15 Years On: Fukushima N-Plant Decommissioning by 2051 Unlikely

Okuma, Fukushima Pref., March 13 (Jiji Press)–Although Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. still maintains its goal of decommissioning its tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant by 2051, the target appears very challenging to meet due to delays in work to remove melted fuel debris. The situation at the plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, has changed dramatically since last year due to progress in decommissioning work, 15 years after the meltdown accident triggered by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. By late January this year, the top part of the No. 1 reactor building had been fitted with a large cover, hiding exposed steel frames and other remnants. But nuclear fuel remains stored in spent fuel pools at the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors. A special crane was installed at the No. 2 reactor to begin extraction work by June. Fuel removal at the No. 1 reactor is expected to commence in fiscal 2027 or fiscal 2028, after reactor building fragments are removed. Two trials were conducted to remove nuclear debris from the No. 2 reactor, in autumn 2024 and spring 2025, collecting a total of about 0.9 grams of debris. An analysis by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and others found that uranium, the main component of nuclear fuel, constituted the majority of the debris, and that it was soft enough to be crushed. Last July, TEPCO and the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation, or NDF, announced plans to remove debris from the No. 3 reactor that involve inserting devices from the top and side of the reactor building and using a filler to solidify the debris. As the plans require some 12 to 15 years for preparations, TEPCO has delayed the start of the removal work to fiscal 2037 at the earliest, later than the initial schedule to start in the early 2030s. TEPCO said it will spend about one to two years to assess the feasibility of the revised plans, but it has not decided how to manage the collected debris. The company has just started considering how to remove debris in the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors in earnest. The No. 1 to No. 3 reactors are estimated to contain 880 tons of debris. Toyoshi Fuketa, former head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority and chief of decommissioning at the NDF, has said, “I thought it would be difficult to complete the decommissioning in 2051 from the beginning.” But TEPCO has maintained the target. Akira Ono, president of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination & Decommissioning Engineering Co., said, “At this point, we want to proceed with decommissioning work with the target in mind as a goal.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]