TOKYO – Most of the melted nuclear fuel inside the No. 2 reactor at the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant is likely located at the bottom of its pressure vessel, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said Thursday.
According to a study that used a cosmic ray imaging system, an estimated 130 tons of the so-called fuel debris remains at the bottom of the vessel, the first time the location and amount of the melted fuel have been estimated.
The finding is important as the data could help the operator to narrow down methods to remove the fuel debris, the most challenging task in decommissioning the plant’s Nos. 1 to 3 reactors that experienced meltdowns in the nuclear crisis that began in March 2011./PNA/Kyodo/LGI/RSM