Removal of Fukushima #4 fuel rods

TEPCO to conduct test for Fukushima No. 4 unit fuel removal

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will conduct a test for nuclear fuel removal at the No. 4 reactor building at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant, delaying the start of the actual fuel removal operation by up to two weeks, sources close to the matter said Monday.

Global Post,

4 November, 2013

The operator of the plant, crippled in the March 2011 quake and tsunami disaster, planned to start removing nuclear fuel from a cooling pool at the reactor building as early as next Friday.

The decision comes after a government-affiliated nuclear safety agency called for an initial test operation, including transporting a protective fuel cask from the storage pool to another pool in a different building about 100 meters away for more stable conditions for cooling spent fuel, the sources said.

The administrative agency, the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, has already inspected equipment to be used in the fuel removal work on behalf of the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

It also urged TEPCO to have the planned work evaluated by a group of Japanese and overseas experts formed by the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, a Tokyo-based organization founded by Japanese government agencies, nuclear facility manufacturers and electric power companies.

Of the four Fukushima plant reactors in use at the time of the 2011 disaster, only the No. 4 unit did not experience a reactor meltdown, with all of the fuel stored in the spent fuel pool for maintenance work.

The building housing the No. 4 reactor and the storage pool suffered a hydrogen explosion at the time as loss of power disrupted the pool's cooling function. Over 1,300 spent fuel assemblies and more than 200 unused ones still sit in the pool.

A crane has been installed to carry a protective cask into and out of the pool. The spent fuel will be placed inside the cask and moved to the nearby storage pool by trailer.

The work at the No. 4 unit will mark a new stage in the decommissioning of the Nos. 1 to 4 reactors damaged in the crisis.

Efforts continue to contain leaks of a massive amount of highly radioactive water accumulating at the plant as a result of water injections into the crippled Nos. 1 to 3 reactors. Underground water into the plant's premises has been compounding the problem and leaky water storage tanks have added to fears of seawater contamination.

==Kyodo