Former U.S. nuclear regulatory chief Gregory Jaczko inspected work to prepare for the decommissioning of crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 12, and gave a tentative thumbs up to the effort.
Former U.S. nuclear regulatory chief Gregory Jaczko inspected work to prepare for the decommissioning of crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on March 12, and gave a tentative thumbs up to the effort.
Jaczko noted progress since his last visit, but also emerging challenges.
“Many things have changed since I was last here,” Jaczko said, referring to the operation to remove spent nuclear fuel from the No. 4 reactor’s storage pool and problems with the enormous amount of contaminated water stored at the facility.
It was his first inspection of the plant since December 2011. Jaczko was the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when the disaster unfolded on March 11, 2011.
He inspected an ALPS (advanced liquid processing system) water treatment device, which can eliminate 62 radioactive substances from contaminated water, including strontium.
Jaczko also entered the No. 4 reactor building, which now has a cover to protect the structure during decommissioning.
At a meeting with officials from Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, Jaczko asked about water management, specifically whether the company will continue to build storage tanks or eventually release part of the contaminated water into the sea.
Naohiro Masuda, a TEPCO executive who headed the Fukushima No. 2 plant at the time of the 2011 quake and tsunami, said the problem of what to do with the growing volume of radioactive water will be tackled at a later date.
“We believe leaving contaminated water is not a good idea, so we will start with decontamination,” he said. “But what to do with the processed water is a different question.”
Jaczko was visiting Japan to deliver a keynote speech at a symposium on “risk governance leadership” sponsored by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a private body, and the University of Tokyo. The event at the university on March 11 was organized to mark the third anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the nuclear disaster.