Aug. 22 (UPI) — Tokyo Electric Power Company Thursday stopped an effort to remove nuclear fuel debris from a reactor meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The company said there were setup errors that stopped their work.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Thursday stopped an effort to remove nuclear fuel debris from a reactor meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
A set-up error during preparation scuttled the effort. The nuclear power plant was devastated on 11 March 2011 by tsunami following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake. File photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA-EFE
“We are now looking into why there was a mistake in the sequence of setting up the pipes,” a TEPCO official said during a press conference.
TEPCO did not say when another attempt would made, but said it won’t happen Friday.
During prep work for removal of the fuel a remotely controlled telescopic device was inserted just before the connection leading to the Fukushima reactor containment vessel. Work was halted when TEPCO realized the order of five pipes connected to the device was wrong.
The Fukushima prefectural government urged the company to take steps to prevent errors like this in the future because it makes residents anxious.
“It is better to carry on with the work safely and steadily rather than rushing,” TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa told reporters.
The experimental effort to remove nuclear fuel debris would have removed up to 3 grams from reactor No. 2 as a test.
There’s an estimated 880 tons of fuel debris in Fukushima’s reactors Nos. 1 to 3.
The Fukushima plant was flooded by a tsunami triggered by a strong earthquake March 11, 2011. Of the plant’s six reactors, 1 to 3 had core meltdowns. Hydrogen explosions damaged buildings housing reactors 1, 3 and 4.