Tokyo - Confirmation this week that all the fuel inside one of Fukushima's broken reactors has long-since melted leaves the site's Japanese operator with the tricky task of eventually scooping it all out, experts say.
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said Thursday it had performed a sophisticated scan of the reactor core, giving the most detailed picture so far of what is going on in the high-radiation environment.
Nuclear experts said Friday that the test showed the nuclear fuel rods had melted beyond recognition.
"The results reaffirmed our previous understanding that a considerable amount of fuel had melted inside the nuclear pressure vessels," said Hiroshi Miyano, a visiting professor at Hosei University in Tokyo.
"But there has been no evidence that the fuel has melted through the nuclear containment buildings and reached the outer environment," Miyano told AFP.
However, the test -- tomography imaging using elementary particles called "muons" -- did not look at the bottom part of the reactor, with some experts suggesting it was not possible to tell if the fuel was still contained.
Containment buildings enclose the reactor pressure vessel in which fuel rods are installed. These rods generate the heat that is used to drive steam turbines and produce electricity.
"Eventually, TEPCO is aiming to scoop out the melted fuel little by little, rather than burying it in concrete" as was done at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union, Miyano said.
AFP
