Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) said Monday that it is covering holes in the roof of a damaged building at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in preparation for heavy rain.
The turbine building at the No. 3 reactor has gaping holes in the roof resulting from a hydrogen explosion that occurred following the March disaster. With a typhoon approaching, the amount of radioactive water in the building could increase if rainwater seeps in.
A crane was used to install three metal plates over a 14 x 11 meter hole, and the electric company, known as Tepco, plans to cover another smaller hole measuring 5 x 2 meters as early as Tuesday. Sandbags will be placed to prevent rain from going into damaged pipes on the roof of the building.
At the No. 4 reactor, the utility plans to begin operating equipment for cooling the spent-fuel pool around July 31, with similar equipment to go online at the No. 1 reactor around Aug. 5. These machines will bring the temperature in the pools below 40 C, allowing the power provider to bring the pools at all six reactors under control at the site.
On Tuesday, Tepco and the government will provide an evaluation of the first stage of the road map for resolving the nuclear accident. They will also announce their plans for the second stage, which calls for a cold shutdown of the reactors.
