Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 Newly Erected Platform’s Enigma

A bird’s eye view of Units 1 and 2 from the hill

On December 15, 2016, the newly elected Kashiwazaki mayor, Mayor Masahiro Sakurai, who has called for a conditional restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, one of the world’ largest nuclear plants, when he was elected mayor of this coastal city in Niigata Prefecture, northwestern Japan on Nov. 20, visited the Fukushima daiichi nuclear plant.

TEPCO, operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, eager to restart reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, invited him to tour the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant, so as to show him that they fully control the situation there.

During the election campaign, Masahiro Sakurai said he would “approve a restart of the halted nuclear plant if safety is confirmed and certain conditions are fulfilled.”

One condition is the construction of a road that residents can use for evacuation in case of an emergency at the nuclear plant. Masahiro Sakurai also promised to start decommissioning older reactors at the plant.

Tepco made Mayor Sakurai visit the Fukushima Daiichi plant site, some of its buildings, its central control rooms 1 and 2, and the land side frozen by the impermeable ice wall.

On the same day, Tepco released 6 photos of Mayor Sakurai’s visit. One of the pictures was taken while Sakurai viewed  Units 1 and 2 from the hill, it shows a new platform erected by Tepco around unit 2. This new platform with extensive stairwells and levels running the length of the building, might be part of some work to remove the refueling floor so as to replace it with a defueling building.

No information was yet provided by Tepco regarding that platform purpose.

Source : http://photo.tepco.co.jp/date/2016/201612-j/161215-01j.html

December 16, 2016 - Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2016 | Fukushima Daiichi, Unit 2