TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A full-scale retrieval of melted fuel debris at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant is likely to be delayed to fiscal 2037 or later, from the initially planned early 2030s, a supervising body of decommissioning work said Tuesday.
The Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp. will spend one or two years examining the feasibility of the removal plan after Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. explained that preparation work is expected to take 12 to 15 years.
The delay would be a major setback to the plan by the government and TEPCO to complete decommissioning by 2051, after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was left crippled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Toyoshi Fuketa, head of the decommissioning work at the supervising body, told a press conference that the plan was seen as difficult from the outset, adding, "The difficulty of retrieving the first handful of debris has become apparent."
The body was established after the nuclear disaster to provide technical advice to TEPCO and the government, as well as to manage decommissioning funds.
It is estimated that 880 tons of debris remain in Nos. 1 to 3 reactors that suffered core meltdowns during the nuclear crisis, with TEPCO and the government having aimed to start retrieval at the No. 3 unit from which spent nuclear fuel has already been removed.
The plant operator has presented two plans to make way for the removal of debris, with one demolishing a radioactive waste disposal building next to the No. 3 unit and the other keeping it intact.
Fuketa told TEPCO to study the options further as both plans have uncertain factors. "In regard to how to demolish the building, internal survey has yet to begun," he said, calling on the operator to flesh out the plan.
In last November and in April this year, TEPCO retrieved small samples of fuel debris from the No. 2 reactor on a trial basis to explore ways to remove the rest effectively and store it safely.
Among several potential methods are retrieving debris exposed in the air by cooling them with pouring water and stabilizing debris with filler and recovering them by drilling.
