10 Juillet 2012
Julu 10, 2012
Fuel rod container at Onagawa plant found damaged
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120710_36.html
The operator of the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture has discovered damage to fuel rod containers at the facility's No. 3 reactor.
Japan's nuclear safety agency has ordered Tohoku Electric Power Company to check and report on whether the damage was caused by the massive earthquake on March 11th last year.
The utility recently used an underwater camera to inspect the 4.5-meter-high metal containers in a fuel rod storage pool.
It found a 2-centimeter-long, several-millimeter-wide chip on one of the containers. It also found more than 12 places on other containers where pieces were missing.
Such damage has never been reported at a nuclear plant in Japan.
Tohoku Electric says the fuel rods are intact, and that there are no safety concerns because the reactor is out of operation.
But it says will investigate the damage in detail, and inspect the plant's No. 1 and 2 units.