Safety screening for Oma plant

Oma plant operator to apply for govt screening

Dec. 15, 2014 - Updated 09:51 UTC+1

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20141215_26.html

A Japanese electric power company will apply to the country's nuclear regulator on Tuesday for safety screening needed to run a power plant now under construction in the northeast of Japan.

The plant under construction is in Oma Town, Aomori Prefecture. The plant would contain the world's first nuclear reactor to operate solely on plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, known as MOX.

The city of Hakodate in Hokkaido filed for an injunction with the Tokyo District Court in April to halt the construction. City officials fear damage from a possible accident. The city is within 30 kilometers from the nuclear site across the Tsugaru Strait.

Electric Power Development Company, or J-Power, resumed construction in October 2012. Work was suspended after the nuclear accident in Fukushima in March the year before.

The Nuclear Regulatory Authority has so far received safety screening applications for 20 reactors at 13 plants since new government regulations were introduced after the Fukushima accident. This is the first time an operator will file for screening of a power plant under construction.

J-Power says it is making efforts to comply with the government's new regulations. The company raised the requirements for earthquake resistance design. This includes maximum ground shaking from the current 450 to 650 gal. The utility says it will add necessary reinforcements to pipes and other structures.

J-Power also raised the assumed maximum height of tsunami from 4.4 meters to 6.3 meters. It maintains that tsunami will not reach the site, which lies 12 meters above the sea surface.

Regulators have suggested they will proceed with the screening with caution. They say control rods used to stop nuclear fission are not as effective with MOX fuel as ordinary nuclear fuels.