Fukushima plant readies for dangerous fuel rod removal

[YahooNews]

Fukushima Daiichi (Japan) (AFP) - Nuclear engineers in Japan are preparing to move uranium and plutonium fuel rods at Fukushima, their most difficult and dangerous task since the plant's runaway reactors were brought under control two years ago. Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) is expected this month to begin removing fuel rods from a pool inside a reactor building at the tsunami-hit plant, in a technically challenging operation that will test the utility's expertise after months of setbacks and glitches. Experts say the operation is a tricky but essential step in the decades-long decommissioning and recovery after the worst atomic accident in a generation. More than 1,500 nuclear fuel assemblies -- bundles of rods -- must be pulled out of the storage pool where they were being kept when a tsunami smashed into Fukushima in March 2011.