The operator of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday said it had removed an unused nuclear fuel rod from the damaged power station for the first time since last year's disaster, dpa reported. On the same day, another company restarted a reactor at the Oi nuclear power plant, local media reported, the second of the country's 50 reactors to be reactivated. The building housing reactor 4 at Fukushima holds a storage pool filled with 1,535 nuclear fuel rods, including 204 unused ones. The pool has been left uncovered since a hydrogen explosion last year blew off the upper part of the outer wall of the containment building. Chie Hosoda, a spokeswoman for the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said Wednesday's operation would help understand the condition of other fuel rods. She declined to comment on reports that the operator planned to remove another fuel rod on Thursday. Experts warned that the spent fuel rods at reactor 4 could trigger a catastrophe despite the government's declaration in December that the plant had been brought under control. A March 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to meltdowns at three of its six reactors. But each of the three units holds fewer rods than reactor 4. The operator will start the full scale removal of all the fuel rods from the plant in December 2013. At the Oi plant on the Sea of Japan coast, the Kansai Electric Power Co reactivated a nuclear reactor late Wednesday, despite strong public opposition. Unit 4 at the plant is scheduled to start power transmission Saturday and be in full operation on July 25. The plant's reactor 3 was reactivated on July 1. In mid-June, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda approved the restart of the two reactors despite public opposition and experts' warnings of fault lines under the Oi plant. Hours before the reactivation of reactor 4 on Wednesday, the government instructed Kansai Electric to reexamine some fault fracture zones running under the complex.
