Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) had originally planned to begin removing melted fuel from the Unit 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant last year, 10 years after the disaster triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.
That plan was postponed until later this year, and now will be delayed further until about autumn next year because of additional work needed to improve the performance of the robotic arm needed for the fuel removal process, the company said.
The giant arm, jointly developed by Veolia Nuclear Solutions of Britain and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has been transported to Japan and is being adjusted at a testing facility south of the Fukushima plant.
The delay will not affect the overall decommissioning at the plant, which is expected to take 30-40 years, Tepco said. However, experts have said the completion target is too optimistic.
In March 2011, a large undersea quake off the coast of Japan...