Utility unable to unload damaged Hamaoka fuel rod for 17 years

[kristopher]

Utility unable to unload damaged Hamaoka fuel rod for 17 years
Kyodo

SHIZUOKA — Chubu Electric Power Co. revealed Thursday it has been unable to remove a spent fuel rod that was damaged in an accident 17 years ago from its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Spent fuel is normally sent to the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, or elsewhere, but the damaged rod remains in a special container inside the fuel pool of the plant's decommissioned No. 1 reactor, it said.

The utility said it had asked domestic research organizations and foreign nuclear fuel firms to take it but to no avail. It is still pondering how to get rid of the rod in the absence of clear government rules on how to dispose of damaged fuel that requires more delicate handling.

Chubu Electric denied Thursday that it had urged employees and workers at the Hamaoka plant to express support for its "pluthermal" nuclear power generation project in a government-sponsored promotion event in 2007 when it let them know the event would be held in advance.

After Kyushu Electric Power Co. recently...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110728x3.html

I wish there were more information about the problem with the fuel rod, but the rest of the article discusses how Chubu Electric did the same thing Kyushu Electric did when they sent employees to covertly influence a local meeting in 2007.