Fukushima decommissioning chief on clean-up status

The head of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday there's no need to extend the current target to finish its decommissioning in 30-40 years despite uncertainties about melted fuel inside the plant's three reactors.

Ten years after its triple meltdowns following the March 2011 massive earthquake and tsunami, the Fukushima Daiichi plant has stabilized but faces new challenges.

Nuclear regulators recently found fatal levels of contamination in the reactors; a planned test removal of melted debris from the Unit 2 reactor has been delayed for one year due to late robotic arm development in pandemic-hit Britain; and a recent earthquake may have caused extra damage to the reactors.

About 900 tons of melted fuel debris remain inside the three damaged reactors at the plant, and their safe removal is a daunting task that its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), and the government say would take 30-40 years to finish. The removal of spent fuel units from cooling pools is already being delayed for up to five years.

But Akira Ono, chief decommissioning officer at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, says he does not plan to revise the current target to finish decommissioning in 2041-2051.

He said TEPCO plans to focus primarily on the coming decade and hopefully will release a new 10-year roadmap by the end of March.

A lot about the melted fuel, which fell from the core to the bottom of the primary containment chambers in Units 1, 2 and 3, remain unknown, Ono said. It is too early to decide how the plant should look like at the end of the cleanup, he said.

Local officials in Fukushima have said they expect the plant complex to be a flatland, where people can walk by freely.

Ono says an end state should be discussed by the government, local residents, experts and others involved and should be decided by consensus.

Some experts are still skeptical if removal of all melted fuel debris is possible at all and suggest a Chernobyl-style entombment of the Fukushima plant, but Ono denied that option, saying a long-term abandonment could pose a bigger risk than controlled cleanup and hinder Fukushima's recovery.

When all spent fuel is removed from cooling pools to a much safer longer term dry cask storage, while details of melted fuel debris are well assessed and their safe storage methods are under way, the decommissioning will reach a milestone with a bright prospect, he said.

Ono said removal of melted fuel debris is hopefully progressing on track during the 2030s.

Massive radiation from the reactors has caused some 160,000 people to evacuate from around the plant. Tens of thousands are still unable to return home.