Tokai No. 2 N-Plant Passes NRA Safety Screenings

September 26, 2018

Tokyo- The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday the Tokai No. 2 nuclear power plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, has officially passed NRA screenings for restart.

The NRA formalized a report that the plant, owned by Japan Atomic Power Co., meets new safety standards that Japan introduced after the 2011 triple meltdown accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

It is the first approval for restart for any nuclear plant affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which mainly hit northeastern Japan. The tsunami temporarily stopped pumps needed to cool emergency power generation equipment at the Tokai No. 2 plant, but the use of other generators allowed the plant to continue cooling its reactor and escape a meltdown.

It is the third approval for a boiling-water reactor, the type used at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

The reactor at the Tokai No. 2 plant, which has an output capacity of 1.1 million kilowatts, is the 15th to pass NRA screenings for restart under the new standards. The plant is the eighth with such a reactor.

On Nov. 27, the Tokai reactor will reach its operational limit of 40 years.

An extension requires a separate set of NRA approvals, including for a construction plan with design details for equipment and facilities. Related screenings have mostly been completed.

As the restart of the Tokai reactor also requires approval from the host village of Tokai, five nearby municipalities and Ibaraki Prefecture, whether it can be put back online still remains uncertain.

As of 2015, as many as 960,000 people lived within 30 kilometers of the plant and would be required to evacuate during a nuclear emergency, including residents of the six host and nearby municipalities. It is the highest number for any nuclear plant in the country.

During the NRA's screenings, Japan Atomic Power implemented safety measures such as installing flameproof electrical cables and changing the design of seawalls to make them resistant to liquefaction.

The total cost of such work reached 174 billion yen.

The company told the NRA that it will receive financial assistance from TEPCO and Tohoku Electric Power Co. <9506>, both of which submitted to the regulator documents indicating their readiness to offer support. The two utilities are buyers of electricity generated at the Tokai No. 2 plant.

The NRA asked the industry minister, who oversees TEPCO, if the company is financially strong enough to provide the aid to Japan Atomic Power while undertaking the costly task of decommissioning the Fukushima plant at the same time.

In a statement, the minister replied that there was no problem, saying that TEPCO's management team makes business decisions at its own responsibility and that the company said helping Japan Atomic Power will not cause major trouble for its decommissioning work and compensation payments to residents and businesses affected by the nuclear accident.

"I assume that the minister takes a position of not interfering with specific business decisions," said Nobuhiko Ban, an NRA commissioner, adding that TEPCO needs to explain its judgment to the public. Jiji Press