Fukushima workers seek to use robots to dismantle nuclear reactors

Record ID: 348037

  • Title: Fukushima workers seek to use robots to dismantle nuclear reactors
  • Date: 2nd March 2017
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 2, 2017) (REUTERS) NEWS CONFERENCE ON FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN PROGRESS CHIEF OF DECONTAMINATION AND DECOMMISSIONING OF FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR PLANT, NAOHIRO MASUDA, TAKING SEAT (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) CHIEF OF DECONTAMINATION AND DECOMMISSIONING OF FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR PLANT, NAOHIRO MASUDA, SAYING: "We'll decide on a plan to rem
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2017 06:42
  • Keywords: Fukushima nuclear plant robot
  • Location: TOKYO AND FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI, JAPAN
  • City: TOKYO AND FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
  • Reuters ID: LVA001669NOED
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The head of the Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning project said on Thursday (March 2) that workers are seeking to use robots in dismantling the nuclear reactors, crippled by a devastating earthquake and tsunami disaster almost six years ago.
    On March 11, 2011, a massive 9 magnitude earthquake, the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan, created three tsunamis that knocked out the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.
    Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, said in January it may have found nuclear fuel debris below the damaged No. 2 reactor, one of three that had meltdowns in the 2011 disaster.
    Finding the highly radioactive melted uranium rods may pave the way for Tepco to develop methods to remove the melted fuel.
    Tepco, however, recently failed to gather information inside the No.2 reactor using a scorpion-shaped robot, which could not reach the highly radioactive area.
    "As scheduled, we'll set up a plan by this summer to remove the fuel debris. We can set up a more solid plan if we have more accurate information, so we're thinking of deploying the robot one more time into the reactor to collect information," Naohiro Masuda, head of Tepco's Decommissioning Unit, said in a news conference ahead of the sixth anniversary of the quake and tsunami disaster that triggered the nuclear crisis.
    According to the road map set by Tepco and the Japanese government, they will craft a decommissioning plan this summer to start working on it from 2021.
    Masuda expressed his confidence that the mission can be accomplished in the foreseeable future.
    "I think the biggest difference between Chernobyl and us is that this many number of people are working in Fukushima every day. And that is why we believe decommissioning can be achieved in the next 30 and 40 years," Masuda said.
    In December last year, the government nearly doubled its projections for costs related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster to 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion), increasing pressure on Tepco to step up reforms and improve its performance.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register