Containers of high-concentration uranium solution were transferred Thursday from uranium processing firm JCO. Co.'s plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident.
The uranium solution had been diluted with boric acid and water to terminate the nuclear chain reaction that had occurred, stored in 20 4-liter stainless steel containers after the accident and kept inside the building where the Sept. 30 accident happened.
The containers were sealed in pairs in separate storage containers and loaded onto large trucks using a crane. They were then taken to a reprocessing facility operated by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Development Institute about 5 km away, where the solution was to be reprocessed.
The percentage of uranium in the fuel usually reprocessed by the institute is 4 percent or less, but the fuel brought in from the JCO plant contains 18.8 percent.
To handle the JCO fuel, the institute was required to obtain special reprocessing permission from the government
Disaster drill held
TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. (Kyodo) A large-scale nuclear disaster drill was held Thursday in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, marking the first of its kind initiated by the central government. About 57 organizations and 1,900 local citizens participated in the drill.