Fuel removal resumed

March 30, 2014

Fuel removal resumes at Fukushima plant

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140330_18.html 

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has resumed the process of removing spent fuel from one of the crippled reactors.

On Wednesday, an alarm suddenly activated and stopped a large crane, as workers were preparing to hoist a cask containing fuel assemblies from the pool at the No. 4 reactor building.

Tokyo Electric Power Company found that a worker had mistakenly operated the crane without releasing an auxiliary brake, causing it to become overloaded.

The problem was fixed, and the removal work resumed at noon on Sunday.

This was the first suspension of the operation since TEPCO started removing fuel units from the pool in the building last November. The utility is removing the fuel assemblies to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

1,533 fuel units were being stored in the pool at the time of the 2011 accident, and 983 were still there on Sunday.

Mar. 30, 2014 - Updated 08:26 UTC