JAPAN: Nuclear workers make painstaking progress at country's crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant more than 11 months after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami

Record ID: 215944

  • Title: JAPAN: Nuclear workers make painstaking progress at country's crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant more than 11 months after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami
  • Date: 21st February 2012
  • Summary: FUTABA, FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 20, 2012) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS IN WHITE PROTECTIVE CLOTHES LOOKING AT CRIPPLED NUCLEAR REACTORS AT FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI POWER PLANT REACTOR NO.1, 2, 3, AND 4 (FROM LEFT) CRANE STANDING NEAR SKELETAL REMAINS OF BUILDING HOUSING REACTOR NO.4 WORKERS IN WHITE PROTECTIVE CLOTHES WORKING ON SKELETAL REMAINS OF BUILDING HOUSING REA
  • Embargoed: 7th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Accidents,Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVAAY6RSJBATY8QA480HHIMB94Z
  • Story Text: Operator of the quake-stricken Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), on Monday (February 20) shepherded a group of journalists through the site of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago. It was the only the second media tour inside the complex since the March 11 twin disasters.
    The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami exceeding 15 metres knocked out cooling systems at the six-reactor plant on the coast 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
    Hydrogen explosions occurred at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor buildings a few days after the quake.
    Radiation leaks forced some 80,000 residents to evacuate from near the plant and more fled voluntarily, while radioactive materials have been found in food including fish and vegetable and water.
    The Japanese government declared last December that the plant to be in "cold shutdown," a state in which the water containing fuel rods maintains temperature under boiling point.
    Journalists on the tour were driven around the plant and allowed to get off the bus once. They all had to wear protective suits, double layers of gloves and plastic boot covers and hair nets. All carried respiration masks and radiation detectors.
    During the tour, head of the Daiichi plant Takeshi Takahashi apologized to those who had to flee from their homes to avoid being exposed to radiation.
    "We're deeply sorry about the great inconvenience we caused with the accident. It will soon have been a year since the incident and when I look back, the worst part of it was that we couldn't avoid evacuating the local residents from their hometowns and creating a radiation scare across the country," Takahashi said.
    Takahashi said the situation in Fukushima was unprecedented.
    "Although we have experienced nuclear accidents in Three Miles and Chernobyl, the situation here is unique, and it's extremely hard to pull out the nuclear fuel rode out of the reactors. The government also seems to understand the difficulties as it recently launched a research project to find technical methods to solve this problem. As the reactors are at stable conditions we shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to take risks," he added.
    Experts believe meltdowns have occurred at reactors No. 1, 2 and 3.
    Reactor No. 4 was under maintenance and 550 fuel rods had been transferred to its spent fuel pool, which already had about 1,000 fuel rods. The pool caught fire and caused an explosion.
    In December, the Japanese government announced a roadmap for decommissioning the nuclear plant and said that it will take two to three decades fully decommission the power station.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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