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Target is to finish cleanup at site within within 30 to 40 years of the 2011 accident The government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Company plan to start removing melted fuel from Unit 2 at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station in 2021, according to the latest decommissioning plan.

The draft plan, revised for the fifth time and released on 2 November, said Unit 2 was picked first for the removal process because it is safer than Units 1 and 3, which also melted down after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The revised draft plan will be finalised after residents and experts give their opinions to a committee of cabinet ministers related to the decommissioning and contaminated water problems at the plant.

Investigations have confirmed that debris believed to be melted nuclear fuel at the bottom of the containment vessel in the Unit 2 reactor building can be lifted by a remote-control device.

Studies also showed that radiation exposure to workers would be lower at Unit 2 than at the Units 1 and 3 reactors.

Designating a specific time frame for the first time, the plan also calls for completing the removal of 4,741 fuel rods left in the cooling pools by 2031.

The plan maintains the general outlook for finishing the cleanup within 30 to 40 years of the accident.

By far the toughest challenge is removing the 800 tonnes of nuclear fuel that melted in the three reactors before dropping from their cores and hardening at the bottom of the primary containment vessels.

Over the past two years, Tepco has made progress gathering details mainly from two of the reactors. In February, a small telescopic robot sent inside the Unit 2 reactor showed that small pieces of debris can come off and be lifted out.

Earlier, assessments of Unit 3 were hampered by high radiation and water levels in the PCVs. A robot survey at Unit 1 also failed from extremely high radiation.

Date: Thursday, 05 December 2019
Original article: nucnet.org/news/removal-of-melted-fuel-scheduled-to-begin-at-unit-2-in-2021-12-3-2019