TOKYO, August 6 (RIA Novosti) - The decommissioning of Fukushima-1 reactor No.3 will be more challenging than previously thought, as nuclear fuel melted through the reactor core and in now stored in the containment vessel, HNK television reported Wednesday.
According to the utility's latest analysis, the cooling system of reactor No.3 stopped functioning March 12, and a meltdown started in the morning on March 13, about 5 hours earlier than previously estimated.
By June 14, most of the fuel melted through the reactor core into the containment vessel.
Fukushima operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), aims to complete its plant decommissioning plan in 40 years.
On March 11, 2011, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was hit by a powerful earthquake and a subsequent tsunami caused a partial meltdown of three of the plant’s nuclear reactors as radiation leaked into the atmosphere, soil and sea.
The incident was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.
Several areas within 20-kilometer (12 miles) zone from the plant are still considered unfit for habitation due to the high levels of radioactive contamination.
TEPCO has been widely criticized for being inadequately prepared for a tsunami and for its slow response to the disaster.
Cleaning the toxic waste from the abandoned nuclear plant and reactors decommissioning have become the principal task of TEPCO, the process of disaster cleanup is expected to take at least 40 years.
