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APRIL 14, 2011
Companies Vie for Plant-Closing Job
By JURO OSAWA And REBECCA SMITH
Associated Press
A police officer in protective suit searching for missing people in Minamisoma, which is inside the 12-mile evacuation zone from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant
TOKYO―Two Japanese corporate giants submitted preliminary plans to conduct the long-term shutdown of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex, introducing a cast of players who stand to be active at the site for decades.
Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. each confirmed that they have crafted separate plans―each supported by U.S. contractors―to shut down the complex once the plant operator has successfully cooled the reactors and brought them under control. Though the plans are preliminary and don't represent formal bids for work, they begin to suggest the long, expensive process that lies ahead for the Japanese government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. as they look to bring Japan's nuclear crisis to a close.
Hitachi said Wednesday that it submitted last week a long-term plan to decommission the damaged nuclear plant. Hitachi said it voluntarily submitted the proposal after compiling it with help from its nuclear business partner General Electric Co. and two other U.S. companies, Exelon Corp. and Bechtel Corp.
Hitachi didn't say how long it would take to implement all the measures, but "generally speaking, such a process could take about 30 years to complete," said spokesman Masanao Sato.
The submission came four days after Toshiba offered its own long-term plan for decommissioning the plant. Unlike Hitachi's voluntary submission, Toshiba's plan was a response to Tepco's earlier request for information on how to remove possibly damaged fuel from the plant and safely transport it to another location.
European Pressphoto Agency
Workers pump contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 reactor in a photo provided by Tepco.
Toshiba, which drew up the plan with help from Babcock & Wilcox Co. and Shaw Group Inc., said its proposal would take at least 10 years to complete.
Toshiba and Hitachi are rivals in everything from electronics to industrial systems to selling nuclear reactors. Both denied that they intended to compete by submitting separate plans.
Toshiba supplied two of the plant's six 1970s-era reactors and jointly supplied two more with GE. Hitachi supplied one reactor.
Apart from drawing up long-term plans, teams of engineers from both Hitachi and Toshiba have been working off- and on-site at Fukushima Daiichi to help Tepco with its efforts to cool the nuclear reactors to prevent further releases of radioactive materials.
Earthquake in Japan
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More photos and interactive graphics
In its plan, Hitachi explains what steps it will follow after the cooling of the Fukushima plant, which was severely damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on March 11. The steps include taking the fuel rods out of the reactors and spent fuel pools, cleaning all the highly contaminated facilities, taking care of nuclear waste, and eventually dismantling the reactors and buildings.
Both Hitachi and Toshiba are receiving advice on decommissioning from their overseas partners. "The road map we've proposed is only the very first step, and we will have to keep making adjustments because the situation at the plant is still changing," Hitachi's Mr. Sato said.
Though cooling the reactors and restoring them to a stable condition is the most urgent task, "it is essential to start thinking about what measures will become necessary for the long term," he added.
GE will likely provide consulting to Hitachi and help with the long-term cooling process the remaining fuel will require, according to a person familiar with the matter. A GE spokesman confirmed that GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is supporting Hitachi as it develops a remediation plan for the site. "GEH looks forward to assisting Hitachi and other participants in this effort," said the GE spokesman.
Bechtel was instrumental in removing fuel from the damaged Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor in Pennsylvania, following a 1979 accident. More recently, it has been working on the cleanup of the Hanford site in Washington, where U.S. government nuclear waste has been stored for decades.
The Shaw Group was heavily involved in the cleanup of the Maine Yankee nuclear plant site in Maine, in which fuel was moved to dry cask storage and the plant torn down. It also is often tapped by government agencies after disasters and it is helping rebuild hurricane-damaged levees in Louisiana.
Jeff Merrifield, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a senior vice president at Shaw, said his company is working on long-term strategies as well as addressing short-term needs for its partner Toshiba. Shaw has been given a go-ahead to obtain equipment to help conduct radiological mapping of the Fukushima Daiichi site, which would tell workers where there are hot spots that must be avoided or where special precautions must be taken.
"There is an aspiration to remove the reactors and we are involved in a dialog about that," added Mr. Merrifield of Shaw, who said removal presents "practical challenges," including "where are you going to put the material?" At Three Mile Island, a decision was made to remove damaged fuel and some radioactive debris, but not the reactor core.
Mr. Merrifield said Japanese utilities haven't yet decommissioned commercial nuclear reactors, whereas the U.S. has shut down more than two dozen reactors, with some put in "safe storage" and others torn down.
"As a manufacturer of nuclear-plant equipment, we are doing whatever we can to improve the situation," Mr. Sato said.
A Tepco spokeswoman said the company didn't yet know whether it would pick one of the proposals, or ask the two companies to work together. The work's scope is also unclear since the crisis is still unfolding and some key questions, such as the extent to which fuel rods have melted, remain unanswered.
"We are not at a stage yet where we can discuss the proposals," Tepco President Masataka Shimizu said at a news conference Wednesday.
―Ellen Byron contributed to this article.
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