JAPAN ATOMIC INDUSTRIAL FORUM, INC.

15 February, 2019 Noriyuki Ishii

TEPCO Makes Contact with Debris at Fukushima Daiichi-2

On February 14, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) released a video showing a device with two “fingers” at the end lifting pebble-shaped deposits suspected of being melted nuclear fuel (debris) at the bottom of a reactor primary containment vessel (PCV). The recording was made during an investigation undertaken on the 13th at the Fukushima Daiichi-2 Nuclear Power Plant (BWR, 784MWe). The pebble deposits, shown clearly, were of different shapes and sizes. Of the ten locations where the device made contact with them, they could not be moved at three.

The deposits that could not be moved appeared to be in a state like lava. The limited range of the investigation showed them to most likely be debris that had become affixed and hardened. It is now deemed necessary to develop a new device that can scape or cut them off for removal. On February 13, TEPCO announced that it had moved deposits at five out of six locations at the PCV bottom. It also succeeded in touching deposits at four spots on the grid of the working scaffold approximately four meters above the PCV bottom, and at two of those spots the pebble-shaped deposits were moved, it said. The fingers of the device can be opened and closed like a tongs, up to about eight centimeters, and lift an object of up to about two kilograms. This time, the device picked up pebble-shape...more

12 February, 2019 Kei Yamada

Kansai EP Reviews and Pushes Back Completion Dates for Safety Improvement Work at Three NPPs Granted Extended Lifetimes

On February 4, Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kansai EP) announced changes to its work schedule for safety improvement measures being carried out at its Takahama-1 and -2 and Mihama-3 Nuclear Power Plants (PWRs), and reported the changes to Fukui Prefecture.

All three units have already cleared safety examinations confirming their compatibility with the new regulatory standards and obtained governmental permission for extended operating lifetimes to sixty years, according to materials released by Kansai EP. According to the status report on work for safety improvement measures released by the power company, the scheduled completion dates for the two Takahama reactors, has been pushed back from August 2019 to May 2020 for Takahama-1 and from March 2020 to January 2021 for Takahama-2. Installation is now progressing of the shielding—the so-called top domes—at the upper part of the containment vessels at the two reactors. The extensions of some nine to ten months resulted from the need to ensure sufficient areas for equipment and materials ...more

12 February, 2019 Kei Yamada

Dismantling of Exhaust Stack at Fukushima Daiichi-1 and -2 to Start in May

On January 31, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) released a progress report on the decommissioning of its Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants.

TEPCO had planned to begin dismantling the joint exhaust stack for the Fukushima Daiichi-1 and -2 (BWRs) in March in anticipation of removing nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pool. Given the need for additional safety measures and drills to be conducted in readiness for any problems during operation, however, the beginning of dismantling has now been rescheduled for mid-May. The stack’s pillars are fractured and deformed at about the 66-meter mark, and the power company plans to remove the upper portion of the 120-meter-tall pillars—starting at a height of about 60 meters—to ensure seismic margins. In order to reduce the radiation exposure of workers, also, a series of mock-up tests have been conducted off-site, in Hirono Town, since August of last year. At a press conference on J...more

4 February, 2019 Kei Yamada

Overview of Fact-Finding Survey of the Japanese Nuclear Industry 2017 (through March 2018)

Since 1959, JAIF has carried out an annual fact-finding survey of the Japanese nuclear industry, focusing on nuclear power companies. The purposes of the survey are to understand the overall state of the industry, to provide information to its member companies, relevant ministries and agencies, and to reflect the results in JAIF’s own business activities.

The latest survey was conducted for fiscal 2017 (April 2017 to March 2018), during which five nuclear power plants (NPPs) were actually in operation in the country[ref]The Ohi-3 NPP, owned and operated by the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (Kansai-EP), and the Genkai-3 NPP, owned and operated by the Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc., were both restarted in March 2018.[/ref], with the aim of ascertaining prevailing circumstances for the industry engaged in nuclear power. The main items in the quantitative portion of the survey were nuclear-related expenditures by power companies, nuclear-related sales and backlogs of orders in mining and manufacturing firms, as well as the number of nuclear-related workers in power utilities and mining and manufacturing firms. In the qualitative portio...more