information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
28 Mars 2013
March 28, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130328p2g00m0dm087000c.html
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tohoku Electric Power Co. said Thursday it has decided to cancel its plan to build a new nuclear power station in Fukushima Prefecture, where antinuclear sentiment gained ground in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
Tohoku Electric had been preparing to build the Namie-Odaka nuclear power plant on a tract of land straddling the city of Minamisoma and the town of Namie, both in Fukushima Prefecture, on the Pacific coast.
This is the first cancellation by a Japanese utility firm of a plan to build a new nuclear power plant following the onset of the March 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Tohoku Electric, which is based in Sendai, the biggest city in northeastern Japan's Tohoku region and the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, is expected to remove the Namie-Odaka plant construction project from its management program for fiscal 2013 starting April 1.
Tohoku Electric, which first unveiled the plan for the new plant in 1968, had been making efforts to acquire some 150 hectares, or 1.5 million square meters, of land in the two municipalities to build the Namie-Odaka plant, but faced difficulties.
The planned site was flooded by the huge tsunami following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11, 2011, that devastated many parts of northeastern Japan and has been designated an evacuation zone.
It is located some 10 kilometers north of the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, which is located in the towns of Okuma and Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture.
Following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the Fukushima prefectural government declared it was pulling out of nuclear power generation. The Minamisoma and Namie municipal assemblies have passed resolutions urging Tohoku Electric to call off its plan to build the Namie-Odaka nuclear power plant.
Tohoku Electric had planned to start construction in fiscal 2016, starting April 1 that year, of the plant's No. 1 reactor, which would be a boiling water-type reactor with an output capacity of 825,000 kilowatts.
Tohoku Electric is expected to retain a separate plan to build the No. 2 reactor at its Higashidori nuclear power plant in the village of Higashidori, Aomori Prefecture, on the northern tip of Japan's largest main island of Honshu.
Currently, Tohoku Electric operates two reactors -- one at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, and the other at the Higashidori plant, but they have been shut down in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster.
Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO, is also building a reactor at the Higashidori plant.
Tohoku Electric supplies electricity to six prefectures in northeastern Japan -- Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Miyagi and Fukushima -- plus Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast.
Kyodo
SENDAI – Tohoku Electric Power Co. is planning to withdraw its plan to build a new nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, local government sources said Thursday, in the first such move since the March 2011 nuclear disaster.
Tohoku Electric apparently decided it was impossible to go through with the construction plan amid strong local opposition following the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. The utility will exclude the plan from its supply plan for fiscal 2013 to be released later Thursday.
Tohoku Electric has been in the process of acquiring around 150 hectares of land in the town of Namie and Odaka Ward, Minamisoma, but has faced strong local opposition.
The construction site was flooded with tsunami after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the area was designated as a no-go zone.
Since the nuclear crisis erupted the same month, Fukushima Prefecture has supported the phase out of atomic energy while the municipal assemblies of Namie and Minamisoma have passed resolutions to stop attracting nuclear power plants to the area, making it difficult for Tohoku Electric to proceed with the construction plan.
Japan's utility scraps nuclear plant construction
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20130328_28.html
A Japanese electric power company has officially scrapped a plan to build a new nuclear power plant near the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.
Tohoku Electric Power Company said on Thursday that it will cancel the construction of the Namie-Odaka plant that was to be built about 10 kilometers north of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The project met strong opposition from local community assemblies following the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Tohoku Electric disclosed in 1968 a plan to build the nuclear facility in part of Namie Town and the Odaka district of Minamisoma City on the Pacific coast.
The areas were hit hard by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The president of Tohoku Electric, Makoto Kaiwa, conveyed the decision to Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato on Thursday.
Kaiwa said that the construction is not appropriate given that many evacuees are still forced to live in temporary housing after the accident.
The governor said that the decision is absolutely natural in the current situation and urged the utility to make good use of the planned construction sites for the reconstruction of Fukushima.
Tohoku Electric Power supplies electricity to seven northern prefectures on Japan's main island of Honshu.
The utility has two nuclear power stations in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture and Higashidori, Aomori Prefecture. But they remain shutdown after the Fukushima disaster.
This is the first scrapping of a plan to build a nuclear power plant by a Japanese power company not directly involved with Fukushima Daiichi.
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