Long and tough road ahead for work to decommission Fukushima nuclear reactors

It is expected to take more than 30 years to decommission crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, and workers tasked with the difficult mission would have to venture into “uncharted territory” filled with hundreds of metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear fuel, experts say.

After the expert committee of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) compiled a report on procedures to decommission the No. 1 to 4 reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant on Dec. 7, the actual work is expected to move into high gear after the turn of the year. As in the case of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, the workers would try to remove melted nuclear fuel after shielding radiation with water, a technique called a “water tomb.” But the work would have to be done in a “territory where humans have not stepped into before,” said a senior official of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The work is so difficult that it is expected to take more than 30 years to finish decommissioning the reactors.

The key part of the decommissioning work is to remove a total of 1,496 fuel rods from the No. 1 to 3 nuclear reactors and 3,108 fuel rods from nuclear fuel pools of the No. 1 to 4 reactors. The government and TEPCO are expected to start decommissioning the reactors early in the New Year after unveiling detailed plans around Dec. 16.

According to experts, filling the containment vessels with water completely to shield radiation is the “foremost and biggest hurdle.” In order to carry out the task, it is necessary to spot and repair damaged parts in the containment vessels. But it is not an easy task. Up to about 5,000 millisieverts per hour of radiation — lethal levels — have been detected in the reactor building of the No. 1 reactor.

In the work schedule announced in April, TEPCO said it would bring the nuclear plant under control by filling the reactors with water. But subsequent analysis of the accident suggested that the No. 1 and 2 reactors had holes of up to 50 square centimeters caused by hydrogen explosions and the like. In the work schedule announced in May, TEPCO said it had scrapped its plan to repair the containment vessels and suspended the work to fill them with water.

Moreover, workers have been fighting an uphill battle to remove crumbled fuel. The reactors had been running without cooling water for a long time, and most of the fuel melted and apparently dropped into the containment vessel from the bottom of the pressure vessel at the No. 1 reactor.

A single fuel rod contains about 170 kilograms of uranium, and a simple calculation suggests that about 254 tons of uranium in the reactors alone must be recovered. The distance between the upper lid and the bottom of a containment vessel is up to 35 meters. From that far away, the work has to be done to chop off and recover melted and crumbled fuel by using remote controlled cranes. Furthermore, the melted fuel is mixed with metal from fuel pellets and reactor parts.

“The decommissioning work should be moved up and finished promptly,” said Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato. He submitted a 6-item statement to the JAEC’s expert committee. But at the meeting on Dec. 7, the expert committee did not give any in-depth response but simply added to its report that “We will urge people concerned to realize it as soon as possible.” Kyoto University professor Hajimu Yamana, who heads the expert committee, said on Dec. 7, “Because no one has seen the inside of the nuclear reactors, the timing of starting the work to recover nuclear fuel mentioned in the report is only a nonbinding target.”

Mainichi Shimbun, December 8, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/12/08/20111208p2a00m0na016000c.html

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 Gov’t to decide Dec. 16 on ’cold shutdown’ of Fukushima plant

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan is set to decide Dec. 16 that the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been brought under control by achieving a stable state called “cold shutdown,” government sources said Wednesday.

The government has determined that it is possible to put the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors at the complex in the stable state by year-end, a timeline envisaged for the completion of step 2 in a road map drawn up to bring the crisis under control, according to the sources.

The government has for months been trying to keep temperatures in the cores of the damaged reactors below the boiling point for water in a stable manner and prevent a fresh release of radioactive materials into the surrounding environment.

The decision is expected to be made at a meeting of the nuclear disaster countermeasure headquarters headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Dec. 16, they said.

Given the imminent completion of step 2, the government plans to begin working in earnest to review evacuation restrictions imposed on areas around the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant by using radiation levels as a guide, to enable a speedy return for displaced residents.

The government and the utility, known as TEPCO, will compile a medium- to long-term road map toward decommissioning the plant, while envisaging the removal of spent nuclear fuel rods left in the pools for the reactors, possibly within two years.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has found “largely acceptable” a TEPCO plan to safely manage company facilities over the next three years, while instructing the utility to look into a recent leak of radioactive water from circulatory contaminated water desalination facilities, according to the sources.

The government has set as conditions for a cold shutdown in the road map achieving the state in which temperatures at the bottom of the pressure vessel for each of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors stay at 100 C or below and the yearly radiation dose at the plant’s perimeter at 1 millisievert or lower.

Kyodo Press, December 8, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/12/08/20111208p2g00m0dm022000c.html

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 TEPCO goal of rationalizing operations doubtful

Questions remain as to whether Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, will be able to achieve its goal of rationalizing its operations under its newly released action plan.

The utility will be required to shoulder the massive financial burden of placing its crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant under control and paying compensation to those affected by the crisis. Furthermore, it anticipates a sharp increase in its fuel costs that are estimated to reach about 1 trillion yen annually.

Moreover, it will be required to foot the costs of decommissioning and dismantling the crippled nuclear reactors and decontaminating areas tainted by radioactive substances leaking from the nuclear plant.

Since the company’s planned streamlining is far from enough to make up for the massive amounts of additional costs resulting from the nuclear crisis, there are no prospects that it can get out of the red.

Uncertainty about TEPCO’s future is only growing as it appears difficult to raise electricity bills and resume operations at nuclear power plants that are suspended for inspections.

Mamoru Muramatsu, manager of TEPCO’s Corporate Planning Department, told a news conference on Dec. 9, “We’ll reduce expenses and streamline our organizations without exceptions.”

In return for financial support from the government to pay compensation, TEPCO is required to achieve its streamlining plan that it pledged in its emergency business plan. The action plan was worked out to detail specific measures to achieve the rationalization plan.

After it announced the emergency business plan, TEPCO, which is having difficulties raising operating funds on its own, began efforts to sell off its plants and other facilities.

In addition, it will consider cancelling its plan to build thermal power stations and selling off some of its power stations within this year in an effort to decrease its investment in plants and equipment.

However, some insiders pointed out that it is “unrealistic” to sell off its power stations which have been put up as collateral for loans it had obtained to build the facilities.

To make up for a shortage of electric power, TEPCO has expressed a willingness to buy power from other small-scale power suppliers, which it did between fiscal 1996 and 1999. However, it is highly questionable that such companies can sell power to TEPCO at lower prices than what it offers, and generate power stably.

The company has increased its target of reducing expenses over the next decade by 103.3 billion yen from its initial plan to nearly 2.65 trillion yen, while planning to decrease corporate pension benefits in the business year starting in April 2012. However, its plan to cut wages and pension benefits is expected to draw protests from employees and retirees.

Regardless, the company is under mounting pressure from the government to go ahead with such cost cutting measures because it has received a total of 680 billion yen in taxpayers’ money, including funds to support its compensation payments. “The utility must drastically reduce costs as if to shed blood in efforts to win public understanding,” one official said.

Still, some TEPCO officials are skeptical of whether it can achieve its goal outlined by its action plan.

“We’re under pressure to increase our goal, and frankly speaking, it’s difficult to achieve these goals,” a TEPCO insider admitted.

It has come to light that the government is set to acquire a stake in TEPCO, effectively placing the utility under its control.

“The revelations came as a shock to TEPCO that wants to remain as a private company,” another TEPCO insider said.

It remains to be seen whether TEPCO can rationalize its operations as it plans.

Seiya Tateyama and Daisuke Nohara, Tokyo Economic News Department, Mainichi Shimbun, December 10, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20111209p2a00m0na033000c.html

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