![]() As the name indicates, it’s a temporary storage space. This is a "transitional storage facility" in Fukushima Prefecture. Its reactors account for more than 10 per cent of Chubu's power supply.Falling behind schedule Only a small percentage of the contaminated soil in Fukushima Prefecture has been placed in transitional storage facilities. Nuclear energy provides more than one-third of Japan's electricity, and shutting the Hamaoka plant is likely to exacerbate power shortages expected this summer. 5 reactor, its second operational reactor, on Saturday. The company expects to begin halting the No. 4 reactor at the Hamaoka plant started Friday morning. The Hamaoka facility sits above a major fault line and has long been considered Japan's riskiest nuclear power plant.Ĭhubu Electric Power Co., which supplies electricity to central Japan, including the city of Toyota, where the automaker is based, said steps to idle the No. That assessment led to Prime Minister Naoto Kan to request a temporary shutdown at the Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka prefecture amid concerns an earthquake with a magnitude of 8 or higher could strike central Japan sometime within 30 years. The crisis at Fukushima had prompted the government to evaluate all of Japan's 54 reactors for quake and tsunami vulnerability. ![]() Overall damages are expected to be much higher.Īlso Friday, the operator of a nuclear plant in central Japan began suspending operations at its reactors while it strengthens tsunami protections, under a separate agreement with the government. It also expects to pay $598 million Cdn in initial compensation to nearly 80,000 residents evacuated from around the radiation-leaking plant, which was hit by a giant tsunami after Japan's massive March 11 earthquake. TEPCO has sought a $23.92 billion Cdn loan to tide it through the initial emergency period. "It looks like it's a good solution," he said. Shinichi Ichikawa, the director of equity research at Credit Suisse in Tokyo, said the plan needed to achieve three goals: maintain a stable electricity supply, ease concerns of financial markets and ensure victims of the nuclear disaster would be compensated. "Under this support scheme, while receiving support from the government, we will prepare to compensate those who are suffering in a fair and prompt manner," he said in a statement. TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu said he expects the plan to go into effect soon. Japanese officials stressed that the fuel melted early on in the crisis and posed no danger now. A "complete meltdown" can mean the pressure vessel and other containments have been breached. "Meltdown" is not a scientific term and the definitions for it vary, though generally a "partial meltdown" refers to the melting of fuel rods, as has been known to have happened at Fukushima for some time. The Japanese definition of a meltdown requires melted fuel to drop to the bottom of the core. The findings indicate that melted fuel also had fallen to a lump in the bottom of the pressure chamber and may have even slipped into the larger beaker-shaped drywell, or containment vessel. Japan's Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency acknowledged for the first time Friday that what happened at one of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors constituted a "meltdown" under the Japanese definition.Īgency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama was speaking the day after new data showed the water level in the core of Unit 1 was much lower than expected, fully exposing what was left of the fuel rods that had partially melted in the hours and days immediately following the March tsunami. "We want to avoid big changes in the electricity bills and contain (the public burden) as much as possible," Kaieda said Friday. TEPCO earlier this week agreed to a cost-cutting reorganization as part of the government's compensation plan, which also would set up a commission to monitor the company's management.Įconomy and Trade Minister Banri Kaieda insisted earlier this week that the compensation plan was not a bailout for TEPCO, but rather a way to ensure victims get paid. The government would issue the body special bonds that could be cashed when needed to pay claims. The plan would create an entity that collects money for compensation from TEPCO and other utilities that operate nuclear power plants. The government's plan, which would spread the burden for the crisis, must be referred to parliament for its expected approval. Workers wearing protective suits check the status of the water level indicator at the fuel area inside Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant No.1 reactor on Tuesday.
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