Tokyo Electric Power [TEPCO], the company that operates the nuclear reactors that have partially melted down at Fukushima, has announced a plan to get the reactors to cold shutdown within 9 months. Cold shutdown is defined by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as “The term used to define a reactor coolant system at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature below 200 degrees Fahrenheit following a reactor cooldown.” Back on March 15, TEPCO claimed the reactors at Fukushima were in cold shutdown.
The two-stage plan offers nothing new – we’re still talking about flooding containment vessels and injecting nitrogen into the cores to stop hydrogen explosions and so on. However, this is the first time that TEPCO has offered anything that looks like a long-term plan.
Presently, TEPCO is using robots to survey the damage and get radiation readings. They have found much more radiation than before, suggesting that the reactors are still leaking. TEPCO spokesman Takeshi Makigami said: “What robots can do is limited, so eventually, people must enter the buildings,” but until the radiation drops, they can’t.
Government spokesman Yukio Edano was optimistic, but his enthusiasm was tempered, “I believe that this is definitely a workable solution. However, there are frequent aftershocks as we speak, and unfortunately, there have been cases where the situation deteriorated from lack of measures.”
I think 9 months is far too optimistic, and I can’t wait to be proved wrong.