information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
13 Mai 2013
May 14, 2013
Kyodo, Staff Report
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency committed grave safety errors in managing the troubled Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, and top officials at the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday they plan to make sure it stays closed.
The closure order to the government-linked JAEA will effectively dash any hope of trying to restart the reactor by year’s end, dealing another setback to Japan’s long-stalled plan to set up a nuclear fuel recycling system.
In September, the now-defunct Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency carried out surprise inspections and determined that JAEA failed to regularly check key components of the experimental 280,000-kw reactor, as required by internal rules.
In November, the JAEA admitted that it failed to properly check nearly 10,000 pieces of equipment, including more than 50 critical “Class-1″ components, including backup diesel electric generators.
The NRA, which replaced NISA last September, will also order the JAEA to rethink all its safety inspection regimens and management systems, sources said.
The NRA in December gave JAEA written instructions to investigate the causes of the improper checks and compile remedial measures.
But JAEA President Atsuyuki Suzuki reportedly insisted that the checks that were improperly carried out were mere formalities and posed no safety problems, drawing further criticism from the NRA.
“(Monju) is a very important facility in terms of safety, and it has a very strong social impact,” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a Dec. 12 NRA session.
Tanaka said he worries that the JAEA “lacks the basic safety culture” to manage nuclear power facilities.
Monju is designed to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel to theoretically create more fuel than it consumes through the reaction process. MOX is made with weapons-grade plutonium.
But the prototype has been effectively closed since it suffered a grave sodium coolant leak and fire in 1995 and an attempted coverup. JAEA tried to restart Monju in 2010, but it was soon halted after a heavy fuel-loading device fell into the reactor vessel.
Many experts have questioned whether Monju, which sits in the city of Tsuruga, can ever be stably run, given its serious technical problems. Nearly ¥1 trillion in taxpayer money has been spent on the project.
Outside experts also say that dangerous active faults may exist beneath the reactor’s key facilities. JAEA claims there is no evidence to support this allegation.
May 13, 2013
Japan’s nuclear watchdog will indefinitely suspend the use of the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor over the operator’s disregard for safety that continued even after the Fukushima nuclear crisis raised concerns across the nation.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority's order will deal a further blow to Japan’s nuclear fuel recycling program, which has long been plagued by technical problems and scandals.
In the latest case, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, operator of Monju, was found to have skipped inspections of nearly 10,000 pieces of equipment since 2010, including crucial devices in the safety and emergency systems at the plant, based in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.
The company also violated its own safety regulations, according to the NRA.
“Even when the reactor is offline, things stand in such a state,” an NRA official said after an on-site inspection of the reactor in February. “We cannot possibly approve a restart.”
The NRA will not allow the Japan Atomic Energy Agency to restart Monju operations until it comprehensively reviews its safety management system. The agency also plans to order the company to inspect all equipment items and overhaul its inspection programs.
The NRA’s order will dash the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s plan to resume Monju operations by March 2014.
Hiroshi Hiroi, chief of the Monju facility, told The Asahi Shimbun that it will be difficult to complete inspections of all equipment items by the end of the year.
As of the end of March, 1,956 pieces of equipment remained uninspected, according to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
Hiroi also said the company will be unable to overhaul its inspection programs until at least next spring, indicating that the Monju reactor will not be restarted by the end of fiscal 2013.
The Monju, which can produce more nuclear fuel than it consumes, is a core component of Japan’s nuclear fuel recycling program along with a spent fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture.
The program involves extracting plutonium from spent nuclear fuel and recycling it as fuel. Japan has spent nearly 1 trillion yen ($10 billion) on the Monju program, but problems continue to pile up.
The Monju reactor started a trial run in 1995, but it was soon halted due to sodium leakage. It resumed operations in May 2010, only to be taken offline three months later after a fuel exchanger fell into the reactor.
In September 1997, the government imposed a one-year suspension on Monju’s operations over a falsified report on the sodium leakage.
The NRA’s order will be different from the 1997 suspension order.
The latest order means that the Japan Atomic Energy Agency cannot even make preparations for a restart, such as checking the exchange of fuel, functions of control rods and airtightness of the containment vessel.
The NRA’s predecessor, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, uncovered the lax procedures during a surprise inspection at the Monju reactor in September. NISA found that the Japan Atomic Energy Agency had not inspected key components of a sodium leakage detector.
The company’s internal investigation later found that 9,847 pieces of equipment remained uninspected since 2010, including 55 devices requiring top-level safety, such as a neutron detector and an emergency diesel power generator.
The NRA conducted an on-site inspection at the Monju reactor in February and questioned company officials.
According to the NRA, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency officials in charge of inspections said they believed that the equipment was safe and did not submit reports to their supervisors. Managers also said they were not informed that the equipment had not been inspected.
Hiroi acknowledged that company officials had let their guard down.
“Front-line workers did not know when the reactor would restart, and the entire organization did not share an understanding on when inspections should be completed," Hiroi said.
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency drew up inspection programs for Monju equipment in 2009, when the company tried to resume operations after the sodium leakage and other scandals deepened public distrust in the government’s nuclear policy.
But this sense of diligence did not last long.
The company’s slipshod practices continued even after the nation’s nuclear facility operators were required to take extra precautions after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011.
The NRA’s suspension order is only one of the problems surrounding the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
Experts have pointed out that a geological fault that runs directly below the Monju reactor could move in tandem with a nearby active fault.
In addition, the NRA plans to require the company to protect the Monju against earthquakes, tsunami and other serious accidents in accordance with new safety standards that take effect in July.
By HIDEKI MUROYA/ Staff Writer
Nuclear authority may order halt of Monju reactor
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130513_24.html
Sources have told NHK that Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority is preparing to give the order to stop the use of the Monju fast-breeder reactor. The reactor uses plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel to generate power.
The prototype facility in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, has been offline since a fuel exchange device fell into the reactor in August of 2010. The accident occurred just as the operator, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, was restarting it. The reactor had been down for 14 years because of a sodium coolant leak.
The operator is being blamed for more than 9,800 safety lapses, including missed checkups on key safety equipment.
Missed inspections continued even after the operator filed a report in January on how these problems occurred.
The nuclear authority apparently concluded after its on-site inspection in February that the way the operator manages the reactor has some problems.
The authority will hold a regular meeting on Wednesday to discuss the matter. It is considering advising the operator to review its operational safety procedures.
If the authority goes ahead with a stop order, the reactor's restart, scheduled before March of next year, is likely to be delayed.
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