Typhoon Hits Japan as Nuclear Plant Construction Resumes - 14 October, 2012.
The Japanese power company J-Power today said it
will resume construction of a nuclear power plant in Aomori prefecture at the
northernmost tip of Japan’s main island, just as a typhoon delivered high winds,
pounding rain and high waves to the area.
The move comes despite the Japanese government’s
decision to phase out all nuclear power plants by the 2030s, announced in
September.
This is the first such action in Japan since an
earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered the nuclear meltdown of three
reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi facility in the
same region.
Typhoon Jelawat struck central Japan at 7 pm local
time Sunday. The storm left two men dead, and 174 people injured in 13
prefectures. More than 10,000 people were evacuated in Ishinomaki, a coastal
city that was hit by the March 2011 tsunami.
Aomori is approximately 341 kilometers (212 miles)
from Fukushima; both prefectures are in the Tohoku region on Japan’s main
island, Honshu.
Jelawat formed on September 20; by September 24 it
had reached “super typhoon” status, with maximum sustained winds above 240
kilometers (150 miles) per hour, out over the Pacific Ocean south of Japan. By
the time the typhoon reached the Tohoku region it was reduced to a tropical
storm with winds of 75 kph (46 mph).
The nuclear power plant is being built in the
windswept coastal town of Ohma. J-Power began construction of the 1,383
megawatt advanced boiling water reactor in 2008 but stopped after the Fukushima
disaster with the facility more than 35 percent completed.
J-Power President Masayoshi Kitamura today told a
special session of the Ohma town assembly that the government’s September 14
clarification of its policy on uncompleted nuclear plants made the restart of
construction possible.
The Ohma assembly members support the company’s
decision, according to Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK TV.
But officials at Hakodate, a city 20 kilometers (12
miles) away, oppose the nuclear plant. Hakodate Mayor Toshiki Kudo told
reporters that the city will go to court to stop the project.
Mayor Kudo said the city will sue on the grounds
that the Ohma project was approved by the government using criteria set before
the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the world’s second worst after Chernobyl.
J-Power, formally known as Electric Power Development Co., Ltd., said in a
statement today that the company “has obtained the necessary permits and
authorizations and has been proceeding with plans” with the “understanding and
cooperation” of the Aomori Prefecture and the local communities of Ohma, Kazamaura
and Sai.
“We are determined to do whatever we can to
establish a safe electric power plant through ensuring that we implement
reinforced safety measures that take into consideration the accident at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant,” the company said.
“We also intend to appropriately reflect at all
times new standards of technology established by the Nuclear Regulation
Authority,” said J-Power.
The reactor at Ohma will be unique in that it will
be capable of using fuel made of of 100 percent mixed uranium and plutonium
oxides, known as MOX, instead of the enriched uranium used by most other
nuclear plants or a smaller percentage of MOX fuel.
MOX fuel rods were used in the Unit 3 reactor at
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, one of the three that suffered a meltdown
when the tsunami disrupted power to the cooling water pumps.
During the Unit 3 meltdown at Fukushima, plutonium
as well as uranium radiation was released. MOX, which is more radioactive than
uranium fuel, generated additional fear among people areas near Fukushima
Daiichi.
The Fukushima facility began using MOX fuel in
September 2010, becoming the third plant in Japan to do so, according to MOX
supplier, the French company Areva. Japan, with 55 nuclear plants in operation
until the Fukushima disaster, has been shipping its spent nuclear fuel to
France and Britain for reprocessing for decades. Some of that spent fuel came
back to Japan as MOX.
To acquire a self-sufficient plutonium-based
nuclear fuel cycle, Japan is building its own MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant, also
in Aomori. It is now under construction at Rokkasho village, where Japan’s
uranium enrichment plant went into operation in March 1992.
Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. began building the MOX Fuel
Fabrication Plant at Rokkasho in October 2010, but construction was suspended
due to harsh weather conditions in Aomori over the winter of 2012-2011 followed
by the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
On April 3, 2012, Japan Nuclear Fuel restarted
construction of the MOX fuel plant. The plant, which Japan Nuclear Fuel
originally started building in October 2010, will be the nation’s first MOX
plant to be operated on a commercial basis. Ten of Japan’s electric power
companies and other domestic 77 companies are stockholders of JNFL.
Japan Nuclear Fuel’s President Yoshihiko Kawai
indicated that the plant’s completion, originally planned for March 2016, may
be delayed due to the suspension.
Kawai responded to the Japanese government’s
September 14 policy announcement with relief that the government stands behind
the nuclear fuel cycle over the mid-long term, “respecting the existing
agreement with Aomori prefecture and that the reprocessing will be carried out
as planned.”
“However, the policy abandoning nuclear power in
2030s is deplorable,” Kawai said in a statement. “Reprocessing without MOX
production will be meaningless,” Kawai has said.
“Considering that Japan has a limited amount of
natural resources and we are obliged to relying on foreign countries,” Kawai
said. “Therefore, the nation should firmly retain the nuclear power generation
and it must continue to serve on the grand premise of securing safety.”
J-Power is determined to proceed with its
MOX-fueled power plant at Ohma.
In its 2011-2012 Corporate Brochure, the company states, “Based on
a decision by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission in August 1995, Ohma Nuclear
Power Plant, which aims to become a full MOX advanced boiling water reactor
plant, is supported by the Japanese government and Japan’s Electric Power
Comanies. This facility’s role is to expand the flexibility of MOX usage plans
for light water reactors in Japan. This will allow us to save precious uranium
resources and make more effective use of this fuel.”
Source: www.ens-newswire.com
14 October, 2012.