The No. 4 reactor of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, where workers are removing spent nuclear fuel, is still a gutted shell and conditions there remain extremely hazardous.
The damage is extensive, with mangled debris seemingly everywhere.
A team of reporters from The Asahi Shimbun visited the site on Jan. 29.
Unlike the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors at the Fukushima facility, the No. 4 reactor did not experience a meltdown after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
The No. 4 reactor has seen the most decommissioning work of those four reactors as radiation levels there are much lower than in the other reactors.
This is because it was undergoing regular inspection when the disaster struck. Even so, an explosion occurred at the No. 4 reactor building around 6 a.m. on March 15, 2011. It was caused by hydrogen that had entered through piping from the No. 3 reactor, where a meltdown had occurred.
The explosion damaged the cooling equipment for the spent nuclear fuel storage pool, leading to global fears that the fuel would become exposed once the coolant had dried up.
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