One And A Half Years After Fukushima Accident

[DeSwiss]

Published on Sep 11, 2012 by NHKReloaded

NHK World News ---- Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai

Description -- One and a half years have passed since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company has many problems to overcome before achieving its promise to decommission the crippled plant in about 40 years.

TEPCO has been testing the spent fuel rods in the No.4 reactor pool over the past 2 months. The building structure at the No.4 reactor became fragile after the explosion and possibly unsustainable to more earthquakes in the future.

TEPCO is preparing to remove the rods from the pool in December next year. But the debris scattered in the pool could hamper workers from taking them out.

The operator also faces difficulty in handling the melted fuel in the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors.
It hopes to fill water in the containment vessels to cool down the fuel and is now using endoscopes and robots to find cracks and holes in the vessels. But high-levels of radiation are disrupting these operations.

TEPCO also wonders if it can secure enough workers for the next 5 years. It said it will see a shortage of workers unless it finds ways for them to avoid exposure to radiation.

But the utility said apart from a few places in the plant, most areas now register radiation levels below 3 millisieverts per hour, compared with 100 millisieverts per hour soon after the accident.

Sep. 10, 2012 - Updated 18:44 UTC (03:44 JST)

- Wait a minute. Their math isn't adding up right. If they say it'll take 30 to 40 years to decommission the reactors and they also say that they'll run out of workers in 5 years if they can't reduce radiation exposure -- then doesn't that leave 25 to 35 years dangling out there somewhere???

[TexasTowelie]

1. Haven't you heard of new math? n/t

[DeSwiss]

2. 2+2=Whatevs.....