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Various factors caused welding crack at Hamaoka nuclear plant
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Various factors caused welding crack at Hamaoka nuclear plant
Gov't to earmark 466.2 bil. yen for nuclear-related projects
Panel: U.S. Must Tighten Nuke Rules
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Various factors caused welding crack at Hamaoka nuclear plant
NAGOYA, Dec. 25 (Kyodo) - Too much heat during welding, and poor water quality and
materials may have caused a welded part in a reactor to crack and radioactive water to
leak in November at a nuclear plant in Hamaoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Chubu Electric
Power Co. said Tuesday.
The Nagoya-based utility said the leakage had begun in early July and an average of
about 80 liters of radioactive water were leaking per day, company officials said.
The company reported the findings Tuesday to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety
Agency, a branch of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Chubu Electric Power said it will send samples from the welded part to a facility linked to
Toshiba Corp. for further investigation.
The welded part and neighboring parts at the 540,000-kilowatt No. 1 reactor will be
replaced, the officials said. The weld links one of the 89 control rod driving units to the
bottom of a pressure vessel.
It will be the first time for a power company in Japan to replace parts at the bottom of a
pressure vessel, and the officials said it will be a difficult task.
Fumio Kawaguchi, president of Chubu Electric Power, visited the town of Hamaoka on
Tuesday afternoon and apologized to Mayor Yoshiaki Homma for the accident.
''I once again want to apologize for causing great worries to town residents and others,''
Kawaguchi said.
Radioactive steam was discovered leaking from a pressure-injection system at the
Hamaoka plant's No. 1 reactor Nov. 7.
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Gov't to earmark 466.2 bil. yen for nuclear-related projects
TOKYO, Dec. 25 (Kyodo) - The government has decided to set its nuclear-related
spending at 466.2 billion yen for fiscal 2002, down 3.6% from a year earlier, the
government's Atomic Energy Commission said Tuesday.
The fall was attributed to the austere fiscal policy advocated by the administration of
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, commission officials said.
Of the total, the government is expected to set aside 289.4 billion yen for the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, down 8%, while outlays for the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry are set to total 167.7 billion yen, up 4.5%, the
officials said.
Spending by other government ministries and agencies is expected to rise 2.2% to 9.2
billion yen.
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Panel: U.S. Must Tighten Nuke Rules
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has failed to adequately
ensure that owners of nuclear power plants have enough funds to safely own, operate
and later decommission the facilities, according to a new congressional review.
The commission needs to tighten its review process for license transfer requests,
especially because the future costs to dismantle a plant and dispose of radioactive
waste could increase, said the study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative
arm of Congress.
The review was requested by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., because of concerns that
deregulation and recent license transfers have affected decommission funds. Costs of
decommissioning ranges from $300 million to $400 million per plant.
The NRC has licensed 125 nuclear power plants for a limited time. Utilities have sold or
are in the process of selling all or part of 15 plants. Another 30 plants have had licenses
transferred
Before transferring a license to a new plant owner, the commission requires companies
to have funds available either by making periodic deposits into a trust fund, prepayment,
obtaining a surety bond, insurance or credit or guaranteeing payment if a parent
company can meet certain financial requirements.
In general, enough money is being set aside to eventually take a plant out of service,
the report said. But the NRC hasn't done enough to monitor the financial arrangements,
it said.
The commission's ``reviews were not always rigorous enough to ensure that
decommissioning funds would be adequate,'' the report said. ``Moreover, NRC did not
always adequately verify the new owners' financial qualifications to safely own and
operate the plants.''
The NRC should request guaranteed additional revenue sources and document its
review of any financial information - including revenue projections, the report said.
Also, the report said the commission now allows plant owners to wait too long - about
two years - before their licenses are terminated to perform radiological assessments to
determine what additional cleanup might be needed. The GAO recommended the
commission move up that deadline.
The commission, in response, said requiring the surveys earlier ``would not add
significant value to the decommissioning process.'' It also disagreed that it should
modify its review guidelines to include a checklist process ``because many of the
proposed license transfers are unique.''
On the Net:
NRC: http://www.nrc.gov
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