20-tear life extension for Tokai 2 approved by NRA

14 Novembre 2018

November 7, 2018

Aging Tokai nuclear plant outside Tokyo cleared to restart

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201811070061.html

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The nation's nuclear watchdog on Nov. 7 formally approved a 20-year extension of the only nuclear reactor in the Tokyo metropolitan area, although local communities will have the final say on the restart.

Operator Japan Atomic Power Co. will need the consent of the Ibaraki prefectural government, as well as six local municipalities, including the village of Tokai, where its aging Tokai No. 2 nuclear plant is located.

The company faced having to prepare to decommission the plant's 40-year-old reactor if it failed to meet a Nov. 27 deadline on revised and more stringent safety standards implemented by the Nuclear Regulation Authority in the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.

After the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the operational life of nuclear reactors was set at up to 40 years in principle. But power companies can continue to operate their facilities for an additional 20 years if their reactors pass the NRA screening.

So far, all requests to the NRA to extend the operating life of old reactors have been approved.

The reactor at the Tokai No. 2 plant is the fourth to clear the NRA for extended operations since the Fukushima disaster. It is located about 120 kilometers from the heart of Tokyo.

The 1.1-gigawatt boiling water reactor is the only unit at the Tokai No. 2 plant and is of the same design as the crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The Tokai No. 2 plant was also affected by the tsunami generated by the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

It is the first time for a reactor affected by the tsunami to be approved for an operational extension. It is also the first boiling water reactor to gain such approval.

The NRA examined the reactor’s pressure vessel and other equipment, and concluded that the unit could operate safely until November 2038.

But it remains unclear if Japan Atomic Power can restart the plant under its earliest time frame of 2021, due to local opposition.

In October, Mayor Toru Umino of Naka, one of the six municipalities around the plant, announced his opposition to the extension. The city assembly of Mito, another municipality, adopted a resolution against the extension in June.

About 960,000 people live within a 30-km radius of the plant, making it the most densely populated site among the nation's nuclear facilities.

After the Fukushima disaster, municipalities in close proximity to a nuclear plant were required to craft an evacuation plan to respond to a nuclear emergency.

But only three of the 14 municipalities around the Tokai No. 2 nuclear plant within that range have done so due to the difficulty of arranging transportation for such a large number of people.

Bringing the reactor back online is expected to cost Japan Atomic Power at least 174 billion yen ($1.54 billion), a sum that includes construction of a seawall and other safeguard measures.

The company hopes to have those measures in place by the end of March 2021.

It may well also have to spend tens of billions of yen in the future to meet a new requirement that nuclear facilities are able to contain damage from a terrorist attack.

TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS

May 20, 2014

Operator Japan Atomic Power Co. applies for an NRA safety screening under new reactor regulations

Nov. 24, 2017

Application for a screening of an extension of operations

Sept. 26, 2018

NRA certifies that the reactor’s safeguard measures meet the new regulations

Oct. 18

NRA approves plans to enhance the safety of the reactor

Nov. 7

NRA approves an operational extension

March 2021

Seawall and other safety measures to be completed

Plant to restart if Ibaraki prefectural government and six nearby municipalities give their consent

NRA approves extension of tsunami-hit Tokai No. 2 plant, but restart awaits local agreement

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20181107/p2a/00m/0na/010000c

TOKYO -- The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has approved the extension of operations at Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tokai No. 2 Power Station in the eastern Japan prefecture of Ibaraki by up to 20 years, but the restart of the aging facility still awaits local approval.

The government's nuclear regulator made the decision on Nov. 7 after the nuclear plant passed three inspections, including one to see if the complex meets the new regulatory standards introduced in the wake of the March 2011 outbreak of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The move could allow Japan Atomic Power to continue operating the atomic power station in the village of Tokai until Nov. 27, 2038.

Attention is now focused on whether the decision will win approval from the Ibaraki Prefectural Government and six municipalities around the station with which the company has signed safety agreements.

Nuclear reactors can be operated for up to 40 years in principle. However, the period of operations at such plants can be extended just once by up to 20 years. The Tokai No. 2 plant's sole unit is the fourth nuclear reactor for which an extension has been approved following the No. 1 and 2 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Takahama plant and the No. 3 reactor at the firm's Mihama plant, both in the central Japan prefecture of Fukui.

The Tokai No. 2 station will be the first nuclear plant for which an extension has been approved among those that sustained damage in the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Furthermore, the plant's reactor is the sole boiling-water unit -- the same type as those at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station -- for which an extension of operations has been green-lighted.

Japan Atomic Power applied to the NRA for safety inspections for the Tokai No. 2 power station in May 2014 with an eye to reactivating it and for permission to extend the operations at the plant in November 2017.

The facility would have been decommissioned if it had not passed the three inspections by Nov. 27 this year. Therefore, the NRA barely made the deadline.

The plant's large boiling-water reactor with an output of 1.1 million kilowatts stopped following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. The power station temporarily lost its external power source. Moreover, it was hit by up to 5.4-meter-high tsunami waves triggered by the temblor, making one of the three emergency power generators unusable. However, the plant used the remaining two generators to continue cooling the reactor core.

Out of reflection on the trouble, Japan Atomic Power has decided to take additional safety measures, including the installation of a reinforced concrete storm surge barrier on the assumption that the plant could be hit by tsunami waves up to 17.9 meters high.

The NRA deemed these safety measures are appropriate in light of the new regulatory standards.

In inspections of the power station to see if its reactor pressure vessel has deteriorated, the atomic power regulator concluded that it can endure the extension of operations beyond the 40-year limit.

Japan Atomic Power intends to secure 174 billion yen to implement these safety measures after receiving financial assistance from Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co. and complete the work by March 2021.

The operator of the Tokai No. 2 station has signed safety agreements with five municipalities around the plant besides the municipal government of Tokai that hosts the power station and the prefectural government, effectively allowing these surrounding municipalities to approve or disapprove reactivation of the plant. Japan Atomic Power's agreements with five surrounding municipalities are the first of its kind allowing municipalities other than those hosting atomic power stations to approve or disapprove operations at such plants.

Among the five municipalities, Toru Umino, mayor of the Ibaraki Prefecture city of Naka, has already clarified the city's opposition to reactivation of the power plant.

Japan Atomic Power's Tokai Power Station, situated on the premises that host the Tokai No. 2 plant, is in the process of being decommissioned.

(Japanese original by Riki Iwama, Science & Environment News Department)