(A. Summary of TEPCO Home Page article/B. Comment by Watchers’ Team)
1. Reactor Cooling
A. (TEPCO):
(1) The cold shutdown condition of Unit 1-3 reactors is maintained.
(2) Shortening of cooling water pipelines is under investigation.
(3) An additional tank for treatment of water with low-level radioactive contamination is under construction.
(4) An Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) against multi-radioactive nuclides is under construction. (To be completed in September)
B. (Watchers’ Team):
(1) The cold shutdown condition is unstable.
(2) Strengthening and shortening of cooling water lines may involve difficulties.
(3) The safety of underground water tanks is not confirmed.
(4) Spraying treatment water in site area and draining to the outside of the system, after eliminating multi-radioactive nuclides, could be proposed.
2. Spent Fuel Pool
A. (TEPCO):
(1) Cool and stable condition of all pools in 4 units and a common pool is maintained.
(2) Rubble on the operation floor in Unit 4 has been removed.
(3) Two unused fuel assemblies were removed from the spent fuel pool in Unit 4.
(4) Rubble removal continues in Unit 3. Unmanned surveillance is planned for Unit 1 and 2 because of high-level radiation.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
(1) Maintaining stable cooling is top priority. Maintenance of pipelines, pumps and electric systems needs to be watched.
(3) The situation of removal of the unused fuel assemblies is not clear.
(4) The reinforcement of buildings and the removal of rubble in pools in Unit 1 and 2 need to be watched.
3. Fuel Debris Removal and Reactor Facilities Dismantlement
A. (TEPCO):
(1) Decontamination in buildings as preliminary work and unmanned surveillance for investigating leakage are being performed.
(2) Disassembly and dismantlement of reactors are under investigation.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
(1) The surveillance ability and limitation of robot needs to be watched.
4. Environment of Site Area
A. (TEPCO):
(1) Decontamination is being planned especially for the workers’ passage.
(2) Volume reduction and storage for rubble and cut trees is being investigated.
(3) Measures for long-term storage of secondary waste materials from water processing are being investigated.
(4) The water shielding wall, covering seabed soil and decontamination of seawater are being conducted.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
(1) – (4) All practicable tasks are desired to be proceeded concurrently within phase 1 (within 2 years).
5. Working Management
A. (TEPCO):
(1) Employees subjected to high level dosage have been transferred.
(2) Subcontractors employ 60% of their workers from among local residents.
(3) Measures have been applied to stop the recurrence of the wrong usage of dosimeters.
(4) Surveillance of workers’ attitude concerning environment has been conducted and many requests for improvement have been filed.
(5) The number of workers exposed to external radiation was 5797, and the maximum value of worker dose was 12.11mSv in June (decreasing trend compared with previous month).
B. (Watchers’ Team):
(1) A shortage of workers has been reported, but no details are obtained.
(2), (3) The defects in employment conditions were revealed by the wrong usage of dosimeter and by temporary hiring. The current situation, whereby more than half of the labor cost is spent on management fees, needs to be watched.
(4) Direct surveillance of the workers’ unsatisfactory conditions and presentation of the findings would be preferable.
(5) The dosage conditions over a span of several years could cause difficulties.
6. Revision of Mid- and long term roadmap
A. (TEPCO):
The Roadmap originally issued on Dec. 21, 2011 has been revised, and now includes the issuing of a regular meeting debrief report on July 30.
B. (Watchers’ Team):
The Roadmap was revised mainly adding specific tasks to Phase 1 (within 2 years). The result of the WG investigation will be reported at the end of August.