nuclear-news

TEPCO does not know how long it will take to stabilise Fukushima nuclear plant

“Unless we understand the extent of the damage, we don’t even know how long that work alone would take,” noting the need for one or two months more than previously thought to establish an entirely new cooling system…….”

TEPCO can’t stabilise reactors by year end: report , May 29, 2011,   TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) is coming to the view that it will be impossible to stabilize the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by the end of this year, possibly affecting the timing for the government to consider the return of evacuees to their homes near the plant, Kyodo News reported, citing senior company officials.

The revelation that meltdowns had occurred at the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors at the plant, most likely with breaches to pressure vessels encasing nuclear fuel, has led the officials to believe that “there will be a major delay to work” to contain the situation, one of them said.

The plant operator, known as TEPCO, announced on April 17 its road map for bringing the troubled reactors at the plant into a stably cooled condition called “cold shutdown” in six to nine months.

Even though the No. 1 reactor was later found to have gone through the critical melting of nuclear fuel, the utility said as recently as May 17 that it did not see a need to revise its road map.

But “the nine months is just a target deadline for which we are making efforts,” a senior TEPCO official said, indicating that the likely delay would affect the plan to review the evacuation of local people, which the government is hoping to implement once the reactors are brought under control…..

The official added, “Unless we understand the extent of the damage, we don’t even know how long that work alone would take,” noting the need for one or two months more than previously thought to establish an entirely new cooling system…….

Tepco can’t stabilize reactors by year-end: report – MarketWatch

May 30, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011