Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report 2014

Fukushima, February 25, 2014 -The fuel removal work at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, an important milestone of the decades-long decommissioning work, was suspended for approximately 4 hours, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced today.

The work was suspended at 10:19 am today, after the alternative cooling system (secondary system) was stopped due to a power failure, caused by an incidental damage of a cable during an excavation work at the south side area of Unit 4. The cooling system was restarted at 2:16 pm after the power was restored, and the fuel removal work was restarted at 2:36 pm. There was almost no rise in pool temperature (13.0 degrees Celsius to 13.1 degrees Celsius). There were no rise in radiation, and no abnormality was confirmed at the other plants.

The fuel removal work at Unit 4 spent fuel pool, which is the first step towards decommissioning the plant, started in November, 2013. Removal of 374 fuels out of 1,533 has been completed as of February 24, all of them stored inside a nearby storage facility in a safer and undamaged building.