TOKYO: Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. has achieved many things over the past year regarding the decommissioning of its disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, a senior company official said in a recent interview.

In fiscal 2024 from April, TEPCO is planning to take the first step for removing melted nuclear fuel debris on a trial basis from the No. 2 reactor at the power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, ONO Akira, head of TEPCO’s in-house company in charge of the decommissioning work, said, ahead of the 13th anniversary of the March 11, 2011, powerful earthquake and tsunami, which led to the unprecedented triple meltdown at the plant.

TEPCO’s operations to release treated water containing tritium, a radioactive substance, from the plant into the sea “are proceeding safely as planned,” he said.

Noting that the water release, which started in August 2023, will “take a long time to be completed,” Ono said, “We will continue working on the project with a sense of tension while securing transparency through the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding the safety of related facilities and their operations, quick monitoring and distribution of accurate and easy-to-understand information.”

On TEPCO’s decision to postpone to October the start of the removal of fuel debris from the No. 2 reactor, Ono said that this is “an unprecedented mission.” With radiation levels at the No. 2 reactor remaining too high for people to approach, it would be difficult to resolve a problem soon after it occurs at the reactor, Ono said.

Since a lot of problems, such as damage to water treatment equipment, occurred in and after 2021, TEPCO has worked to take countermeasures by assuming risks in advance, Ono said. Still, serious problems continued to occur, and there are issues that need to be improved, he said.

“We have achieved many things over the past year” regarding the decommissioning of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, such as a survey of the inside of the containment vessel for the plant’s No. 1 reactor and the removal of some heavily contaminated pipes leading to the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, he said.

The start of the treated water release into the ocean was “an important step” in the decommissioning work, Ono said.

Over the next year, TEPCO plans to begin removing fuel debris and will proceed with its study for large-scale removal, he said. It will be “a very big year” in terms of taking the first step concerning fuel debris removal, Ono said.

JIJI Press