Japan readying to gamble with safety, in restarting nuclear reactors

Crushed By Soaring Energy Costs, Japan Prepares To Reactivate Its Nuclear Power Plants Zero Hedge, by Tyler Durden on 05/19/2013 “….First it was Japan’s economy minister chiming in with his views on the fair value of the USDJPY (apparently, now it is too high), who also made it clear that Japan has no choice but to restart the same nuclear power plants that two years resulted in the biggest nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.

And now, proving that Japan has learned absolutely nothing from its recent past, it is now preparing to risk yet another Fukushima, just to make sure that Goldman’s partners have a fresh year of record bonuses, driven by the BOJ’s monetary insanity. Yomiuri Shumbun reports, that just two years after a wholesale shutdown of Japan’s nuclear power plants demanded by the people, Japan is once again going to reactivate its nuclear power plants, much to the chagrin of the already massively irradiated local population.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has decided to apply to the nuclear regulating body to restart two reactors at its nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture by the end of July, after revised safety standards are implemented earlier that month, it has been learned.

Reactivation of the two reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant could help stabilize the power supply situation for eastern Japan, including the Kanto region, which is part of TEPCO’s service areas; and the Tohoku region, Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s service area for which TEPCO provides electricity. In doing so, the company could prevent electricity fees from rising further.

Reactivation of the reactors could also help TEPCO’s management reconstruction drive, as the utility faces additional fuel costs for thermal power generation to make up for power shortfalls due to the suspension of nuclear power reactors.

The application to the Nuclear Regulation Authority will be made for the Nos. 1 and 7 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture. The move is expected to coincide with similar applications to be filed by four other operators for reactors at their five plants, according to officials.

So which nukes are set to go live?….

The reactors could be reactivated after passing the NRA’s safety inspections and obtaining consent from local governments. The reactors that the four utilities are applying to restart are at:

Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s Tomari nuclear power plant in Tomari, Hokkaido.
Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama nuclear power plant in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture.
Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata nuclear power plant in Ikata, Ehime Prefecture.
Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant in Satsuma-Sendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, and Genkai nuclear power plant in Genkai, Saga Prefecture.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has boiling water reactors–the same type as those at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which suffered meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami…….

Although we doubt it: it is only a matter of time before some Japanese central planner takes the mic, and reads the Goldman script, promising all disastrous future earthquakes and tsunamis have been henceforth banned and made illegal, and the BOJ will guarantee nothing bad can ever happen to the earthquake prone nation, located along one of the most active seismic faultlines in the world. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-19/crushed-soaring-energy-costs-japan-prepares-reactivate-its-nuclear-power-plants