(UPDATE-2) The second day of fuel assembly removal (11/27/2013). The work started at 9:30AM JST, according to TEPCO. On November 26, 2013, the workers removed six spent fuel assemblies into the cask in the cask pit inside the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool. The work took about three hours - 30 minutes per one fuel assembly.
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(UPDATE) From TEPCO, the first spent fuel assembly from the pool was placed in the cask, at 3:21PM.
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Hardly anyone on the net in Japan is paying attention, as the bigger and more distressing (unless you are a staunch supporter of Liberal Democratic Party) news of the day is the passage of Secrecy Act in the special committee in the Lower House with overwhelming majority votes by LDP, Komei (the ruling coalition), and Your Party. Passage in the Lower House (where LDP alone holds majority) is expected in the afternoon.
Six groups of workers (6 workers each in a group) in two-hour rotations will remove 22 irradiated SPENT FUEL assemblies, according to Mainichi, unlike the first time when unused, new fuel assemblies were removed.
Just like the first time, the entire operation will be done under water. So far, no news of a sizeable earthquake, and hardly any news coverage of the event.
The second removal of fuel assemblies from the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled today.
Preparation started at 9AM.
At 10:56AM, the work started to move the container for the transfer of the fuel assemblies from the temporary storage location on the operating floor of Reactor 4 to the Spent Fuel Pool.
At 11:29AM, the container was placed at the bottom of the Spent Fuel Pool.
In this, I don't blame TEPCO for not having posted a video of the entire work (9 to 10 hours) on November 18, 2013.
The preparation for submerging the cask started in the morning, with the cask submerged completely at 12:30PM. The removal of unused (new) fuel assemblies into the cask started at 3:18PM, and by 6:45PM 4 unused fuel assemblies were transferred into the cask.
The names of the companies and the names of the workers are blurred in the video. They could be TEPCO workers, but most likely from one of the primary contractors.
Compared to the still photos (see below), the water in the pool looks slightly murky. After the day's work ended at 7PM on November 18, another set of workers were scheduled to be there all night, clearing small debris and particles using a vacuum cleaner in the water.
(From TEPCO, 11/18/2013; click to enlarge. For higher resolution photos, go to the link.)
Today (November 19, 2013), the workers have removed 8 unused fuel assemblies into the cask as of 1:30PM, according to Nuclear Regulation Agency (secretariat of Nuclear Regulation Authority). The Agency thinks the workers will be able to remove additional 10 fuel assemblies to fill the cask.
There are six group of workers who take turns in removing the fuel assemblies so that each group of workers spends less than 2 hours on the operating floor.
Move over, three fuel assemblies with damaged/deformed fuel rods inside in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool! You're nothing.
According to Kahoku Shinpo, a Fukushima local paper, TEPCO admitted on November 15, 2013 that there are 70 fuel assemblies with damaged fuel rods in the Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool, located on the operating floor (top floor) of the reactor building whose air radiation levels are measured in millisievert/hour and sievert/hour (first floor).
There are also three such fuel assemblies in the Reactor 2 SFP, and four of them in the Reactor 3 SFP.
Total 80 spent fuel assemblies in the SFPs in Reactors 1 - 4 are damaged.
The damages had been there long before the March 11, 2011 accident, and TEPCO claims it properly notified the national government as they discovered the damages. But the company has come clean in public only now.
Kahoku Shinpo article below suggests that the oldest of such damaged fuels may have been there for 40 years in the Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool. (Reactor 1 started generating electricity in 1971.)
Reactor 1 at Fukushima I Nuke Plant is TEPCO's oldest nuclear reactor; it was entirely the project by General Electric of the US, a turnkey.
Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1 has 70 fuel assemblies damaged before the March 11, 2011 disaster, a quarter of the total spent fuel assemblies [in the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 1]
It was revealed on November 15 that 70 fuel assemblies in the Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant had had damages before the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami.
The damaged assemblies are about one-quarter of the 292 spent fuel assemblies stored in the pool. Technologies to remove damaged fuel haven't been established, and there are worries that [the revelation] may negatively affect the plan to remove the fuels from Reactor 1 [SFP] starting 2017 and the decommissioning work in general.
According to TEPCO, these 70 fuel assemblies had series of problems including leakage of radioactive materials from small [pinhole-size] holes [on fuel rods]. So the company removed them from the reactor and stored in a separate location inside the Spent Fuel Pool.
There are three damaged fuel assemblies inside the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool, where the removal of the fuel assemblies will start on November 18. TEPCO has postponed the removal of the damaged assemblies as it is difficult to remove them in a normal manner.
Other than in the Spent Fuel Pools of Reactor 1 and Reactor 4, the Reactor 2 Spent Fuel Pool has three damaged fuel assemblies, and the Reactor 3 Spent Fuel Pool has four, making the total of damaged fuel assemblies 80. TEPCO will consider the measures such as building a dedicated container for transfer for these damaged fuels.
As to the reason why Reactor 1 has the largest number of damaged fuels, TEPCO says, "Reactor 1 [at Fukushima I Nuke Plant] is the oldest nuclear reactor of our company, and we hear that there were quality control issues when the fuel rods were manufactured and that there were many fuel rods with inferior quality. From Reactor 2 onward, much improvement was done on the fuel rods, and quality improved."
１号機は東電初の原発で、１９７１年３月に商業運転を開始した。
Reactor 1 at Fukushima I Nuke Plant is the first nuclear reactor for TEPCO, and it started the commercial operation in March 1971.
No major national newspaper has covered this story so far.
According to NHK (11/15/2013), TEPCO will start removing the fuel assemblies from the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on Monday, November 18.
TEPCO will start with unused (therefore not irradiated) new fuel assemblies (there are 202 of them in the pool). 22 new fuel assemblies will be the first to be moved UNDER WATER into the container (called "cask") in the cask pit, using the fuel handling machine. Then the sealed cask will be lifted out of the pool by the gantry crane onto the truck waiting on the ground, which will transport the cask to the Common Pool about 100 meters away. TEPCO has two casks to be used for transport.
After removing 22 new fuel assemblies, then TEPCO will start removing the spent fuel assemblies. The removal is scheduled to continue until the end of next year, "ahead of schedule" as has been loudly demanded by the LDP politicians.
The fuel handling machine in the foreground, over the Spent Fuel Pool, and the gantry crane in the back, as workers conduct a dry-run on November 14 using mock fuel assemblies on the Reactor 4 operation floor (from TEPCO, 11/15/2013; click to enlarge; follow the link for more photos):
Workers who tweet from Fukushima I Nuke Plant say the people who will be operating the fuel handling machine and the gantry crane are the workers with long experience and expertise in fuel handling, from TEPCO's primary contractors. Not "yakuza and rank amateurs".
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To disabuse some people, including scholars and experts (albeit in different fields, not related to nuclear energy or nuclear power plant technologies, or who simply have not followed the Fukushima nuclear accident much other than catching some soundbites), the following is NOT, I mean NOT, how the fuel assemblies will be removed. (I couldn't believe it at first, but there were many in Japan for example who thought the removal would be done exactly like this. Maybe they still do...)
First, we use a crane like this one (whose jib mast collapses after 1:35 into the video)...
And we will take out individual fuel "rods" (and not fuel assemblies) one by one, like this one being taken out of the fuel assembly (casing has been already removed)(from TEPCO, 8/28/2012):
And using the crane in the first photo, and pull the fuel "rods" out of the pool into open air, irradiating the workers regardless of whether the "rods" are new or used, like this (except in this case it was an unused new fuel ASSEMBLY with the casing, not an individual rod)...
Then the "rods" will then be placed in a container, and the container will be lowered to the ground...
In the process, a mishap may occur, and the fuel rods may be scattered on the ground, then they go critical.
And on and on till the end of either the northern hemisphere or the entire planet.
This dire scenario is best summarized by a Yale University sociology professor (emeritus), who says the Reactor 4 SFP is in danger of collapsing (from Huffington Post 9/20/2013; emphasis is mine):
Much more serious is the danger that the spent fuel rod pool at the top of the nuclear plant number four will collapse in a storm or an earthquake, or in a failed attempt to carefully remove each of the 1,535 rods and safely transport them to the common storage pool 50 meters away. Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.
Just like many North American experts, the professor simply declares conditions in the Reactor 4 SFP are "perilous". The common Pool is 100 meters away, not 50 meters. It's not "rods" but "assemblies". No idea what he's talking about when he says "two of the rods touch", but I have seen this phrase in other places from other experts. It must be part of the standard things to say if you are to comment on the fuel "rods" from the SFP at Fukushima I Nuke Plant. That Tokyo is part of "surrounding areas" of the plant would be news to most Japanese.
Compared to other reactors that suffered the core melt, the air radiation levels in Reactor 4 have been low enough (measured in microsievert/hour instead of millisievert/hour in other reactors) to allow human workers to work inside the reactor building and on the top floor for the past two and a half years.
For a fond memory, this was the operating floor of Reactor 4:
On November 12, TEPCO disclosed that there were three fuel assemblies out of 1533 fuel assemblies in the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that were deformed and would be difficult to remove. The removal of fuel assemblies from the Reactor 4 SFP will start this month.
The three fuel assemblies has slight deformation or damage caused by the past work [in the SFP]. No leak of radioactive materials has been observed. TEPCO will transport other fuel assemblies first, while they figure out how to remove and transport these three fuel assemblies. Nuclear Regulation Authority has already approved the fuel removal, and the work will start within this month as scheduled.
So, are these fuel assemblies new? used? How long ago was the "past work"?
I found the answer in Fukushima Minyu, one of the local newspapers in Fukushima Prefecture. It was long before the start of the March 11, 2011 nuclear accident, with the oldest "past work" 25 years ago...
According to TEPCO, one of the damaged fuel assemblies is bent at a 90-degree angle [literal meaning: bent in the shape of a Japanese character "く"; actual angle could be less]. It was bent 25 years ago when a mistake occurred in handling the fuel. The other two were found to be damaged 10 years ago; there are small holes on the outside from foreign objects.
燃料損傷について当時公表したかどうかは東電が調査中。
TEPCO is investigating whether the damages to the fuel assemblies were made public when they were discovered.
According to Fukushima Minyu, the occasion was a visit by the delegation of the Fukushima Prefectural Council for Decommission Safety Monitoring. The council members include officials from the Fukushima prefectural government, municipalities around Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and experts.
How do you bend a fuel assembly at a 90-degree angle, handling it in the spent fuel pool?
And how could Yomiuri call a fuel assembly bent at a 90-degree angle "slight deformation"? Slight?
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For your information, there are 1533 fuel assemblies (each of which contains 50 to 60 fuel rods in channels inside the casing) in the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.
There used to be 1535 fuel assemblies there, but two new fuel assemblies were taken out from the Reactor 4 SFP last year for examination.
Of 1533 fuel assemblies currently in the Reactor 4 SFP, 202 of them are never-used, brand-new fuel assemblies. The rest, 1331 are used fuel assemblies. Of 1331, 783 are spent fuel assemblies that have been stored in the SFP at least for several years; 548 are the fuel assemblies that had been used in the Reactor Pressure Vessel until Reactor 4 went into extended maintenance to replace the core shroud. These 548 "hot" fuel assemblies were taken out of the Reactor Pressure Vessel and placed temporarily in the Spent Fuel Pool.
TEPCO was ordered by the newly installed Nuclear Regulatory Agency to check the inside of the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 3 using the video camera, after a piece of steel frame fell into the pool on September 22, 2012. So the company did, on September 24, and released the videos the same day. (For the video of the debris sliding into the pool, see my previous post.)
TEPCO says they didn't find a piece of metal on top of the fuel assemblies in the pool (1st video), so they looked at the bottom of the pool (2nd video). They did find a piece of metal, but they say they are not sure whether that was the one that dropped into the pool on September 22 or that had been there since the explosion in March last year.
Lots of concrete fragments on top of the fuel assemblies:
Metal debris, but TEPCO is not sure if that's the one that fell on September 22:
Unlike the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool (with 1331 spent fuel assemblies and 204 new fuel asssemblies), the Reactor 3 Spent Fuel Pool has only 566 fuel assemblies (514 spent, 52 new, and there was no MOX fuel in SFP) with the capacity of 1220. Since the metal slid from the edge of the pool and likely went down straight from there, there was probably no fuel stored where it fell. Hopefully.
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For your information, from Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (3/17/2011), number of fuel assemblies in Spent Fuel Pools at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant (I added the labels). From left, the columns are: Reactors, Storage capacity in the pool, Spent Fuel, New Fuel:
In addition, there are 6375 spent fuel assemblies in the Common Spent Fuel Pool.
Reactor 1 of Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture, operated by Japan Atomic Power Company, is the very first light-water reactor (by GE) built in Japan, and the 7th oldest commercial reactor in the world (as of January 2012).
(Fukushima I Nuke Plant's Reactor 1 is the second oldest, after Tsuruga's Reactor 1.)
Japan Atomic Power Company announced on August 17 that they found cracks and discoloration in 9 metal covers that cover fuel assemblies in Reactor 1 at Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant (Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture) which has been stopped [for maintenance].
いずれも軽微で周辺環境に影響はないとしている。
The [cracks and discoloration] are all minor, and there is no effect on the environment, according to the operator.
カバーは使用済み核燃料プールの中にあり、ひびなどは溶接部で見つかった。
The metal covers are in the Spent Fuel Pool, and the cracks were found at the welded parts.
As damages were found in the metal covers at Tohoku Electric Power Company's Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry instructed Japan Atomic Power Company and other [nuclear power plant operators] to conduct investigation.
I think what Yomiuri is talking about ("metal covers") is a channel box that houses fuel assemblies. For Onagawa Nuke Plant's channel boxes, apparently damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake, read my post from July this year.
Japan Atomic Power Company has a lot to learn from TEPCO (believe it or not) when it comes to timely disclosure of information. At their website, the latest press release is from August 10. NISA or METI is no better; there is no press release on this incident on either of them.
Maybe this kind of news wasn't news at all in pre-Fukushima Japan.
The original plan of the "roadmap" was to build a protective structure over the reactor building first, and then start removing the fuel assemblies in December 2013.
There are 1535 fuel assemblies stored in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool, including 204 new fuel assemblies. The plan was to build a "cover" structure for the building equipped with a crane [to remove the fuel assemblies], and start removing the fuel assemblies in December 2013.
The new fuel has no problem of heat from the fission products and are easier to handle than the spent fuel. TEPCO has decided to remove a few new fuel assemblies and inspect the condition.
The worker who tweets from Fuku-I says TEPCO will take out 2 assemblies. Since they have never been used, they can be lifted in the air, he says.
Even so, it doesn't seem to me to be a critical, essential task to be done at the plant right now. It seems like an unnecessary, risky endeavor.
What is instructive is some of the tweets in response to the worker's tweet. "Oh is there anything left in the Reactor 4 SFP?" or "The fuel assemblies still keeping the shape?" TEPCO's videos of the Reactor 4 SFP (here and here, for example) means nothing to them and many others, though they seem to believe the worker.
For the possible locations of the new fuel bundles in the Reactor 4 SFP, see my 4/25/2012 post (look for the darkest colored assemblies).
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