Skip to main content

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Safety First web site:

Second Japanese Utility Submits Stress Test Results to Regulator

November 16, 2011

Industry/Regulatory/Political

  • Shikoku Electric Power Co. has submitted the results of first-phase stress tests for its Ikata Unit 3 reactor to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The results show Ikata 3 could withstand an earthquake with ground acceleration 1.9 times as strong as the reactor’s design basis and a 47-foot tsunami, four times its design basis. Shikoku Electric is the second utility to submit a stress test result after Kansai Electric did so for its Ohi Unit 3 reactor Oct. 28.
  • Chubu Electric Power Co. has begun building a 1-mile-long seawall to protect Hamaoka nuclear energy facility against tsunamis. The wall is designed to withstand a tsunami 59 feet high and will cost $1.3 billion. It is to be completed by December 2012. Of the five reactors at the site, reactors 1 and 2 are permanently shut, reactor 3 has been closed for periodic inspection since November 2010, and reactors 4 and 5 were shut down in May after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Plant Status

  • Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Nov. 15 it is installing the first of eight 90-cubic-meter storage tanks at Fukushima Daiichi. The tanks will be used to store sludge from water decontamination operations. Installation of the tanks is to be completed by April. Tokyo Electric Power Co. told journalists last week that 77,500 metric tons of water still needs purification treatment.
  • Nuclear Engineering International reported that TEPCO has sealed stairwells, hatches and other penetrations leading to the basements of turbine halls and other buildings at Fukushima Daiichi. The measure is meant to reduce the spread of radioactive dust as the company pumps water from the basements to decontaminate and recycle it for reactor cooling.

Media Highlights

  • The International Atomic Energy Agency’s final report to the Japanese government from its October inspection of the areas surrounding Fukushima Daiichi recommends Japanese authorities take a “balanced approach” in prioritizing cleanup efforts. It also recommends local disposal of contaminated soils and other materials from remediation efforts and offers IAEA assistance if requested.
  • Dow Jones reports that a panel has been set up to advise the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on the need to revise safety regulations for the country’s older nuclear reactors.
  • Platts reports that as Japan’s nuclear energy utilization plummeted to a record low of 18.5 percent, the country’s 10 major electric utilities have consumed six times more oil this October than they did the same time last year.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should