Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced today that it has removed a total of 566 bundles of nuclear fuel from the “spent nuclear fuel pool” at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s No. 3 unit, the first unit to suffer a core meltdown.
The Japanese news agency reported that this is the first unit to complete the removal of the core meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, from the No. 1 to No. 3 units, which started in April 2019 and met the target deadline of the end of March this year despite the difficulties encountered in the process.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was affected by the tsunami brought about by the Great 311 Earthquake (known as the Great East Japan Earthquake in Japan) in 2011, and accidents occurred at units 1 through 4 of the six units.
As for Unit 1, where rubble is scattered above the building, and Unit 2, where the radiation dose is particularly high, TEPCO hopes to remove all nuclear fuel from their respective “used nuclear fuel pools” by the end of 2031.
TEPCO said that it was able to complete the scheduled operation safely due to continuous preparations, and that it will apply the lessons learned and knowledge gained from this operation to the nuclear fuel removal operation of both Unit 1 and Unit 2.
The radiation dose near the “used nuclear fuel pool” at No. 3 is very high, and it was expected to take two years to remove it by remote operation.
Since nuclear fuel heats up for a long Time after use and emits strong radiation, used nuclear fuel is stored in the “used nuclear fuel pool” to cool it down and shield it from radiation.
The “spent fuel pool” at Unit 3 is located above the reactor structure where the core meltdown and hydrogen explosion occurred, and contains 52 bundles of unused nuclear fuel and 514 bundles of spent nuclear fuel, for a total of 566 bundles.
The operation is carried out remotely by loading the nuclear fuel from the used fuel pool into transport containers using relevant machinery, and then moving the transport containers into the back of a large truck using a special crane installed above the building.
Each bundle of nuclear fuel weighs about 250 kg, and it takes about 2.5 hours to put a bundle of nuclear fuel into the delivery container.
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