Lid removed from reactor no.4

September 13, 2012

Detached pressure vessel lid at Fukushima nuke plant removed

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120913p2a00m0na003000c.html

The lid of a pressure vessel at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is lowered by a large crane. (Photo taken from TEPCO homepage)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) removed a detached pressure vessel lid from a reactor building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant on Sept. 13.

Around 30 workers used a large crane to remove the 65-ton lid to open work space for removing fuel from the spent-fuel pool of the No.4 reactor. According to TEPCO, the radiation exposure during the work is estimated to have been no more than 0.8 millisieverts.

The No. 4 reactor was undergoing a regular inspection at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, so it does not contain nuclear fuel, and the lid of the pressure vessel had been lifted off and set on the reactor building. There are, however, 1,533 nuclear fuel rods in the spent-fuel pool. TEPCO says it will start work to remove them before the end of next year.