The cooling system for spent nuclear fuel in Unit 6 of the emergency Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has been shut down. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced that at 08:35 local time, a fire alarm was triggered at the plant due to the failure of the spent fuel cooling system pumps. The management confirmed that "after inspecting Unit 6, no fire was detected, but smoke was observed rising. It was indicated that no one was injured and no operational changes occurred in the unit." The company clarified that the spent fuel has been adequately cooled, and thus the incident "will not impact the operation of the plant."
It is notable that in 2011, Unit 4 of the Fukushima plant suffered significant damage from hydrogen explosions following the tsunami disaster. Experts do not rule out the possibility that a new earthquake in Japan could damage the building, highlighting the necessity to remove nuclear fuel as quickly as possible. Currently, the total number of nuclear fuel elements in the unit is 1,533, including 1,300 highly radioactive fuel rods from spent nuclear fuel. Consequently, experts have begun their work with the less dangerous unused fuel elements, successfully removing 22 rods last week.
