On November 18, 2013 TEPCO began removing fuel rods from its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. In the weeks since technicians have been carefully removing fuel rods from the reactor based in building 4.
This delicate procedure, which is one of the first to occur in the plants planned 40 year decommissioning project, has, so far, gone off without a hitch and TEPCO want you to know about it.
In the nearly three and a half minute video TEPCO shows almost the entire fuel rod extraction cycle and the diligent safety measures taken to ensure no further disasters occur. From lifting the fuel rods from their holding tank to the storage of the fuel rod containment cask, and the eventual placement of the rods in their common pool the utmost care is taken to ensure no further radioactive contamination will occur.
As of this writing TEPCO had completed 44 fuel rod extraction cycles. To complete the process TEPCO’s technicians will need to repeat this painstaking procedure another 68 times.
Images and Video Courtesy of TEPCO