information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
9 Décembre 2016
December 8, 2016
Sendai reactor goes back online
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20161208_30/
Operators have powered on a nuclear reactor at a plant in western Japan on Thursday night after 2 months of inspections.
Officials at Kyushu Electric Power Company say workers have begun pulling control rods out of the Number One reactor at their Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.
The reactor has been offline since October. Before that, it operated for 14 months as the first reactor in the country to go online under new regulations following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
The utility says it found no abnormalities during its regular and special inspections.
The special checks were added at the request of Kagoshima Governor Satoshi Mitazono, who took office in July. He asked the utility to see if strong earthquakes that occurred at nearby Kumamoto Prefecture in April had affected the plant.
Officials say they expect the reactor to reach criticality on Friday and begin transmitting electricity to the grid on Sunday. They also expect the plant to resume commercial operations in early January.
A group opposing the restart held a rally on Thursday outside the facility. Group leader Yoshitaka Mukohara said a proposed prefectural panel should first give a judgment before the reactor is brought online.
Governor Mitazono had promised to set up an expert panel to look into the reactor's safety, but it has yet to be launched. Mukohara urged the governor to stick to his position.
December 8, 2016 (Mainichi Japan)
FUKUOKA (Kyodo) -- Kyushu Electric Power Co. will reactivate a reactor Thursday in the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima, the utility said Wednesday after the local antinuclear power governor gave a de facto green light last week.
The No. 1 reactor at the Sendai nuclear power complex is one of the five reactors that have been restarted under Japan's strict safety regulations set following the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. After resumption in August 2015, it has been suspended for regular checkups since Oct. 6.
The company plans to pull rods to control nuclear fission for the No. 1 reactor from fuel at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, resume power generation on Sunday and return to commercial operation of the unit Jan. 6 after an inspection by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
Kagoshima Gov. Satoshi Mitazono was elected in July on an antinuclear platform. But he told a prefectural assembly session Dec. 1, "I have no legal power (to decide) on the restart of the reactor," which is interpreted as permitting the restart.
In addition to the regular checks, 10 kinds of special checks are being conducted on the No. 1 reactor at the governor's request following the massive earthquakes in the adjacent prefecture of Kumamoto in April, according to the company.
The Sendai complex's No. 2 reactor is also scheduled to be suspended for regular checks from Dec. 16 to Feb. 27.
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