Center Recommending Sarcophagus
Hitachi Ltd. submitted a long-term plan to decommission the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant once plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has successfully cooled the reactors and brought them under control. Hitachi submitted the proposal to Tepco on April 8, after compiling it with help from its nuclear business partner General Electric Co. and two other U.S. companies, Exelon Corporation and Bechtel Corporation. Hitachi estimates that such a process could take about 30 years to complete.
Hitachi's plan includes 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. But where will they take the raddioactive materials?
Toshiba submitted a long-term plan for decommissioning the Fukushima plant to Tepco on April 4. The Japanese company, which drew up the plan with help from Babcock & Wilcox Company and Shaw Group Inc., said its proposal would take at least 10 years to complete.
The Center's plan would seal the site in one month. (
WSJ, 4/13/2011)
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