Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) estimates that it will take 44 years to decommission its Fukushima Daiini nuclear power plant, located some 15km south of the accident-hit Fukushima Daiichi station.

Tepco presented an outline of decommissioning plans to the municipal assembly of Tomioka on 22 January.

Fukushima Governor, Masao Uchibori in July approved Tepco’s decision to decommission the Fukushima Daiini plant.

Fukushima Daiini, with four boiling water reactor units, was also hit by the tsunami in 2011 and temporarily lost reactor cooling functions. But unlike the Daiichi plant, it avoided meltdowns.

According to reports in the Japan Times, the decommissioning plan for Fukushima Daiini will have four stages.

The first stage, comprising radiological surveys, will take ten years. The second stage, which will involve clearing the equipment from around the nuclear reactors, will last 12 years. Removal of the reactors (stage 3) and demolition of the reactor buildings (stage 4), will each last 11 years.  

Tepco will transfer 9532 used nuclear fuel assemblies and 544 unused fuel assemblies from the Fukushima Daiini plant to a fuel reprocessing company before the end of the decommissioning process.

Tepco will submit its final decommissioning plans for Fukushima Daiini to Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) once it receives approval from the municipal governments of Tomioka and Naraha, as well as the Fukushima Prefectural Government.