The man in charge of the Fukushima nuclear clean-up in Japan has praised the work of Sellafield staff.

Naohiro Masuda, the president and chief decommissioning officer for TEPCO FDEC, (Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination and Decommissioning Engineering Company), made the comments after visiting the west Cumbrian site.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility was devastated by a tsunami in 2011 and is in the process of being decomissioned.

Sellafield and Fukushima have had an agreement to exchange skills and knowledge since 2014, with the aim of completing the decomissioning at both sites as soon as possible.

Mr Masuda and members of his team visited the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) before going into one of the highest hazard areas of the site.

Roger Cowton, head of external affairs for Sellafield, led the visit, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome Mr Masuda-san to Sellafield, as we’ve made significant progress since he last came to the site.

“He was impressed with the work being done in the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo, one of the oldest nuclear legacy stores currently being cleaned-up, and was interested to hear about the innovations being developed and pioneered by our local supply chain.”

“TEPCO wants to continue to access the skills and expertise that exists in west Cumbria, so this visit was an important update for them,” he added.

“We are also learning from some of the great things they are doing in Fukushima, and the sheer scale of their task highlights why we must continue to work together to deliver our respective missions.”

Sellafield experts and community representatives have spent time in Japan, at the facility and surrounding area, seeing the decontamination efforts, providing advice and technical expertise on environmental management, radiation protection and stakeholder engagement.

Their Japanese counterparts are already implementing some of the environmental practices and technical innovations used at the Sellafield site.