Original plan to cool Fukushima nuclear reactor to be scrapped
May 16, 2011
An adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan indicated Sunday that a plan to flood and cool the No. 1 reactor's containment vessel at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant with water will be abandoned as holes have been created by melted nuclear fuel at the bottom of the pressure vessel.
Goshi Hosono, tasked with handling the nuclear crisis, told TV programs, however, that the government will keep intact the ''road map'' devised by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to bring the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors under control within six to nine months.
On the original plan to completely submerge the 4-meter-tall fuel rods by filling the vessel with water, Hosono said, ''We should not cause the (radioactive) water to flow into the sea by taking such a measure.''
Hosono said that the government will instead consider ways to decontaminate water used to cool fuel in the reactor so that the water can be reused.
Hosono made the remarks after TEPCO found a pool of water over 4 meters deep, which could be highly contaminated and total 3,000 tons, in the basement of the No. 1 reactor building, suggesting water poured into the reactor core may be seeping through holes created by melted fuel. The water is then suspected to have leaked from the containment vessel or suppression pools, which form the vessel, into piping.
The Fukushima Daiichi complex has been crippled since the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on May 15, 2011)
Goshi Hosono, tasked with handling the nuclear crisis, told TV programs, however, that the government will keep intact the ''road map'' devised by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to bring the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors under control within six to nine months.
On the original plan to completely submerge the 4-meter-tall fuel rods by filling the vessel with water, Hosono said, ''We should not cause the (radioactive) water to flow into the sea by taking such a measure.''
Hosono said that the government will instead consider ways to decontaminate water used to cool fuel in the reactor so that the water can be reused.
Hosono made the remarks after TEPCO found a pool of water over 4 meters deep, which could be highly contaminated and total 3,000 tons, in the basement of the No. 1 reactor building, suggesting water poured into the reactor core may be seeping through holes created by melted fuel. The water is then suspected to have leaked from the containment vessel or suppression pools, which form the vessel, into piping.
The Fukushima Daiichi complex has been crippled since the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on May 15, 2011)
