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From NEI’s Safety First web site:

TEPCO Begins Purifying, Desalinating Fukushima Daiichi Used Fuel Pools

November 7, 2011

Plant Status

  • Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported Sunday that it has begun removing radioactive cesium from the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 2. TEPCO said this is a preparatory step to desalinating the pool water to avert corrosion of metallic components. After the March 11 accident, TEPCO used seawater to cool the fuel in the reactors and the pools. The company has been purifying and recycling water since July to cool the reactors, but it has now begun to purify the water in the used fuel pools. TEPCO reported that it has already begun desalinating reactor 4’s pool.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

  • The Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, which conducts nuclear facility inspections for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, is to establish an independent committee to investigate whether its inspection procedures have relied excessively on guidance documents provided by the industry itself. The investigation was ordered by Yukio Edano, the minister for economy, trade and industry.

New Products

  • The last in a five-part series on how the U.S. nuclear industry is responding to lessons learned from the Fukushima accident is now available on NEI’s Safety First website.

Media Highlights

  • According to Reuters, a draft of the International Energy Agency's 2011 World Energy Outlook forecasts global nuclear generation capacity increasing 60 percent by 2035. The report’s most pessimistic scenario has nuclear capacity falling 15 percent as a result of slowed growth due to the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

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