TEPCO to scrap 4 more reactors in Fukushima

Progress!

Other nuclear plant operators have also opted to decommission aging reactors due to hefty spending to meet new safety standards put in place after the disaster, making nuclear power far more expensive than it used to be.

So, this means that, if the Fukushima disaster had not happened, forcing them to upgrade safety standards, they would have continued to operate their plants with aging reactors and sub-standard safety levels. How reassuring, NOT! It would seem the Fukushima disaster has done them a favor by making them realise that, nuclear power is not cheap, clean or safe! Now, they have to figure out how and where to store the waste Hopefully, the facility they intend to build at Dai-Ni is tsunami safe.

The government and nuclear energy agency have been steadfast on restarting all the reactors since the Fukushima disaster. However, it now seems they have done a turnaround and are decommissioning the aging reactors. I haven't seen any admissions of guilt or apologies for their stupidity. We can just all look forward to increased electricity tariffs to pay for this debacle.

Experience with decommissioning reactors in the UK shows that they usually end up taking much longer than planned, and incurring massive budget overruns. This is for reactors that had planned cessation of operations. The ones at Fukushima Daiichi, with their sudden, unpredicted, explosive shutdowns will be worse.

zichi - The full costs of decommissioning a reactor are met by the power companies which is the law. 

I dunno where you get this from. So, the 10% increase for decommissioning Dai-Ichi is illegal?

Utrack - TEPCO should entomb nuclear reactors 1-3. Then spread billons of volcanic clay filled sandbags into the ocean and theradioactive water tanks to absorb the radiation. Maybe this will stop the progress of the Magnetic North Pole.

Oh dear! You really have no idea how it works, do you? You have to watch the classic sci-fi, The China Syndrome. It will explain clearly why these reactors cannot be entombed. It will also help you understand why this is 'the worst' nuclear disaster in history and could very easily still turn into the China Syndrome if the cooling water fails again. The melted nuclear fuel rods in the reactor will continue to heat up until they turn to plasma - the fourth state of matter - unless they are constantly cooled. In the movie they melt through the earths crust and create a huge volcanic event. The Chernobyl disaster was very different. The fuel rods were not in a containment housing and were blown out all over the countryside in the hydrogen explosion making it possible to entomb the site. This unlike the fuel rods that are in Japanese reactors because they are in a housing. The explosion at Fukushima was caused by the rods getting so hot they separated the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in the water and the hydrogen exploded blowing the roof of the housing and the plant. Many of them also melted and if the PM at the time Kan hadn't screamed at the TEPCO boss to get his assets back in there and get some water on them, they would have melted through the base of the housing and started heading for the the center of the earth. It is still unclear if the they did actually melt through the base of the housing although, there is a lot of highly radioactive water leaking from the the tank into the ground, so it seems quite likely the base of the housing has been compromised. Unlike the great leader was boasting in his Olympic bid, Fukushima Dai-Ichi is very far from 'under control'.

back in the 50's and 60's when these plants were being built they told us how safe and how cheap nuclear reactors would be, cheap electricity for every one hoorah!! oooh! boy did they get that wrong! far from being cheap and safe.

TEPCO should entomb nuclear reactors 1-3. Then spread billons of volcanic clay filled sandbags into the ocean and theradioactive water tanks to absorb the radiation. Maybe this will stop the progress of the Magnetic North Pole.

account for 20-22 percent of Japan's energy mix

so basically they get only 20% out of nuclear power ? is this really worth it ? they don't even need that but still they built so many nuclear stations so they can say later on sorry we didn't know an earth quick will happen or tsunami !! many people in Fukushima lost their homes and got sick cuz of this stupid power

Nuclear Radiation is highly Magnetic, The Magnetic North Pole has been feeding off the kinetic energy of the radioactive water that has been spilled / leaked into the pacific ocean by the Fukushima Daichi clean up. The initial result of just a few first years is Artic ice caps melting from unseasonably warm wheather and the increased speed of both North and South Poles which are now traveling/spinning at 67,000 miles per hour, up from 55,000 miles per hour.

Disillusioned:

There is no turnaround. It was pretty obvious since 2011 that Fukushima prefecture will not allow the Daini to restart. TEPCO was just delaying the decision for the case the public changed their minds...

zichi is 100% correct on the corium issues.

Another 100% certainty is that Japan is losing 4 reactors which, with modification, could prevent us breaching the 1.5 degree warming threshold the IPCC has informed us about.

Brian, “cheap nuclear” was a claim relating to fusion power, not fission. Nuclear still does quite well on cost, except when competing against cheap frakked gas. As for safety - we did have an unexpected mega quake and tsunami.

Wanderlust:

Decommissioning does not usually run over the cost and schedule. It does sometimes, especially when it is implemented as a first-of-a-kind project or is managed by a government officials that have little incentive for staying within the budget.

And the article is about Fukushima Daini, which has not experienced any explosion. That is why its decommissioning cost is predicted to be 100 times smaller than the Daichi one.