At a press conference Wednesday,
Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata acknowledged that four
reactors at the company’s severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will
be decommissioned. According to news reports, he even broached the idea of permanently
entombing them in concrete.
Workers are already trying to
restore areas of the plant to dose levels that would allow repair work to
continue on vital cooling systems. Radioactive water collecting in the basement
of unit 1’s turbine building has been transferred to its condenser over the
last week, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported in a release
Wednesday. But the agency also indicated a tank holding the water has become
full, and Kyodo news quoted an official from the Nuclear Safety Commission of
Japan as saying that agency has suggested digging a pool outside to hold excess
water from turbine buildings.
Little new information has
surfaced in recent days regarding the reactors themselves. Units 1 though 3
were operating during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that took out primary
and backup power at the plant. Fire trucks had been pumping salt water into
their reactor cores to control decay heat until pumping was switched to fresh
water in recent days. On Wednesday NISA reported that coolant pumping at unit 1
had been switched from a fire truck pump to a motor-driven pump on Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, NISA reported, lighting has been restored to unit 4’s control
room. Lighting at other control rooms has been restored over the last several days.
Meanwhile, at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daini nuclear
plant 6 miles away, Kyodo reported that smoke was seen near a power distribution
panel at unit 1 but quickly dissipated.