TEPCO’s new tactics: to restart so as to close….

TEPCO offers to close reactors after restarting Niigata plant

The No. 1 to No. 4 reactors of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant stand in the foreground, while the No. 5 to No. 7 reactors can be seen in the background

August 26, 2019

KASHIWAZAKI, Niigata Prefecture–Tokyo Electric Power Co. indicated it would decommission idle reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant here, but that move may not be enough to win local consent to restart other reactors at the site.

TEPCO officials, including President Tomoaki Kobayakawa, met with Kashiwazaki Mayor Masahiro Sakurai on Aug. 26 and passed on their plans to decommission one or more reactors within five years after operations are resumed at the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors.

TEPCO has long planned to restart those two reactors at the seven-reactor plant. As a condition for his consent to the restarts, Sakurai in June 2017 insisted that TEPCO compile a plan regarding the decommissioning of the other five reactors.

Hearing of TEPCO’s latest plan, Sakurai said the proposal was likely the maximum that could be expected of the utility.

“But I cannot hand out a passing grade based on today’s answer alone,” the mayor said.

He said he would ask TEPCO to respond to additional requests related to a resumption of operations, such as how measures to enhance safety at the plant would affect the local economy.

TEPCO had insisted that resuming operations at the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors after both passed stricter safety regulations would provide a major pillar for rebuilding its corporate finances.

Sakurai had asked for a decommissioning plan because he felt the need to reduce the risks to his city from the high concentration of nuclear reactors and to develop a decommissioning sector among businesses in Kashiwazaki.

However, TEPCO has other hurdles to clear before it can resume operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.

The Niigata prefectural government has been conducting its own evaluation of the 2011 triple meltdown at TEPCO’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. It remains to be seen if Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi will give his consent to resumption of operations.

The seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant are all boiling-water types similar to those at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. The No. 1 to No. 5 reactors at the plant in Niigata Prefecture can each generate 1.1 gigawatts, while the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors can each produce 1.356 gigawatts.

The oldest No. 1 reactor began operations in 1985, meaning it is fast approaching the 40-year limit for its operating life that is in place, in principle, for nuclear reactors.

The No. 2 to No. 4 reactors have remained offline since the 2007 Niigata Chuetsu-oki Earthquake.

All reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant have been offline since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201908260024.html

TEPCO may consider scrapping 1 or more reactors in Kashiwazaki

August 26, 2019

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said Monday it may consider decommissioning one or more reactors at its nuclear power plant in Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture within five years after reactivating two idled reactors at the same plant.

TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa mentioned for the first time the possibility of decommissioning some or all of the Nos. 1 to 5 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, located northwest of Tokyo, as the host city’s Mayor Masahiro Sakurai has made it a condition for approving the restarts of its Nos. 6 and 7 reactors.

During a meeting with Sakurai, Kobayakawa noted the necessity of maintaining Nos. 1 to 5 reactors for now but said the company will consider decommissioning one or more of them once it deems it can secure enough power from non-fossil sources with limited greenhouse gas emissions.

(Sakurai, left, and Kobayakawa, 3rd from right)

“TEPCO has given me the maximum reply it could think of now,” said Sakurai, suggesting his satisfaction with the response despite TEPCO not specifying how many reactors it might decommission or giving a firm pledge to do so.

In June 2017, Sakurai said he would demand the utility submit a plan for scrapping reactors within two years and asked for specifics, including how many and which reactors will be decommissioned and by when, saying a plan without such details “cannot be called a plan.”

Hit by the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in 2011 and massive compensation payments for those affected by it, TEPCO has been seeking to restart the Nos. 6 and 7 reactors and had also hoped to keep the Nos. 1 to 5 reactors for rebuilding its business. All seven reactors are currently offline.

But Sakurai called for scrapping some of them on worries that all seven reactors are located in one area and that an accident in one could easily spread to the others.

The Nos. 6 and 7 reactors won approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority needed for the restart in December 2017, and TEPCO has carried out construction work for enhancing their safety. But it has yet to gain local consent for their restart.

The utility initially sought to reply to Sakurai in July but the plan was put on hold after the utility angered the mayor by misinforming his city of an abnormality at the plant in a major earthquake that hit Niigata Prefecture on June 18.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/08/22d6e58110c8-tepco-may-consider-scrapping-1-or-more-reactors-in-kashiwazaki.html