nuclear-news

No Chernobyl type Sarcophagus for Fukushima Daiichi?

Chernobyl new safe confinement construction

After news inadvertently leaked via NHK that the decommissioning authority (NDF) for Fukushima Daiichi was considering a Chernobyl type sarcophagus for the plant, there is now an effort by the authority to back it down.

At the same time the government is rushing to reopen as much of the evacuation zone as possible so they can terminate evacuation compensation for the roughly 100,000 evacuees of the disaster.

Minamisoma reopened closed parts of the district this week and there is now consideration for opening highly radioactive zones in Okuma near the plant in a few years.

Mayors for the impacted towns near the plant expressed obvious outrage to the media after hearing the news.

The media reports and public concern are due to it even being on the table and that alone raises some obvious concerns.

NDF calls the media reports that they are considering a sarcophagus to be “untruthful” but go on to admit that it is now among the considered options.

Obviously such a structure would not be a medium term effort unless it involved some significant new design and long term plan.

NDF also tries to frame a sarcophagus as a more “medium term” solution.

They did confirm that this isn’t a done deal, but is an option they are considering.

Following that news Japan’s state minister for industry has ruled out the option of sealing off disabled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant with a Chernobyl-style sarcophagus.

Takagi said the government’s policy is to stand by the people of Fukushima, and that his ministry has told the decommissioning body to rewrite its technical report.

Responding to Uchibori, Takagi said the government has no intention of using such an option, and that completing the decommissioning process is the top priority.

The body said it remained committed to removing fuel debris from the reactors that suffered meltdowns in the March 2011 accident.

But it presented a technical report that left room for entombing the reactors in a massive metal and concrete structure.

Yosuke Takagi met Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori in Tokyo on Friday.

Uchibori said he was shocked to hear the word “sarcophagus” and called the option unacceptable.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20160715_27/

https://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=yfLq5-_Bu4U&u=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Ddmw_uFGEZmw%26feature%3Dshare

https://dunrenard.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/state-minister-rules-out-sarcophagus-option/

July 19, 2016 - Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2016 | Fukushima Daiichi, Sarcophagus