The state of the 1st Fukushima reactor since the 2011 quake

What is the state of the first reactor in Fukushima, Japan, that exploded in the wake of the major earthquake in March 2011?

The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, a sister paper of The Dong-A Ilbo, covered a story from the inside of the reactor building recently in the run-up to the second anniversary of the earthquake. In October last year, Korean journalists dispatched to Tokyo formed a joint press corps and went to a spot about 10 meters from the reactor. Asahi vividly described the state of the first Fukushima reactor, which almost collapsed as if it had been attacked.

The daily said the walls of the fourth reactor, which had a hydrogen explosion, were studded with holes. The roofs were gone due to the explosion and the steel frames were edged out. The elevator in the outer wall brought a reporter to the top of the building. Suddenly a blue ocean spread out, and the blue-colored ocean made one forget the desperate fear.

The roofs were transformed into an observatory. Waste was cleared but radioactive contamination remained unaddressed. The radiation amount was measured at 200μSv per hour, or 200 times higher than the maximum amount of radiation per hour (0.989μSv) measured at Naraha, about 15 kilometers away from the reactor the same day. A Tokyo Electric employee said, “Don’t go close to the north of the third reactor because it has 1,000μSv per hour.”

Spent fuel storage in the fourth reactor building had a cover. The crack between the storage and lid showed dark blue water but spent fuel was not seen. In the south of the building, construction work was underway to set up a crane that will remove spent fuel from the storage. In July last year, two fuel rods were taken out as a test. The main work will start from November this year. A complete sealing process is scheduled for 2050.

On criticism of the process being too slow, Takashi Takahashi, 56, the head of the Fukushima nuclear reactor, said, “Employee safety is our top priority. We`re considering robots, too. That’s why the process is slow.”

Also unveiled was a device that absorbs radioactive cesium that began operations in August 2011. The device separates radioactive substances from contaminated water, and the concentration of cesium in the water is known to have been lowered as a result. An employee stopped a reporter when the latter tried to approach the device, saying, “It has high levels of radiation.”

After a four-hour coverage of reactors, the cumulative radiation level was measured at 111μSv, only a tenth of the maximum permissible level of radiation exposure of 1,000μSv.

lovesong@donga.com