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Monday Update

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From NEI’s Japan micro-site:

TEPCO Successfully Tests Cover for Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 1

October 31, 2011

Plant Status

  • Tokyo Electric Power Co. reports that pilot tests of the ventilation system associated with the cover it has installed over Fukushima Daiichi reactor 1 showed the system successfully filtered more than 90 percent of the radioactive cesium released from the reactor. TEPCO is considering installing similar covers for reactors 3 and 4, both of which were damaged by hydrogen explosions following the March 11 accident.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

  • Japan’s environment ministry said it will store radioactive soil and waste for at least three years within Fukushima prefecture before it is moved out of the area for final disposal. The ministry said it hopes to build the temporary storage facilities by 2014.

Media Highlights

  • The Daily Yomiuri reports on the results of Kansai Electric’s first-stage stress test on its Ohi reactor 3 and on the uncertainties surrounding the timing for the restart of Japan’s shutdown reactors. The computer-based test found that the reactor could withstand ground motion from an earthquake nearly double the strength of the plant’s design and a tsunami four times stronger than the plant’s safety standards.
  • Newspaper reports say that both India and Vietnam continue to negotiate with Japan on importing Japanese nuclear reactor technology.
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