New International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissionning

August 1, 2013

New research body for reactor decommissioning

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130801_25.html

Public and private sector groupsin Japan will jointly set up a new research organization to pursue ways to decommission the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Thursday handed a charter for the body to Kyoto University Professor Hajimu Yamana, who will head the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning.

Motegi said he hopes all related parties will join forces to achieve results in response to the high expectations of the residents of Fukushima Prefecture and other citizens.

Taking part will be more than 500 experts from 17 groups, including government-affiliated research institutes, electric companies and reactor makers.
The members plan to develop remote-controlled robots to work at sites with high radiation doses and technologies to remove melted nuclear fuel.

Scrapping the Fukushima reactors is said to be a challenge that could take as long as 40 years.

Yamana says the new organization will bring together Japanese technological prowess and actively solicit ideas from abroad to establish decommissioning technologies as soon as possible.