Japan has no final storage plans even for the highly radioactive waste that comes out of normal reactors. Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said recently that extra time would be needed to determine where and how the highly radioactive waste removed from the reactors should be stored.
The challenge of removing melted fuel from the reactors is so daunting that some experts now say that setting a completion target is impossible, especially as officials still don't have any idea about where to store the waste. The government has set a decommissioning roadmap aiming for completion in 29 years. The government has announced plans to release the water after treatment and dilution to well below the legally releasable levels through a planned undersea tunnel at a site about 1 kilometer offshore. Men in hazmat suits work inside a facility with equipment to remove radioactive materials from contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), in Okuma town, northeastern Japan, Thursday, March 3, 2022. Nearly 900 tons of melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors, and its removal is an unprecedented challenge involving 10 times the amount of damaged fuel removed in the Three Mile Island cleanup following its 1979 partial core melt. There's worry about the fuel because so much about its condition is still unknown, even to officials in charge of the cleanup. Workers were preparing for the planned construction of an Olympic pool-sized shaft for use in a highly controversial plan set to begin in the spring of 2023 to gradually get rid of treated radioactive water-now exceeding 1.3 million tons stored in 1,000 tanks-so officials can make room for other facilities needed for the plant's decommissioning.ĭespite the progress, massive amounts of radioactive melted fuel remain inside of the reactors. During a recent visit by journalists from The Associated Press to see firsthand the cleanup of one of the world's worst nuclear meltdowns, helmeted men wore regular work clothes and surgical masks, instead of previously required hazmat coveralls and full-face masks, as they dug near a recently reinforced oceanside seawall.
0 kommentar(er)
