Report: Unit 1 Debris Clearance Exposes Radioactive Waste Storage Crunch

An Asahi Shimbun investigation published July 25, 2026 found that 15 years after the disaster, the upper floors of Unit 1's reactor building remain littered with wreckage from the 2011 hydrogen explosion — debris that must be cleared before TEPCO can access the unit's spent fuel pool (full-scale removal work began June 22, 2026). TEPCO estimates total site waste at roughly 800,000 m³ by fiscal 2036, but an Atomic Energy Society of Japan committee projects up to 5.6 million m³ (equivalent to 4.5 Tokyo Domes) without volume-reduction measures. A planned metal-melting/volume-reduction facility has slipped three years to fiscal 2032–2034 after a design review, while on-site storage capacity — set to reach 216,000 m³ by the end of fiscal 2028 — is projected to fill by fiscal 2035, prompting TEPCO to weigh a new No. 12 storage facility. The report characterizes the mismatch between waste generation and storage buildout as a 'cat and mouse' race against the clock.