TEPCO Completes Unit 4 Fuel Transfer

The Tokyo Electric Power Company announced yesterday the completed transfer of spent fuel assemblies from the Fukushima Daii-chi Unit 4 spent fuel pool.  The company had announced in November that it moved 1,331 fuel assemblies to a centralized storage common pool meant to store the used fuel, but Unit 4 still held 180 unirridiated fuel assemblies that were small enough to handle by hand. With this announcement, Unit 4 is now capable of decommissioning, according to TEPCO. “Most importantly, it makes Unit 4 and the Fukushima Daiichi site in general a safer place to work, and it adds to the safety of the communities near the facility.” TEPCO President and CEO Naomi Hirose said in a statement. “Successful completion of the removal of fuel from Unit 4 allows us to turn our attention to our next tasks with the benefit of experience, enabling us to work even more safely and more efficiently.” While the movement of fuel from Unit 4 is an accomplishment, the milestone was the least complicated of the needed fuel removal. In comparison, the fuel rods at Units 1-3 all suffered heavy damage, resulting in fuel debris, and are not so easily transferred.