nuclear-news

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose said he agreed to accept U.S. help in discussions with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz as they visited the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant on Friday to inspect preparations to remove fuel rods from a storage pool……..Following criticism of its perceived reluctance to accept foreign help, Japan has recently begun to show more willingness to do so.

Operators of the plant are currently making final preparations to remove fuel rods from an uncovered cooling pool at Unit 4 — one of four reactor buildings damaged in the crisis, and the one considered at highest risk. Removing the fuel rods from the cooling pool is the first major step in a decommissioning process at the plant that is expected to take decades.

The fuel removal at Unit 4 was given preliminary approval by Japanese regulators on Wednesday and is to start by mid-November following a final go-ahead……. “As Japan continues to chart its sovereign path forward on the cleanup at the Fukushima site and works to determine the future of their energy economy, the United States stands ready to continue assisting our partners in this daunting yet indispensable task,” Moniz said in a statement late Friday. He said a U.S.-Japan commission to strengthen co-operation in civil nuclear research and development, as well as Fukushima cleanup, emergency response, and regulatory issues, will meet in Washington next week.

Despite public concerns over potential risks of radiation from the plant, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has pushed for a restart of the country’s nuclear reactors, which are currently all offline for safety checks. Moniz said he expects nuclear power will remain a crucial part of the energy mix as the world tries to mitigate global warming…… TEPCO also has appointed a former U.S. regulator who led the cleanup of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the United States as an adviser. : http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/fukushima-nuclear-plant-operator-to-work-with-u-s-in-cleanup-effort-1.1523949#ixzz2jWW8FrQZ