Japan’s Tepco takes on challenge of making space for Fukushima nuclear debris

Workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have started dismantling water storage tanks to free up space for tonnes of nuclear debris, 14 years after the facility was hit by a devastating tsunami.

Operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has been charged with finding a suitable place to store about 880 tonnes of radioactive material that remains inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s damaged reactors.

“Currently, there is no more land available in Fukushima Daiichi,” said Naoki Maeshiro, project manager for Tepco, who was overseeing the operation which began on Friday.

Three of the plant’s six reactors were operating when a tsunami caused by a massive earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, disabling their cooling systems and sending them into meltdown.

Ever since, Tepco has been holding 1.3 million tonnes of water – a combination of groundwater, seawater and rainwater – at the site, along with water used for cooling the reactors.

The water, which is treated to remove various radioactive materials, has been held inside more than 1,000 tanks that occupy much of the plant.