As many as 15 percent of the 5, 000 previously approved welds in the reactor's auxiliary plumbing, containment dome and spent-fuel cooling systems were X-rayed and found to be defective due to air pockets, poor soldiering and heat damage.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A Chernobyl reminder just off our shores
The power cut last month shut down cooling systems for four spent fuel ponds at reactors 1, 3 and 4, although cooling for the reactors themselves was not affected.
The power cut shut down cooling systems for four spent fuel ponds at reactors 1, 3 and 4 on Monday evening, although cooling to the reactors themselves was not affected.
And so the first order of business -- and this appears to be at least now under control -- is that you keep the water in the spent fuel ponds and you keep cooling the reactors.
In the past month, Fukushima nuclear plant has experienced two power outages that shut down some of its cooling systems for spent fuel ponds.
Rats were also believed to have caused two power cuts in the last month, shutting down some of the plant's cooling systems for spent fuel pools.
Restarting cooling to the spent fuel pool at reactor 4 had been of particular urgency for Tepco as it had the highest number of fuel assemblies stored there, Kyodo news agency reported.
This is a very difficult situation, and there will be a lot of work continuing as we go forward to deal with continuing to cool the reactors and to provide cooling to the spent fuel pool.
Is it still your assessment that that cooling pond with the spent fuel rods is now empty?
Last month a power cut shut cooling systems for four spent fuel ponds.
In March, a power cut shut cooling systems for four spent fuel ponds.
And as we looked at a lot of the available information, we saw greater challenges, I think, with providing cooling to some of the spent fuel pools that had initially not been as much of an issue.
The IAEA statement was released hours after Tepco temporarily shut down the cooling system in the second unit's spent fuel pool following the discovery of dead rodents near a transformer.
The system cooling water which contained spent - but still highly radioactive - nuclear fuel rods failed and it took engineers some 30 hours to repair the damage.
In early April, the cooling system at one of the pools containing spent - but highly radioactive - fuel rods in reactor number three broke down for about three hours.
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