possible, and to execute it flawlessly and safely. They will benefit by being able to work in a safer environment, and our work going forward in the other three units will benefit from the experience we gained here."

Fuel removal operations will next shift to Units 1-3, where efforts will be made more challenging by the elevated level of radioactivity in those units, which unlike Unit 4 were operating at the time of the tsunami and suffered partial meltdowns of their fuel cores. For example, in an exercise of its safety-first culture, TEPCO recently put in place additional safeguards against airborne radioactive dust associated with the dismantling of the temporary cover over Unit 1. While these safeguards will delay the removal of Unit 1's spent fuel until 2019 and may also delay the eventual removal of Unit 1's fuel debris, the primary emphasis must be on safety both for workers and for the surrounding communities, the company said. This delay is not expected to affect the company's goal of removing the fuel debris – that is, fuel that had been in the reactor core at the time of the accident -- from at least one of the three units by the end of TEPCO's 2020 fiscal year.

"TEPCO is to be congratulated for this success," said Dr. Dale Klein, former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who now chairs TEPCO's group of independent advisors. "The processes used in planning for and successfully executing this complex year-long effort demonstrated that TEPCO is incorporating concepts from its new safety culture into its work. As attention shifts to the other units this is not the time to become complacent, as challenges will be even greater, but I am confident that TEPCO and its partners are approaching them appropriately."

A video explaining the Unit 4 fuel removal may be seen at http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/library/archive-e.html?video_uuid=g2g09sli&catid=61787

About TEPCO

Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. (TEPCO) is Japan's largest power company, supplying energy to the greater Kanto area, including Japan's two most populous cities, Tokyo and Yokohama. Its 35,000 employees are committed to providing safe, reliable power to its 29.0 million customers, diversifying energy resources to ensure sustainability, and contributing to economic growth while fully meeting its responsibilities after the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
TEPCO website: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html
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