Japan postpones removal of fuel from Fukushima nuclear plant again

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) have postponed the removal of fuel from the storage pool of reactor 3 of TEPCO’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to around the middle of the fiscal year in April 2018 from January 2018.

This decision marks the second postponement of the fuel removal work at reactor 3, where nuclear fuel melted following the March 2011 powerful earthquake and tsunami that heavily damaged the nuclear power station in Fukushima Prefecture.

Meltdown occurred at two other reactors at the plant.

According to the government and TEPCO officials, the launch of the fuel removal at reactor 3 unit has been delayed due to work to reduce radiation levels at the storage pool and malfunctions of a crane and other equipment to remove debris from a hydrogen explosion that happened at the reactor in the early stage of the nuclear crisis.

It is not known when the fuel removal will end.

At unit 3, preparations to install a cover at the upper part of the reactor building are currently underway. The installation of the cover is seen to be completed in fiscal 2018.

In the pool are 514 spent fuel assemblies and 52 unused ones.

The fuel removal was initially slated to start in the first half of fiscal 2015.

But the government and TEPCO pushed back the timing to January 2018 by reviewing in June 2015 their road map on the decommissioning of reactors at the plant. All six reactors at the plant are set to be scrapped.