9 August, 2019
NRA Exchanges Views with President Sakamoto of RFS, Which Pledges to Make Its Utmost Efforts
At an extraordinary meeting on August 6, members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan (NRA) exchanged views with President Takashi Sakamoto of the Recyclable-Fuel Storage Company (RFS). The company operates a spent fuel interim storage facility (see conceptual image) in Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture, storing and managing spent nuclear fuel until it is processed.
The NRA has been inviting the top management of individual nuclear operators for public talks on the efforts of each to improve nuclear safety, and the session with RFS was the first in that series.
NRA’s compliance examination of the storage facility with the new regulatory standards has been underway for about five and a half years, because, among other reasons, the assessment of the tsunami-resistance of the design has proceeded with difficulty. In February 2019, RFS was asked to demonstrate that the basic safety functions of its metal casks would be maintained even if the storage building was damaged by a tsunami.
At the August 6 meeting, President Sakamoto looked back on the circumstances of examinations of the interim storage facility in the past, and emphasized the need to mai...more
- 2 August, 2019 Tohoku Electric Power Applies for Approval of Onagawa-1 Decommissioning Plan
- 1 August, 2019 NRA Deliberates Response by Takahama NPPs against Potential Tsunamis Caused by Underwater Landslides
- 7 March, 2019 JAIF President Takahashi Hopes “Considerate Activities” Will Be Made toward Restarting Tokai-2 to Promote Understanding
- 12 February, 2019 Kansai EP Reviews and Pushes Back Completion Dates for Safety Improvement Work at Three NPPs Granted Extended Lifetimes
- 1 February, 2019 JAEA Achieves 150 Hours of Continuous Hydrogen Production Toward Utilization of Heat from HTGRs
- 19 November, 2018 Shimane NPP Proceeding Steadily on Safety Measures toward Restart
- 16 November, 2018 NRA Allows Tokai-2 to Be Operated for Sixty Years, a First for a BWR
- 17 October, 2018 Shikoku Electric Power Asks Japan’s NRA to Approve Ikata-2 Decommissioning Plan
- 5 October, 2018 JAIF Press Briefing: President Takahashi Foresees Progress in BWR Examinations by NRA
- 28 September, 2018 NRA Approves Review Report Finding Tokai-2 NPP Compatible with New Regulatory Standards
- 28 September, 2018 Hiroshima High Court Rules to Allow Ikata-3 to Restart
- 13 September, 2018 NRA Chairman Rebuts Idea that Hokkaido Blackouts Could Have Been Averted Had Tomari NPPs Been Restarted
- 6 July, 2018 NRA Draft Report: Tokai-2 NPP Complies with New Regulatory Standards
8 August, 2019
TEPCO Decides to Decommission All Four Fukushima Daini Units
On July 31, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) decided to decommission all four units (BWRs, 1,100MWe each) at the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plants. In June 2018, TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa had visited Governor Masao Uchibori of Fukushima Prefecture and conveyed the company’s intention then to address decommissioning all the units.
In making the decision now, TEPCO said it would face the challenges with all sincerity–as it is doing at the Fukushima Daiichi NPPs–so as to ensure peace of mind for the people in the region. It basic principles and objectives, it said, would be: (1) securing adequate human resources (including for Fukushima Daiichi), (2) enabling safe decommissioning, and (3) contributing to industrial development in the region.
In ordinary circumstances, TEPCO would expect the decommissioning of such units to take about 30 years. In this case, however, given that the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi will continue simultaneously, it expects to require more than forty years to complete the decommissioning of all four units at Fukushima Daini.
In the process, the power company intends to construct...more
