OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture Evacuees eager to finally return to their homes near the hobbled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have been thrown into confusion over the way evacuation orders will be lifted.
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Work is under way to decommission the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Feb. 1. (Shinnosuke Ito)
Delays have long been common in the decommissioning of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, but one recent postponement carried special significance.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. in December said work to remove melted nuclear fuel from the three destroyed reactors would be delayed by about a year.
The retrieval process was supposed to start this year, marking a milestone in the formidable cleanup project.
It was one of the two paramount targets that the utility had refused to abandon despite its repeated tweaking of the decommissioning road map and the mountains of stumbling blocks it has faced.