The Cost of Dismantling JAERI and JNC's Facility will be 2 Trillion Yen

Kagoshima Prefecture Accepts a Survey to be Conducted for the Construction of Sendai 3 unit

Onagawa 3 Automatic Shutdown due to an Earthquake

Decision Made on the Decommissioning of Musashi Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Reactor

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) Seeks to Reactivate Nuclear Power Reactors

As of June 15, a total of 16 out of 17 nuclear reactors in three plant sites have been shut down. TEPCO is planning to reactivate eight power reactors this coming August.

Uppermost in TEPCO's mind is that it wants to restart Fukushima Daiich unit 6 (BWR, 1100MW), located across Okuma town and Futaba town in Fukushima Prefecture, and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa unit 7 (ABWR, 1356MW), located across Kashiwazaki city and Kariwa village in Niigata Prefecture. On May 15, the Energy Policy Promotion Council in Futaba region, whose members are from eight neighboring towns and villages, requested ANIS (Agency for Nuclear Industrial Safety) and TEPCO to reactivate nuclear reactors soon. On May 23, the Council also approached the Governor of Fukushima Prefecture and a chairman of Fukushima Prefectural assembly, seeking the resumption of operations in its earliest stage. Although the Governor of Eisaku Sato shows a careful attitude to reactivating the reactors, the Prefecture assembly agreed on June 9 to accept the resumption of Fukushima Daiich 6 unit. However, the result of a survey by Fukushima Prefecture inquiring about the opinion of 82 communities (cities, towns, and villages), excluding the eight communities near the plant, showed that many residents wanted local government and the Prefectural assembly to respond to the current situation in a more careful manner. Those who voted against the quick resumption were twice as many as those who agreed.

At the Niigata Prefecture, the Minister of METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) visited Kashiwazaki city and apologized to the city, village, and local assembly for the accidents in which problems were concealed from the public. He also expressed his apologies to local people at the meeting organized by ANIS that night. During the local meeting, ANIS emphasized that reactivating the unit 7 would have no problems. The mayors of Kashiwazaki city and Kariwa village notified the Prefecture that they would approve the reactivation of the reactors. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 7 unit restarted on June 20 and Fukushima Daiich 1 unit restarted on July 14, respectively.

The Cost of Dismantling JAERI and JNC's Facility will be 2 Trillion Yen

On May 23, MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) held a preparatory meeting for the merger of JAERI (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute) and JNC (Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute). At the meeting, MEXT reported a test calculation that about 80 years and 2 trillion yen would be required to dismantle and dispose of all the facilities that JAERI and JNC own and operate.

This calculation covers 186 facilities' dismantling cost. Those include, to name a few, the Fast Breeder Reactor, "Monju"; the Advanced Thermal Reactor "Fugen"; the Tokai reprocessing plant; the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor owned by JAERI; and the Japan Material Testing Reactor. The breakdown in the cost is as follows: 30 billion yen for the operation and the maintenance before dismantling the facilities, 600 billion yen for dismantling, 550 billion yen for the treatment of nuclear wastes, 600 billion yen for the disposing of wastes, and 240 billion yen for the transporting of the waste. This all adds up to 2 trillion and 20 billion yen.

Annual expenditure will be between 10 to 30 billion yen, which accounts for only 5% to 15% of 230 billion yen of the annual business budget for JAERI and JNC. Therefore, MEXT explained that the decommissioning cost can be recovered without creating any special financial measures. Committee members at the meeting responded to the MEXT's rationalization, "the establishment of a budget for the cost recovery should be made clear," and others commented "a new corporate body should be created for the disposal plan."

Kagoshima Prefecture Accepts a Survey to be Conducted for the Construction of Sendai 3 unit

Kagoshima Prefectural Governor, Ryutaro Suga, announced at a press conference held on May 16 that the prefectural government has approved an environmental survey to be conducted for the proposed construction of Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai 3 (APWR, 1500 MW class). In September 2000 Kyushu Electric asked Kagoshima Prefecture to allow the survey, and the governor sent his response to KEPCO in April 2001 that the Prefecture would suspend its decision, citing that the power demand growth was slowing down and that neighboring municipalities had split opinions on the project. He stated then that "suspension was the final answer to the electric power company," implying a virtual refusal. Therefore his recent announcement to accept the proposal of a survey has made citizens angry and disappointed.

The situations he cited as reasons for the suspension have not changed. The power demand has not grown, and the opinions of the neighboring municipalities remain divided: 4 in favor, 4 against and 1 withholding its judgment. In spite of this, the governor accepted the survey, saying that the survey and the construction are different matters, adding that he didn't approve or accept the construction.

Onagawa 3 Automatic Shutdown due to an Earthquake

On May 26 a strong earthquake hit the Tohoku region, and it was named "the Sanriku Minami Earthquake." Due to this event, Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa 3 (BWR, 825 MW), located in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, was automatically shut down, because an acceleration detector recorded an excessive value beyond the set point. The maximum acceleration of the reactor is said to have been 225 Gal, which was recorded by the detector installed in the second basement of the reactor. Reactors 1 and 2 were stopped because they were under regular inspections.

There have been four cases, in which reactors in Japan have automatically shut down due to earthquakes. Of these, two shutdowns were caused by higher vibration of turbines, and the other two by abnormal power ramps. It was the first time that a reactor has shut down because of high acceleration. There were another two cases in which a reactor was manually shut down.

As a result of an inspection of Onagawa 3 after the shutdown, a leakage of a small amount of cooling water was found from a joint part of a filter attached to the main steam piping.

Decision Made on the Decommissioning of Musashi Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Reactor

On May 20, a board of directors of the Goto Educational Association, which runs MIT, decided to decommission the MIT's Research Reactor (MITRR), located in Kawasaki-city, Kanagawa Prefecture. Since December 12, 1989, the reactor has suspended its operation due to the leakage accident of cooling water from holes found in a reactor tank. The decision was made after considering the following factors: the cost of reactivating MITRR will be several times more costly than decommissioning; and the United States will no longer accept spent fuel after 2009; Consideration was also given to the feelings of local residents, where the construction of houses are rapidly going on in the vicinity of this area. The reactor's thermal output is 100kW, and it was used for research and educational purposes such as research on radiation therapy.

On May 3, the chief of the nuclear reactor research facilities of Kyoto University made an announcement that the KUR (Kyoto University Reactor) of 500kW thermal output, located at Kumatori-town in Osaka, will "pause" in its operation in March 2006 as the U.S. will stop accepting spent fuel.