Japanese media tours Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant

Japanese media toured the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday ahead of the removal of used nuclear fuel rods from the plant's crippled reactor.

The plant was badly damaged in the aftermath of a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Last week, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operates the stricken plant, announced plans to remove the first fuel rods in reactor no. 4 in the coming days.

Reactor no. 4 is one of three reactors that melted down after the disaster.

The process is considered extremely dangerous and could unleash high levels of radiation if something were to go wrong.

However, The Nuclear Regulation Authority said that the proposal by TEPCO was appropriate and that the removal could start in November as planned, following an on-site inspection by regulators.

TEPCO said it may not announce the date in advance, citing security reasons.

Removing the fuel rods from the reactor cooling pool is the first major step in a decommissioning process that is expected to last decades at the plant.

Akira Ono, chief of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant said, "Wearing Tyvek suits (protective suits), full-faced masks makes the working conditions more challenging for us.  So, in that sense, I feel that it is important to devote every effort in handling proper procedures (to decommission)."

The reactor was offline when the plant was hit by the disasters, but the building was damaged by hydrogen explosions and fire.

TEPCO has reinforced the structure around the cooling pool and says the Unit 4 building, which houses reactor 4, can survive a major earthquake, but the unenclosed pool on the unit's top floor, which contains 1,533 fuel rods, has caused international concern.

About 200 of the rods that are unused and safer are expected to be the first to be removed.

The cooling pool has attracted international attention in part, because early in the crisis it was suspected to have dried up, when in fact there was enough water to cover the rods, keeping them from melting.

The Japanese nuclear watchdog warned that removing the fuel rods from Unit 4 would be difficult because of the risk posed by debris that fell into the pool during the explosions.

TEPCO has prepared a massive steel structure that comes with a remote-controlled crane to remove the fuel rods, which will be placed into a protective cask and transferred to a joint cooling pool inside a nearby building.

The utility plans to empty the reactor 4 pool by end of 2014, and remove fuel rods from other pools at the three other wrecked reactors over several years before digging into their melted cores around 2020.

The Fukushima plant has had a series of mishaps in recent months, including radioactive contaminated water leaks from storage tanks, adding to concerns about TEPCO's ability to safely close down the plant.


AP