TEPCO n-reactors pass NRA screenings

December 27, 2017

Tokyo- The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in central Japan have officially passed NRA screenings for restarts.

The NRA formalized a report that the reactors meet the country's new safety standards introduced after the 2011 nuclear accident at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 plant in northeastern Japan.

The report is the first of its kind issued for any boiling-water reactor, the type used at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which experienced unprecedented triple meltdown just after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

It is also the first for any TEPCO reactor.

The two are the 13th and 14th reactors that have passed NRA screenings for restarts under the new standards. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is the seventh one with any such reactor.

Local consent is necessary for TEPCO to put the two reactors in Niigata Prefecture back online.

The timing of their restarts remains uncertain, however, as Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyama takes a cautious stance, claiming that a probe his prefecture is conducting on the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident will take about three years.

The screening report noted that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors could be hit by an earthquake with a maximum ground acceleration of 1,209 gal and tsunami as high as 8.3 meters.

In addition to filtered vents that plant operators are now required to install, the report also confirmed the effectiveness of alternative circulating cooling equipment, proposed by TEPCO, for lowering the pressure inside reactor containment vessels in case of accidents.

In recognizing the eligibility of TEPCO as a nuclear plant operator in the wake of the unprecedented nuclear disaster, the NRA made the company pledge to give the highest priority to safety in conducting the nuclear power generation business.

Industry minister Hiroshige Seko, who oversees the power industry, supported the policies laid out by TEPCO and said he will properly supervise the company to make sure it follows the policies.

The NRA will move on to examine the two reactors' safety rules, which cover the basics of their operations and management.

The nuclear watchdog plans to have the safety-first policy included in the rules and check the utility's efforts to ensure safety through its screenings. Jiji Press