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Slow start to removing nuclear fuel rods from Fukushima reactor No 3

4 Years On: Fuel Removal from Fukushima Storage Pool Remains Tough  http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2015030300490  Fukushima, March 5 (Jiji Press)--Beginning in fiscal 2015, Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> plans to begin removal of fuel assemblies from one of the storage pools at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which was left crippled four years ago in Japan’s worst nuclear accident.

   In the No. 3 reactor pool are 514 spent fuel assemblies and 52 unused assemblies. “Removing all fuel bundles from pools in the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors would substantially lower the level of risk at the plant,” says Toyoshi Fuketa, acting head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
Removal of fuel assemblies from the No. 4 reactor pool was completed in December.
However, work to begin emptying the No. 3 reactor pool of assemblies has been slow due to the extensive damage the reactor building suffered from a hydrogen explosion that occurred shortly after the nuclear power plant was hit by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent monster tsunami on March 11, 2011. A lot of debris remains in the storage pool alongside the assemblies.
Among the debris is a 35-ton piece of equipment used to exchange fuel assemblies. Its presence is a major obstacle to beginning the removal work.

March 7, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2015