Japanese Earthquake Update (15 March 18:00 UTC)
15 March 2011
Announcements, Featured
The IAEA can confirm the following information about the status of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Unit 4 was shut down for a routine, planned maintenance outage on 30 November 2010. After the outage, all fuel from the reactor was transferred to the spent fuel pool.
Units 5 and 6 were shut down at the time of the earthquake. Unit 5 was shut down as of 3 January 2011. Unit 6 was shut down as of 14 August 2010. Both reactors are currently loaded with fuel.
As of 00:16 UTC on 15 March, plant operators were considering the removal of panels from units 5 and 6 reactor buildings to prevent a possible build-up of hydrogen in the future. It was a build-up of hydrogen at units 1, 2, and 3 that led to explosions at the Daiichi facilities in recent days.
The IAEA continues to monitor and seek information on the status of plant workers, reactor conditions, and spent nuclear fuel at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
So this IAEA thread is to say that Daiichi / Fukushima I Unit 4 is the only unit with fuel in the spent fuel containment pool?
I thought otherwise unless the report that said the pools 5 and 6 were heating up and it really meant instead that the cores of 5 and 6 are heating up from their cold shut-down state.
I sorely wish some responsible party with reputable knowledge would present a better unit-by-unit status report on the SIX units at Fukushima I and the FOUR units at Fukushima II. Fukushima II appears to be functional and safely shut-down with residual cooling functions working.
Ok- so am I correct in saying 5 & 6 are like 4 -having spent fuel?
The information they’re providing on Unit 4 conflicts with the plant status information provided directly by TEPCO. Wonder which is accurate?