Fukushima reactors could take
40 years to dismantle
Japan Nuclear Crises
EMF Computer Protection
Magnetic Field Detector
21 Dec 2011
Japan said that decommissioning the tsunami-wrecked reactors
at Fukushima could take as long as 40 years, with melted
nuclear fuel possibly stuck where it is for a quarter of a
century.
A road map produced by the Japanese government
and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) envisages
engineers will use much of the next 10 years just trying to
work out how to get at the fuel, which has partly eaten
through its containment vessels.
Underlining the challenges involved in dealing with the
disaster, the plan says that as-yet uninvented technology
will be key to safely disposing of the waste left behind by
the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
"Each and every one of the steps toward decommissioning
currently poses many technological challenges," said Goshi
Hosono, the government minister with responsibility for
dealing with the Fukushima disaster.
"We expected extremely difficult work to remove fuel debris
(from the reactors). We must accelerate work to develop
technologies, particularly remote control robots," he told
reporters.
"We will gradually make progress by assessing both the
situation on site and the state of research and development
work," he said.
The unveiling of the plan comes days after Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda announced the stricken reactors on Japan's
tsunami-ravaged northeast coast had reached a state of "cold
shutdown".
The announcement, greeted by the press and public as at best
an incremental step, means only that the temperature inside
the reactors has remained below 212F (100C) for a period of
time and that emissions of radioactive materials have
dropped off.
The crisis at Fukushima began on March 11 when a huge
earthquake under the Pacific unleashed a devastating
tsunami.
Towering waves rolled into the plant, paralysing cooling
systems and sending reactors into meltdown as explosions
sent radioactive particles into the air and sea.
No one
is known to have died as a direct result of the atomic
disaster, but the tsunami killed around 20,000 people as it
wiped whole communities off the map.
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