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Monday Update

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From NEI’s Safety First web site:

Fukushima Town to Test Waste Reduction System

November 28, 2011

Industry/Regulatory/Political

  • The town of Hirono in Fukushima prefecture plans to test a system that would reduce the volume of radioactive debris requiring disposal by up to a factor of 300. The equipment would heat-treat the materials in an oxygen-free environment and use a ceramic powder to absorb radioactive materials.

Plant Status

  • Tokyo Electric Power Co. is planning to address any buildup of hydrogen inside the pressure vessels of Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1 through 3 by directly injecting nitrogen into the vessel. Nitrogen injection is expected to begin early December. Meanwhile, in order to increase the amount of steam in the vessels and decrease the relative buildup of hydrogen, TEPCO is reducing the flow rate of cooling water injection into the reactors. The temperatures within all three reactors are well below the boiling temperature, TEPCO reports.


Media Highlights

  • A pair of articles in the Japanese media analyzes the export market for Japanese nuclear components. Yomiuri Shimbun reports on Toshiba’s U.S. orders for turbine equipment for the nuclear energy facilities being built at the Vogtle site in Georgia and the V.C. Summer site in South Carolina. The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum notes that Japan Steel Works has forecast more than $640 million in orders from China and France for large forged components for nuclear power plants.
  • An article in The New York Times discusses how the post-Fukushima environment is changing national discussions on used nuclear fuel management.
  • Mainichi Daily News reports on the difficulty that Japan’s power industry is having in meeting its carbon dioxide reduction targets now that electricity production at nuclear energy facilities has dropped since the Fukushima accident. Kyodo News points out that Kansai Electric Power Co. is planning to restart an oil-fired plant that had been mothballed for 10 years.
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