Decommissioning

Fukushima-Daiichi / Unit 3 Spent Fuel Removal Scheduled For Completion In 2021

By David Dalton
3 April 2020

Updated plan says work at Unit 1 to begin in 2028 and Unit 2 in 2026
Unit 3 Spent Fuel Removal Scheduled For Completion In 2021
File photo of earlier spent fuel removal at Fukushima-Daiichi.
The removal of spent fuel from the spent fuel pool at Unit 3 of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan should be completed by the end of March 2021, according to an updated decommissioning action plan.

According to the plan, which covers decommissioning work to be carried out by 2031, the removal of spent fuel at Unit 1 is scheduled to begin in fiscal 2028 and at Unit 2 in fiscal 2026.

The removal of the fuel debris is expected to begin sometime in fiscal 2021, beginning with Unit 2.

In January the government set a new goal of finishing the removal of the 4,741 spent fuel rods across all six of the station’s reactors by fiscal 2031, about five years later than originally planned.

Tepco has started spent fuel removal at Unit 3 – a process expected to take two years – and already finished at Unit 4, which was off-line for regular maintenance at the time of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. A schedule has yet to be set for Units 5 and 6.

The government said it maintained its overarching schedule of finishing the decommissioning of the facility 30 to 40 years from the 2011 accident.

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