New fault survey at Kashiwazaki

January 24, 2013

TEPCO mulls new fault survey at Kashiwazaki plant

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140124_41.html 

Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to conduct an additional survey at its largest nuclear power plant to confirm that fault lines in the compound won't cause earthquakes.

TEPCO officials announced the news at a meeting with the government's Nuclear Regulation Authority on Friday.

The survey is in response to an inquiry from the authority about 23 faults running under some reactor buildings of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture.

The officials reiterated that the faults will not move in the future and said that they will dig at least 4 large holes, measuring about 4 meters across and up to 30 meters deep, in the compound to confirm this. TEPCO also plans to conduct a drilling survey in and outside the compound.
The planned survey is a part of a safety screening, which utilities must pass to restart their nuclear power stations.

Members of the authority will visit the Kashiwazaki plant next month to decide what additional inspections should be carried out.

TEPCO has drawn up earnings projections by assuming that it can begin restarting the Kashiwazaki reactors from July. But a senior official says the new survey will take at least several months.

NRA members have said that they will not check the plant's preparedness for tsunami and other disasters until they decide on a policy for the fault survey.

If the new survey takes a long time, TEPCO won't be able to restart the reactors as planned.