TEPCO to Resume Debris Extraction At Fukushima Plant

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex said it will resume efforts the next day to retrieve a small amount of melted fuel from a reactor, following last month's error-caused suspension, Kyodo News reported.

TEPCO has revealed that a probe found officials from the utility and contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. had failed to check the order in which the pipes were set up, which caused last month's suspension of the operation. I Photo: Copyright © National Land Image Information (Color Aerial Photographs), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) President Tomoaki Kobayakawa confirmed that five pipes used to insert a retrieval device into the No. 2 reactor's containment vessel to collect a debris sample have been placed in the correct order from a remote control operation room via camera.

"We strongly demanded that TEPCO not rely entirely on subcontractors for building the safety management scheme," Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori said at a press conference.

TEPCO revealed recently that a probe found officials from the utility and contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. had failed to check the order in which the pipes were set up, which caused last month's suspension of the operation.

This time, TEPCO officials monitored the arrangement of the retrieval device and confirmed that it was functioning properly, according to the utility, as reported by Mainichi Shimbun.