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NUCLEAR ENGINEERS IN Japan are preparing to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods at Fukushima, their most difficult and dangerous task since the plant’s runaway reactors were brought under control two years ago.
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) is expected this month to begin removing fuel rods from a pool inside a reactor building at the tsunami-hit plant, in a technically challenging operation that will test the utility’s expertise after months of setbacks and glitches.
Experts say the operation is a tricky but essential step in the decades-long decommissioning and recovery after the worst atomic accident in a generation.
But, they add, it pales in comparison with the much more complex task that awaits engineers in the future. They will have to remove the misshapen cores of three reactors that went into meltdown, probably relying on technology that has not yet been invented.
More than 1,500 nuclear fuel assemblies — bundles of rods — must be pulled out of the storage pool where they were being kept when a tsunami smashed into Fukushima in March 2011.
The damage
The reactor which the pool serves — Number 4 — was not in operation at the time. But hydrogen from Reactor Number 3 escaped into the building and exploded, tearing the roof off and leaving it at the mercy of natural hazards like earthquakes, storms or another tsunami.
Reactors at Fukushima (AP Photo/Tom Curley)
TEPCO says it has not yet found any damage to the assemblies at Number 4, which contain a mixture of uranium and plutonium, but will be monitoring for abnormalities.
The removal of fuel is part of regular work at any nuclear power plant, but “conditions are different from normal because of the disaster”, said company spokeswoman Mayumi Yoshida.
“It is crucial. It is a first big step towards decommissioning the reactors,” she said. “Being fully aware of risks, we are determined to go ahead with operations cautiously and securely.”
This is an operation TEPCO cannot afford to bungle.
Chunks of debris that were sent flying into the pool by explosions have largely been removed and a crane has been installed. A protective hood has been erected over the building’s skeleton to contain any radioactive leaks.
The task
A remotely-controlled grabber will sink into the pool and hook onto a fuel assembly, which it will pull up and place inside a fully immersed cask.
(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
The 4.5-metre (15-foot) bundles weighing 300 kilograms have to be kept in water throughout the operation to keep them cool.
The 91-tonne cask will then be hauled from the pool — containing as many as 22 fuel assemblies and a lot of water — to be loaded onto a trailer and taken to a different storage pool, where the operation will be reversed.
Experts warn that any slip-ups could quickly cause the situation to deteriorate. Even minor mishaps will create considerable delays to the already long and complicated decommissioning.
Unknowns
If the rods are exposed to the air they would release radiation and could heat up, a process that if left unchecked could lead to a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. TEPCO says that is unlikely, but sceptics say that with so many unknowns in the novel operation, there is potential for a catastrophe.
“This is the first practical milestone for the project,” said Hiroshi Miyano, a nuclear systems expert and visiting professor at Hosei University in Tokyo.
“Any trouble in this operation will considerably affect the timetable for the entire project,” he said.
Hiroaki Koide, assistant professor at Kyoto University Reactor Research Institute in Kyoto, said success was far from guaranteed.
“It is not easy work,” he said.
Mess
The comments reflect an increasingly widespread view that the giant utility is not capable of dealing with the mess its nuclear plant has created.
(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye, Pool)
Months of setbacks have included multiple leaks from tanks storing the water used to keep reactors cool, and a power outage caused when a rat electrocuted itself on a circuit board.
TEPCO’s management of the problems has been criticised as haphazard and uncoordinated, with one government minister saying it was like watching someone playing “whack-a-mole”.
The full decommissioning of Fukushima is likely to take decades and include tasks that have never been attempted anywhere in the world.
Meanwhile, villages and towns nearby remain largely empty, their residents unable or unwilling to return to live in the shadow of the leaking plant because of the fear of radiation.
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can we get one in Ireland please
More people die from the pollution caused by coal-fired power stations EVERY WEEK than have ever died from nuclear power.
They are sending in two umpalumpas…
In rod we trust
Can’t wait to see how this inept crowd mess this one up
These guys always resemble henchmen from an early 70s James Bond movie. They just don’t instill much confidence!
Send in Gilmore ?
Hot exposed rods??? Sounds like a job for David Norris!
All very well to laugh and joke but this is a very serious situation… much worse than Chernobyl and at the worst could end up an Extinction Level Event for mankind. There seems to have been a media blackout regarding the Fukushima nuclear disaster so it’s nice to see some coverage on the journal.
Dr Helen Caldicott has been raising the flag about the dangers of nuclear power for decades… her thoughts on the disaster at Fukushima are chilling…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqz9qDyZ004#t=20
Besides the leak of 300 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific everyday for the past 2 and a half years, the poisoning of the Pacific is messed up enough- but the real dangers have yet to come- the entire northern hemisphere is at risk from this disaster..
http://www.dose.ca/2013/11/04/28-facts-prove-fukushimas-nuclear-disaster-has-put-west-coast-danger
Hi Frank,
The reason it hasn’t been reported, is not because of a media blackout, but because it’s simple not true.
No disrespect intended, but you have been seriously mislead.
Helen Caldicott is a well known fanatical antinuclear campaigner, she has a history of making alarmist claims with no basis in reality.
For example, she claims that the isotopes in the spent fuel rods are an existential threat, however there is little decay heat left in the rods, they no longer need constant immersion to prevent melting, there is simply no plausible mechanism by which the radioactive isotopes in the rods could be widely dispersed.
You would have to grind the rods into dust or vaporize them to make this material airborne.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/apr/05/anti-nuclear-lobby-misled-world
Far from a media blackout, the media has intensely focused on the nuclear accident that has so far killed no one, and largely ignored the tsunami that killed 25,000 Japanese. (Tsunamis aren’t as scary as radiation)
Nothing sells like a scare story and often when you try to point out the boring reality you are accused of being a shill for the nuclear industry or a sheep for believing the official story, but not everything is a conspiracy.
I know I’m opening a can of worms on this, but whether you are for or against nuclear, can we at least stick to the facts
Where in gods name will they put it once removed ? The coast of Somalia that’s where European s dump it
erm.. what I wrote were facts…
The Nuclear accident has killed nobody so far because it takes a few years for radiation effects such as Cancers etc to develop! .. Already there are reports of many people in the Fukushima region affected from radiation from the original blast.
The BBC, The Guardian and others have all reported on the dangers of removing the fuel rods.
Personally, I would believe the anti-nuclear lobby before the vested interests of nuclear power companies and their supporters…
Helen Caldicott was nominated for the nobel peace prize.. she speaks the truth that nobody wants to hear…
Everyone should be “alarmed” by the events at Fukushima..
have your say