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The removal of spent nuclear fuel stored in the cooling pools of reactor 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi It ended on Sunday, its operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) reported in a statement.
This is the first time that the storage pools of one of the three reactors that suffered partial core meltdown in the accident (numbers 1, 2 and 3) have been completely emptied, freeing up radioactive substances which continue to complicate the work.
Mining work on Reactor 3 began in April 2019 and involved the removal of 566 uranium dioxide and MOX rods (a mixture of uranium and plutonium oxide) spent or unused stored in these pools, which have been transferred to others.
The operators worked remotely an operations center located approximately 500 meters away due to strong radiation inside the building. The fuel rods were removed with a crane equipped with a robotic arm to lift them.
The withdrawal of reactor fuel 3 started about four years later than originally planned and suffered a number of setbacks, including equipment failures and crane failure shortly after start-up, as well as difficulty handling debris.
LESS THAN TWO WEEKS FROM THE TENTH BIRTHDAY
The completion of the recall comes less than two weeks before the 10th anniversary of theaccident caused by earthquake and tsunami which devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011.
The departure of spent fuel Reactor 4 was completed at the end of 2014. It was the only reactor not in operation at the time of the accident, as it had been shut down for maintenance.
The extraction in reactors 1 and 2 is in progress, where one thousand units of spent fuel units are stored.
TEPCO aims to begin the recall from 2024 after delaying it for several years due to failures in electronic and robotic devices used in testing when exposed to extreme levels of radiation, which would be fatal for human workers.
In addition to spent fuel, there is between 800 and 900 tonnes of nuclear fuel melted in reactors 1, 2 and 3.
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