Water

April 23, 2012
4:00 pm EDT

TEPCO Building Structure to Protect Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 4 Used Fuel Storage Pool

Plant Update

Tokyo Electric Power Co. last week began preparing to build a covered structure alongside and above the reactor 4 building at Fukushima Daiichi. The structure will house a fuel-handling crane that will eventually remove more than 1,500 used fuel assemblies from the reactor’s used fuel storage pool for transfer to the site’s common pool. The steel-clad building, expected to be completed by the middle of next year, will have a tighter seal than the cover that was built for reactor 1 and will incorporate filters to prevent the spread of radioactive materials. TEPCO must remove accumulated debris from the reactor’s used fuel storage pool before the fuel itself can be moved. A schematic of the planned covered building is available on the TEPCO website here.
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March 26, 2012
5:45 pm EDT

Plant Update

Preliminary results of an endoscopic examination of the interior of Fukushima Daiichi reactor 2 indicates that the water covering the damaged fuel at the bottom of the containment vessel is two feet deep. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said they were expecting the water level to be at least six feet, though the company said it is satisfied that the damaged fuel is being adequately cooled. TEPCO says it also will measure radiation levels inside the vessel to develop equipment needed to eventually decommission the reactor. Further details of the endoscopic campaign are available on TEPCO’s website here.
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February 27, 2012
5:40 pm EDT

Plant Status

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to cover about 17 acres of the seabed near the cooling water intakes of Fukushima Daiichi’s six reactors with a two-foot-thick mix of cement and clay. TEPCO said the project will prevent radioactive cesium and other materials from washing out to sea. The company said the work should be completed within four months.
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February 13, 2012
5:41 pm EDT

Industry/Regulatory/Political

The New Jersey governor’s nuclear review task force, formed shortly after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, has published a report that concludes: “Based upon the information provided by the NRC and the licensees, the task force members have a high level of confidence that New Jersey’s nuclear power plants are operating safely and have effective mitigation plans to address the lessons learned from the Fukushima incidents.”
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has approved the results of “stress test” simulations on Ohi reactors 3 and 4 in Fukui Prefecture. The NISA report to the Nuclear Safety Commission says the tests demonstrate the reactors can withstand earthquakes and tsunamis as strong as those that hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The final decision to restart the reactors rests with central and local governments. Last week, a team of International Atomic Energy Agency experts concluded that the tests met international standards.
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February 6, 2012
5:20 pm EDT

Industry/Regulatory/Political

A new seismic model will help operating U.S. nuclear facilities in the central and eastern United States reassess their seismic risks as part of efforts to implement lessons learned from the events at Fukushima Daiichi. The four-year study, conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute, the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, replaces models in use since the late 1980s.
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