information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
17 Décembre 2014
December 17, 2014
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20141217p2a00m0na009000c.html
Electric Power Development Co. (J-Power) has filed its yet uncompleted Oma Nuclear Power Plant for safety checks by a government agency, but obstacles lie ahead before the plant can go online, including a lawsuit filed by the Hokkaido city of Hakodate to suspend the plant's construction.
The Oma plant will be the first plant still under construction to undergo a safety assessment by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). When construction is completed, it will be the world's first commercial full MOX reactor, with the benefit of using plutonium extracted from spent fuel, whose use has been difficult since the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster broke out. J-Power expects the inspections to take about a year, and aims to begin operating the plant in the 2021 fiscal year.
This is the 21th reactor out of a total of 14 nuclear power plants that will undergo the new government safety assessment established after the Fukushima disaster. J-Power raised the estimated maximum seismic movement from an initial 450 gal to 650 gal and lifted the estimated maximum tsunami height from an initial 4.4 meters to 6.3 meters.
Control rods used to control reactor power become more difficult to manage when using MOX fuel than with uranium. MOX fuel had been used at the pluthermal No. 3 reactor of Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai power station in Saga Prefecture, but such fuel only comprised a maximum of one-third of the reactor core. The control rods, therefore, have had to be improved for the Oma plant, where MOX fuel would be used in all of its reactor cores. Attention now is on whether the NRA will deem them safe. With NRA chairman Shunichi Tanaka urging caution, the safety assessment procedure may be drawn out.
In its safety assessment application, J-Power states that spent MOX fuel will be, as a basic principle, reprocessed domestically, and that who would be entrusted with the reprocessing will be decided before the spent fuel is taken off the plant's premises. The spent fuel pool will be filled completely 20 years after the plant goes into operation. Spent MOX fuel generates more heat than standard spent nuclear fuel, and plutonium itself is highly toxic. Such fuel cannot be reprocessed at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Aomori Prefecture, so another reprocessing plant is necessary, but as of now, plans for the construction of such a plant do not exist.
On the opposing bank of the Tsugaru Strait and within 30 kilometers of the Oma plant lies part of the Hokkaido city of Hakodate, which in April filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against the central government and J-Power seeking a halt to the plant's construction. Hakodate Mayor Toshiki Kudo issued a statement saying that he regretted the submission of a safety assessment application with the expectation that the plant will go into operation.
In the town of Oma, meanwhile, residents look forward to the economic benefits of workers staying on a long-term basis, and of increased tax revenue from fixed property taxes after the plant is completed. Oma Mayor Mitsuharu Kanazawa issued a comment saying, "Finally, the day of (the application's) submission has come. It's a welcome day for our town, which has hosted and promoted the plant."
December 17, 2014(Mainichi Japan)
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