An independent task force of nuclear power experts, the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, which was set up by TEPCO in 2012, toured the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Tuesday and reported impressive improvements at the devastated facility.
“We have been impressed by what we have seen,” said Committee Chairman Dr. Dale Klein, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “I have visited (the plant) on a number of occasions before, and each time I see steady progress being made in what we all realize is a very long-term process,” he said.
Other committee members had also visited the plant individually. But Tuesday's visit was the first that a committee delegation viewed the plant together. Dr. Klein was accompanied by the committee's Deputy Chairman Lady Barbara Judge, chairman emeritus of the U.K. Atomic Energy Agency and committee member Masafumi Sakurai, who has served as an Inspector General in Japan's Inspector General's Office and was a member of the National Diet of the Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission.
Lady Judge noted improvements in conditions for workers at the site. “The workers here are to be commended for making progress in a challenging environment, and I am particularly glad to see their working conditions so dramatically improved,” she said.
Improvements noted by the touring group included a new, large rest house for workers, a seismically isolated management building, various aspects of water management, including dismantling of the flanged storage tanks that have been replaced by stronger, welded tanks, a new incineration facility for solid waste management, the drainage K channel, which has been recently redirected to the port area, and ground paving that has been done to suppress radiation.
The group tour was led by Chief Decommissioning Officer Naohiro Masuda.