Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report 2015

Safety for workers, residents given highest priority

TOKYO, JUNE 12 - The latest government review of TEPCO's Mid-and-Long-Term Roadmap for the Fukushima cleanup has adjusted the anticipated states of nuclear fuel removal to reduce the stress on workers and to emphasize the paramount of importance of safety both for the workers and for residents of the surrounding communities.

The meetings, which were held between representatives of Japan's ministries, NRA, municipality and TEPCO managers were the third review of a roadmap adopted in December 2011, months after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

"The revisions made to the mid-and-long-term roadmap are based on our experience over the past four years, and we will continue moving forward, adhering to the plan." said TEPCO President Naomi Hirose. "Safety will always be top priority in the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi."

Shift from "Focusing on Speed" to "Safety and Risk Reduction"

The government characterized the approach as "quick as possible decommissioning," which it said "should be accomplished by selecting and conducting the best timing and approach, reviewing work in a flexible manner, providing detailed direction on procedures, and thereby minimizing the overall risk in response to its source." It characterized water management and fuel removal as top priorities.

End of last year, fuel removal was completed from the Unit 4 storage pool the only one of the four destroyed reactors that was not in operation at the time of the accident. Fuel removal from the other three reactors' storage pools is complicated by the fact that each reactor suffered at least a partial melting of its core, creating a more difficult environment in which to work.

As the result of this most recent review of the roadmap, the schedule of the fuel removal from storage pools will be changed as follows:

Unit 1, originally scheduled to begin in FY2017, will be targeted for FY2020.
Unit 2, originally scheduled to begin in first half of FY2020, will be targeted for FY2020.
Unit 3, originally scheduled to begin later this year, will be targeted for FY2017.

In addition to addressing the timetable for fuel removal, the meetings reviewed the strategies being implemented to manage water on the site. It was agreed that feedback from local communities and industry figures will be sought, and that decommissioning and water management issues will be considered at a future conference.

The overall Mid-and-Long-Term Roadmap for decommissioning remains essentially unchanged, with completion of decommissioning 30 to 40 years in the future. But it does establish key milestones for each area, including targets for reducing the radiation dose at the site boundary, reducing the flow of water into the reactor buildings, treatment and storage of spent fuel, waste treatment, and more.

Full text of the "Revision Proposal for the Mid-and-Long-Term Roadmap," from the Secretariat of the Team for Countermeasures for Decommissioning and Contaminated Water Treatment, Cabinet Office, may be seen at
http://www.meti.go.jp/earthquake/nuclear/decommissioning/committee/fukushimahyougikai/2015/pdf/150615_01e.pdf (In Japanese)

 

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 34,000 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.
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