Tepco May Start Removing Fukushima Radioactive Debris Thursday

  • Utility says demonstration to begin as early as Thursday
  • Decommissioning Fukushima facility to take 3 to 4 decades

Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

Photographer: JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Images
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Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Co. will start a demonstration project as early as Thursday to remove a small amount of radioactive debris from its wrecked nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

The operator of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, which suffered a meltdown after a massive earthquake and tsunami overwhelmed the facility in 2011, will start the experimental removal process at reactor No. 2 on Aug. 22, so long as necessary inspections are completed on time, an official from the company said in a press conference on Monday.