TEPCO considers plan to remove spent fuel rods from crippled Fukushima plant

TEPCO workers began collecting samples of water from a storage pool at the plant on Tuesday to help assess the condition of the spent fuel rods and the feasibility of the plan.

Under normal conditions, spent fuel rods are kept for many years in the storage pools to cool. They are then placed in airtight steel casks for removal.

But TEPCO is having to improvise a method of moving spent fuel rods that may have been severely damaged by explosions at the reactors.

The buildings housing the Fukushima plant's No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 reactors have all been damaged, leaving storage pools exposed, and equipment normally used in the removal process may also have been knocked out by the explosions.

High levels of radiation are also likely to prove a major obstacle to the removal effort, which sources said TEPCO has been formulating since March.

Read More
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201104130196.html  Asahi shimbum

・Here are the latest reports on the quake victims in Japan.  
http://hearthevoicefromjapan.blogspot.com/

How can we help?

・Save the Children, Japan quake victim
www.savethechildren.org/japanquake

・Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support Website

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Japan-Earthquake-Animal-Rescue-and-Support/207835229228979
OR;
http://japanearthquakeanimalrelief.chipin.com/japan-earthquake-animal-rescue-and-support/

・Japanese Red Cross
http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/l4/Vcms4_00002070.html