Start of safety screenings (Rokkasho, Onawaga, Shimane)

January 17, 2013

Safety screening of nuclear fuel plant begins

 

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140117_29.html

Japanese nuclear regulators have begun procedures for safety screening of a spent nuclear fuel processing plant in Rokkasho Village in Aomori, northeastern Japan.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority held its first meeting on the screening on Friday, after the plant's operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited, applied for the check early this month.

Authority officials are to check whether the plant conforms to new stringent safety guidelines adopted in December.

An official from Japan Nuclear Fuel said it has raised its estimate of the scale of earthquakes that could hit the plant, and that it will install water pumps and spraying equipment to prevent fires and hydrogen blasts.

NRA Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa said that unlike nuclear power plants, fuel processing compounds house several types of facilities, each requiring different safeguards.

Fuketa suggested that the NRA will take note of each facility's characteristics to assess how it is prepared for serious accidents.

Japan Nuclear Fuel hopes to pass the screening and complete work on the plant in October. But how long the assessment will take remains unclear.

The Rokkasho plant plays a key role in Japan's nuclear fuel recycling policy. But its completion has been postponed 21 times following a series of troubles.

Jan. 17, 2014 - Updated 07:44 UTC

January 16, 2013

Japan's regulator starts screening reactors

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140116_32.html

Japan's nuclear regulator has begun safety screening of a reactor affected by the March 2011 disaster.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority is for the first time reviewing an application for such a reactor.

The NRA on Thursday held its first meeting on the screening for the reactor at the Onagawa nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast of Miyagi Prefecture. Such screening is needed to restart idle reactors in Japan.

Power switchboards and emergency generators of the plant were partially damaged by the powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Tohoku Electric Power Company, which operates the facility, said it is building seawalls based on an estimate of a possible tsunami 10 meters higher than previously projected.

NRA officials said that as the plant is located on the Pacific coast, safety measures should be based on an estimate of a quake and tsunami larger those in 2011 hitting the facility's reactors.

The officials also said inspections should focus on whether lessons from the disaster are considered.

The regulator also began screening an application filed by Chugoku Electric Power Company for its idle reactor at the Shimane nuclear plant in western Japan.

Both reactors use the same technology as those at the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Jan. 16, 2014 - Updated 10:55 UTC