Crane drops back in No.3 fuel fuel

August 29, 2014

Heavy control console falls back into Fukushima fuel pool: Tepco

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/29/national/heavy-control-console-falls-back-into-fukushima-fuel-pool-tepco/#.VACvOWOnrIU

Bloomberg

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it’s detected no change in radiation levels in the No. 3 reactor building of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant after a 400-kg piece of equipment slipped from a crane and fell back into a pool holding spent uranium fuel rods.

The accident happened at around 12:45 p.m. on Friday as the beleaguered utility was attempting to move what it described as a crane control console, according to a statement on its website.

The console, about a meter wide and 1.6 meters high, was blown into the pool on March 14, 2011, when the No. 3 reactor building exploded following an earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the power plant and caused a station blackout.

On Friday, the utility, also known as Tepco was attempting to move the device as part of the cleanup, said spokesman Hiroshi Itagaki. No one was injured and no changes in radiation levels have been detected, he said. The crane was being operated by remote control.

Itagaki said Tepco is unable to say at present whether the accident damaged any of the uranium fuel rods in the pool, but the stable radiation readings indicate otherwise.

Three reactor cores melted in the disaster at the Fukushima plant on March 11, 2011. Tepco is in the midst of the hazardous task of removing spent fuel assemblies from the spent fuel pool perched on top of the No. 4 reactor.

Crane drops debris into fuel pool at Daiichi plant

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140829_42.html

Aug. 29, 2014 - Updated 11:36 UTC+2

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have mistakenly dropped debris into a fuel pool at the Number 3 reactor building.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says the incident took place shortly after noon on Friday during work to remove debris using a remotely operated crane.

TEPCO says the dropped item is a controlling console for equipment to move nuclear fuel rods to and from the pool. It says the device measures about one meter square and weighs 400 kilograms.

Officials say they've detected no change in radiation levels near the pool or at the plant's monitoring posts, and that no one was hurt.

The Number 3 reactor building was badly damaged by a hydrogen explosion in March 2011, and its fuel pool is littered with debris.

TEPCO says the pool contains 566 nuclear fuel rods, and that it is trying to check whether any of them have been damaged.

The utility is planning to start removing the fuel rods during the first half of next year, at the earliest.