Japan to Proceed with Decommissioning of Fukushima Dai-ni Nuclear Power Plant... Simultaneous Progress with Units 1 and 2

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] The decommissioning work of 10 reactors at two nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture, where a nuclear power plant explosion occurred during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, is underway.

According to the Asahi Shimbun on the 24th, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced that it began the decommissioning work of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant the day before.

TEPCO has built and operated two nuclear power plants in the Futaba area of Fukushima.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which began commercial operation sequentially between 1971 and 1979, consists of six reactors. Among them, four reactors located on the Daiichi site were submerged by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, leading to a meltdown due to cooling system failure and resulting in an explosion accident. After this accident, the decommissioning work of all six reactors at Daiichi, including the other two adjacent reactors, is underway with a target completion year of 2051.

TEPCO also decided in 2019 to decommission the four reactors of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant, which began commercial operation between 1982 and 1987. Accordingly, full-scale decommissioning work has started at Daini as well.

To announce the start of decommissioning work the day before, TEPCO inspected inside the reactor buildings of Daini and plans to sequentially carry out the work by bringing in necessary equipment starting from July 1.

The decommissioning work of the four reactors at Daini is expected to take about 44 years until 2064.

The decommissioning process is divided into four stages, each lasting about 10 years.

During the preparation period, Stage 1 (2021?2030), efforts focus on decontamination, and in Stage 2 (2031?2042), the facilities around the reactors will be dismantled and removed.

Stage 3 (2043?2053) involves dismantling and removing the reactors themselves, and the final Stage 4 (2054?2064) will see the demolition of the reactor buildings.

TEPCO expects the decommissioning of these four reactors to cost 282.2 billion yen (approximately 2.9 trillion won), but the total decommissioning budget is likely to increase when considering the costs of spent nuclear fuel processing.

Currently, 9,532 spent nuclear fuel rods are stored in the reactor buildings of Fukushima Daini, and Fukushima Prefecture is demanding that these be removed from the region.

Disposal of more than 50,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste generated during the decommissioning process is among the challenges to be addressed going forward.

Fukushima Prefecture is demanding a prompt disclosure of how to handle the low-level waste, but TEPCO has yet to decide where to locate the disposal facilities.

The Asahi Shimbun reported, "TEPCO has embarked on an unprecedented challenge of simultaneously decommissioning 10 reactors at a time when few nuclear power plants worldwide have completed decommissioning," adding, "Securing the workforce needed for the long-term decommissioning work and establishing safety measures to prevent worker radiation exposure are key challenges."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.