Current State of Post-Accident Operations at Fukushima NPP – July to December 2015

via Citizens Nuclear Information Center / February 2, 2016 / State of the Plant Many of the measuring instruments installed in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) measuring system continue to malfunction as a result of the accident and there is no guarantee of the accuracy of values being measured. However, from the water temperature in the containment vessels and the spent fuel pools, and from the state of … Continue reading

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Japan Unveils Remote-Control Robot to Dismantle Fukushima Plant

via Science Alert / January 19, 2016 / It’s been almost five years since the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, but the scale of the emergency means Japan is still at the relative beginning of efforts to clean up and contain the radioactive site. So this week Toshiba unveiled (above) a remote-control robot that’s expected to remove fuel-rod assemblies from the spent fuel pool … Continue reading

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Fukushima Myth: Declassified Fuel Releases (video)

via Goddard’s Journal / January 1, 2016 / SOURCES USED: Story that declassified documents reveal 100% fuel loss from Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool (SFP): https://rt.com/news/325663-fukushima-… Time-framed Google search shows inundation of mostly alt-media sources with the bogus story https://www.google.com/search?q=fukus… Links to Reality… The declassified NRC document in question: http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1212/M… Paragraphs in question highlighted on PDF-pages 7 to 8. First flyover shows steaming Unit 4 fuel pool (March 2011) … Continue reading

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Reactor Fuel Removal at Fukushima No. 1 Plant May Be Delayed Up To 3 Years

via Japan Times / June 10, 2015 / The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are planning to push back the start of removing spent fuel at the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex by two to three years from the current schedule, according to government sources. Under an envisioned revised road map for decommissioning reactors 1 to 4 at the plant, which was ravaged by the March 2011 earthquake … Continue reading

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Fukushima Fuel Debris Retrieval To Start In 2021

via world-nuclear-news.org / June 4, 2015 / Japan expects to start the retrieval of fuel debris from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2021, the executive director of the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation (NDF) said yesterday. Three of the plant’s six reactors suffered core meltdowns in the March 2011 accident, leaving melted nuclear fuel debris on the floor of their containment vessels. NDF was established in September … Continue reading

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All Spent Fuel Removed From Fukushima No.4 Reactor

from NHK World / November 5, 2014 / Workers have finished removing highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from one of the reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. The No.4 reactor had no nuclear fuel when the plant was hit by a massive quake and tsunami in March 2011. But there were more than 1,500 units of spent and unused fuel in the pool in the reactor building. The … Continue reading

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Reactor 4 Fuel Rod Removal To Finish Ahead Of Schedule, TEPCO Chief Says

via Japan Times / August 21, 2014 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it expects to finish transferring all the fuel rods from the spent-fuel pool perched atop reactor 4 at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant by November — one month ahead of the initial schedule, according to Tepco President Naomi Hirose. Hirose made the comments in a meeting with assembly members from Fukushima Prefecture. Hazardous … Continue reading

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Meltdown at Fukushima Reactor 3 Worse Than Thought

via NHK World / August 6, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says the damage to nuclear fuel in one of its reactors may be worse than previously thought. Tokyo Electric Power Company engineers have been working to size up damage at the plant from the March 2011 accident and start the process of decommission. Officials with the utility now say most of the nuclear … Continue reading

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TEPCO to transfer unused fuel rods to new location

via NHK World / June 19, 2014 / The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant will alter its plan to transfer the fuel rods from the number 4 damaged reactor building. Some fuel rods will be stored at a new location in the plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will apply for approval for the change of plan to the Nuclear Regulation Authority shortly. As part of the … Continue reading

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53% of Spent Fuel Rods Removed from Reactor 4

via EX-SKF / May 7, 2014 / As of May 7, 2014, 814 fuel assemblies (22 new (unused) assemblies, 792 used fuel assemblies) out of the total 1533 in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool have been successfully removed. Removal of the fuel assemblies in Reactor 4′s SFP started on November 18, 2013. At this pace, it will be completed sometime in November this year, as scheduled. From TEPCO’s English … Continue reading

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Fuel removal resumes at Fukushima reactor 4

via NHK World / March 30, 2014 / The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has resumed the process of removing spent fuel from one of the crippled reactors. On Wednesday, an alarm suddenly activated and stopped a large crane, as workers were preparing to hoist a cask containing fuel assemblies from the pool at the No. 4 reactor building. Tokyo Electric Power Company found that a … Continue reading

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Crane trouble stops fuel removal at Reactor 4

via NHK World / March 26, 2014 / Work has been suspended to remove spent nuclear fuel from a storage pool at a reactor building in the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company said an accident occurred at around 9:30 AM on Wednesday when workers started removing fuel units at the No. 4 reactor building. The utility explained a large crane used to hoist a cask containing … Continue reading

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Japanese researchers use cosmic rays to see nuclear fuel

via Channel News Asia / January 23, 2014 / Japanese researchers said on Thursday they had succeeded in using cosmic rays to find nuclear fuel inside a reactor, a technology that might be helpful in the complicated decommissioning at Fukushima. By observing the way the particles behaved near reactors, container vessels and spent fuel pools, they were able to obtain a clear visual picture of the fuel, they said. “We … Continue reading

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Preventing Fuel Damage in Nuclear Reactors

from allthingsnuclear.org / January 21, 2014 / Lots of people have lots of reasons for preventing damage to nuclear fuel inside the core of nuclear power reactors. But what is done to help meet this goal? The nuclear fuel for boiling water reactors (BWRs) consists of uranium pellets loaded inside hollow metal tubes called fuel rods. Metal caps are welded on the ends of fully loaded fuel rods to seal … Continue reading

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Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Assembly Removal 10% Completed

via EX-SKF / January 16, 2014 / The fuel assemblies stored in the fuel rack inside the Unit 4 spent fuel pool are to be taken out and transferred to the common pool located within the station site for centralized storage. This fuel removal operation starts on November 18, 2013. Its completion is scheduled for the end of 2014. From TEPCO’s page dedicated to the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool … Continue reading

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First Stage of Fukushima’s Fuel Rod Transfer Completed

via Energy Business Review / Tokyo Electric Power Company has transported 22 fuel assemblies from the Unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Loaded into a cask (pictured), the fuel assemblies were transferred from the crippled reactor building to the nearby common pool building at the power plant for safe storage. The extraction of fuel from the Unit 4 spent fuel pool will pause shortly for … Continue reading

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First Stage of Fukushima’s Fuel Rod Transfer Completed

via Energy Business Review / Tokyo Electric Power Company has transported 22 fuel assemblies from the Unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Loaded into a cask (pictured), the fuel assemblies were transferred from the crippled reactor building to the nearby common pool building at the power plant for safe storage. The extraction of fuel from the Unit 4 spent fuel pool will pause shortly for … Continue reading

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TEPCO at final stage in 1st round of fuel transfer

via NHK World / The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is preparing to complete the first transfer of nuclear fuel from a reactor building to a safer storage pool. On Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Company moved the batch of nuclear fuel from the No. 4 reactor building to a nearby facility housing the safer pool. TEPCO workers used a trailer to carry a cask containing 22 unused fuel … Continue reading

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Video: Transfer of Fuel Assemblies to the Cask inside Reactor 4

via EX-SKF / November 20, 2013 / TEPCO started removing fuel assemblies stored in Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool on November 18, 2013. 4 unused (new) assemblies containing about 60 fuel rods each were removed to the cask by 6:45PM. The work continues on November 19, 2013, and TEPCO hopes to load the cask with 22 unused (new) fuel assemblies before the cask is lowered by the gantry crane to … Continue reading

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Fukushima operators begin risky nuclear fuel rod removal

via Russia Today / November 18, 2013 / In a highly risky undertaking Fukushima plant operators have finally begun removing over 1,500 nuclear fuel rods from one of the four reactors at its damaged nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan on Monday. The operation is expected to take at least a year hailed as a key first step toward a full cleanup of the plant. Unit 4 of the Fukushima … Continue reading

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TEPCO Admits 80 Spent Fuel Assemblies Had Damage Before Nuclear Accident

via EX-SKF / November 18, 2013 / Move over, three fuel assemblies with damaged/deformed fuel rods inside in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool! You’re nothing. According to Kahoku Shinpo, a Fukushima local paper, TEPCO admitted on November 15, 2013 that there are 70 fuel assemblies with damaged fuel rods in the Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool, located on the operating floor (top floor) of the reactor building whose air radiation … Continue reading

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Unit 4: Three Fuel Assemblies Deformed or Damaged, says TEPCO

via EX-SKF / It must be from the explosion! Or from something TEPCO has done since the accident, whatever it is! No. If TEPCO is to be believed, TEPCO has been hiding the damages for at least 10 years; the oldest damage was from 25 years ago. According to the Yomiuri Shinbun, that’s not clear, and you would be excused if you thought the damages were recent (after March 11, … Continue reading

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Fukushima: Now For The Tough Part

via Reuters / November 13, 2013 / The operator of Japan‘s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will as early as this week begin removing 400 tonnes of highly irradiated spent fuel in a hugely delicate and unprecedented operation fraught with risk. Carefully plucking more than 1,500 brittle and potentially damaged fuel assemblies from the plant’s unstable Reactor No. 4 is expected to take about a year, and will be seen as … Continue reading

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Fukushima nuclear clean-up enters critical phase

via The Guardian / November 8, 2013 / Gazing down at the glassy surface of the spent fuel pool inside the No 4 reactor building at Fukushima Daiichi, it is easy to underestimate the danger posed by the highly toxic contents of its murky depths. But this lofty, isolated corner of the wrecked nuclear power plant is now the focus of global attention as Japan enters the most critical stage … Continue reading

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Fukushima Trial Run Begins Dangerous Reactor 4 Clean-Up

via CommonDreams.org / November 5, 2013 / Preparations to begin the potentially catastrophic decommissioning of the crippled Reactor 4 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant will begin this week with a test run. The test, which could push back the beginning stages of fuel rod removal by two weeks, includes moving a “protective fuel cask” into and out of the No. 4 storage pool with a crane—before attempts are made … Continue reading

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Tepco feeling heat over fuel removal

via Japan Times / November 5, 2013 / With Tepco due to begin removing more than 1,300 spent-fuel rod assemblies and nearly 200 fresh ones from the reactor 4 pool at the Fukushima No. 1 plant this month, global pressure is mounting to allow an international task force to monitor and assist the highly hazardous operation. A former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland, anti-nuclear groups in Japan and abroad, nuclear engineers, … Continue reading

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Video: Animation explains how Fukushima fuel rod removal will happen

via The Guardian / November 7, 2013 / A video animation by the operators of the Fukushima plant, the Tokyo Electric Company, shows how 1,534 damaged fuel rods will be removed from the site. A robotic crane will move the rods from a storage pool damaged by March 2011′s earthquake and stored more securely in an on-site facility.

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Fuel rod removal attempt at Fukushima Unit 4 delayed, possibly for weeks

via ENE News / Nov. 5, 2013 / The utility had intended to start removing the fuel rods from the unit’s packed cooling pool as early as Friday. The test was requested by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization. The government-affiliated agency called for an initial test that would include transporting a protective fuel cask from the No. 4 storage pool to another pool in a different building about 100 … Continue reading

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The REAL Fukushima Danger: Spent Fuel Pools

via Washington’s Blog / September 14, 2013 / The fact that the Fukushima reactors have been leaking huge amounts of radioactive water ever since the 2011 earthquake is certainly newsworthy.  As are the facts that: Tepco doesn’t know how to stop the leaks Scientists have no idea where the cores of the nuclear reactors are Radiation could hit Korea, China and the West Coast of North America fairly hard But … Continue reading

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Fukushima Unit 4 Fuel Removal Risks

via Fukuleaks.org / Sep 11, 2013 / TEPCO plans to begin removing spent fuel from unit 4 this fall. This effort only came about after ongoing public outcry over the danger the damaged pool posed. The effort was accelerated and the de-fueling building installed this spring and summer. This will be the first of some very high risk work at the plant but is little understood by the public. How … Continue reading

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