Full-scale removal of nuclear fuel debris from the No. 3 reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will not start before fiscal 2037, officials said Tuesday.
The removal was previously planned to begin in the early 2030s. This delay may push the completion of the plant's decommissioning process beyond the target year of 2051 set by the government and Tepco.
The new timeline for the work was announced by Tepco and Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation, or NDF, at separate news conferences. They determined that preparations for the work, such as the demolition of an adjacent building, will take about 12 years to 15 years.
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