Nuclear engineers in Japan are preparing to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods at Fukushima, their most difficult and dangerous task since the plant’s runaway reactors were brought under control two years ago.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) is expected this month to begin removing fuel rods from a pool inside a reactor building at the tsunami-hit plant, in a technically challenging operation that will test the utility’s expertise after months of setbacks and glitches.
Experts say the operation is a tricky but essential step in the decades-long decommissioning and recovery after the worst atomic accident in a generation.
But, they add, it pales in comparison with the much more complex task that awaits engineers in the future. They will have to remove the misshapen cores of three reactors that went into meltdown, probably relying on technology that has not yet been invented.
The reactor that the pool serves – No 4 – was not in operation at the time. But hydrogen from Reactor No 3 escaped into the building and exploded, tearing the roof off and leaving it at the mercy of natural hazards like earthquakes, storms or another tsunami.