TOKYO, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The extraction of melted fuel debris from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant will be resumed on Tuesday, the plant's operator reported on Monday.
According to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), it would resume efforts to extract a small amount of melted fuel debris from the No. 2 reactor.
The extraction process involves inserting a device resembling a fishing rod into the reactor's containment vessel to collect a sample of the debris, approximately a few grams or the size of a small spoonful.
The operation, originally scheduled to begin on Aug. 22, was halted for over two weeks due to a procedure error, as officials from both TEPCO and contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries failed to verify the correct sequence of the pipe setup.
According to local media reports, Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori voiced concerns during a press conference, urging TEPCO to establish a robust oversight framework.
"We strongly demanded that TEPCO not rely entirely on subcontractors for building the safety management scheme," Uchibori was quoted by national news agency Kyodo as saying.
TEPCO reported that by Sunday, the operational procedures had been revised, and monitoring of the retrieval device confirmed that it was functioning properly.
On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Japan's northeast led to core meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant operated by TEPCO, resulting in a level-7 nuclear accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
An estimated 880 tons of fuel debris remain in No. 1, 2, and 3 nuclear reactors that suffered core meltdowns in the accident. The experimental removal of the deadly debris was initially planned for 2021 but was postponed three times due to the coronavirus pandemic and technical difficulties. ■