The Japan Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that uranium has been detected in nuclear fuel debris extracted from one of the three meltdown-hit reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The debris was extracted from the Fukushima Prefecture plant’s No. 2 reactor under the power company’s first trial removal that started in September and was completed on Nov. 7. It has been analyzed at a JAEA research facility in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The collected debris is about 9 millimeters long and around 7 millimeters wide, and weighs 0.693 gram. Its radiation level measured 1 to 2 centimeters away stood at 8 millisieverts per hour, the JAEA said.
In addition to uranium, iron and zirconium, used in a pipe covering nuclear fuel, were detected from the sample, the agency said. It also found the inside of the extracted debris to be hollow.
The analysis at the JAEA and other research facilities will continue for about six months to one year to gather information for use in research toward full-fledged efforts to remove debris from the nuclear reactors.
The sample will also be analyzed at the SPring-8 large synchrotron radiation facility in Hyogo Prefecture to find out its crystal structure in more detail.
TEPCO said it will start the second trial removal work as early as around March next year.
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