OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture--In preparation for clearing debris and eventually removing nuclear fuel from inside, Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Nov. 10 temporarily removed another panel from the canopy covering a damaged reactor building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture--In preparation for clearing debris and eventually removing nuclear fuel from inside, Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Nov. 10 temporarily removed another panel from the canopy covering a damaged reactor building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The removal opened a large hole in the canopy covering the No. 1 reactor building. Debris inside the building were visible from the opening, which is 40 meters long and 14 meters wide, equivalent to one-third the size of the entire roof.
The first of the six canopy panels was removed on Oct. 31.
The utility has been spraying the inside of the reactor building with liquid anti-scattering resin since Oct. 22 to prevent radioactive materials from being stirred up during the dismantling work. The interior of the building will be checked throughout this month.
TEPCO also plans to keep a close eye on radioactivity levels inside the plant grounds and will notify local municipalities if any abnormalities are recorded.
The removed roof panels will be reinstalled as early as within this month, and their full-scale removal is expected to begin in March 2015.
The original roof of the No. 1 reactor building was blown off by a hydrogen explosion that occurred on March 12, 2011, a day after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck, triggering the crisis at the nuclear plant. The canopy was installed in October 2011 to contain the spread of radioactive materials.