Work begins to dismantle cover at Fukushima plant

Jul 28 - Japan Economic Newswire

The operator of the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began Tuesday dismantling the cover shrouding the No. 1 reactor building, installed in the wake of the 2011 disaster to keep radioactive materials from dispersing.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers removed one of the six panels, each about 7 meters in width and about 42 meters in length, using a crane.

With the removal of the panel, the upper part of the reactor building, which was destroyed by a hydrogen explosion, became visible for the first time since last December, when part of the cover was temporarily removed.

The utility plans to complete the whole cover removal process in fiscal 2016, which begins next April, and clear debris and install equipment before beginning to take out the 392 spent fuel assemblies from the building's pool in fiscal 2020.

Takao Kikori, a senior nuclear safety official at the Fukushima prefectural government, called for care to be taken in conducting the dismantling work for the safety of local people.

The utility plans to remove the second panel in early August or later and complete the removal of all six panels by the end of this year. It also plans to later remove panels on the sides of the reactor building and install windbreaker sheets for debris clearing work.

The reactor building cover was installed in October 2011 as an emergency measure to keep radioactive dust from scattering. The utility initially planned to dismantle it in fiscal 2013 or 2014 but was forced to put off the work to take additional dust control and other measures.

== Kyodo