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Companies Face Long Wait to Restart Nuclear Plants in Japan

July 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

TOKYO — Japanese nuclear operators applied Monday to restart reactors under rules drawn up after the Fukushima disaster, but early approval is unlikely as a more independent regulator strives to show a skeptical public it is serious about safety.

The governing Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and the utilities are eager to get reactors running again, with the reining in of soaring fuel costs a key part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic plan.

But the Liberal Democrats must tread carefully to avoid compromising the independence of the new regulator, which is struggling to build credibility with a public whose faith in nuclear power was shaken after meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority has said it will take at least six months to review nuclear plants, after which the consent of communities that are host to reactors is needed.

All but two of Japan’s 50 reactors have been closed in the wake of the disaster in March 2011, which forced 160,000 people from their homes, many of whom are unlikely to be able to return for decades.

Nuclear power accounted for about a third of Japan’s electricity supply before the Fukushima catastrophe, the worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine in 1986.

The disaster, caused by an earthquake and tsunami that knocked out power and cooling functions at the Fukushima plant, highlighted lax oversight of the powerful energy companies.

Polls show that a majority of Japanese want to end reliance on atomic power and are opposed to restarting the plants. But the Liberal Democrats argue that nuclear energy will cut fuel costs that have pushed the country into a record trade deficit and will help return unprofitable utilities to profit.

Hokkaido Electric Power, Kansai Electric Power, Shikoku Electric Power and Kyushu Electric Power applied to get 10 reactors restarted, the regulator said.

Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said Thursday that elevating safety culture to international standards would “take a long time.”

The regulator has said that its review of Japan’s nuclear fleet may take more than three years.

The difficulty the energy companies face in getting approvals was highlighted as Tokyo Electric held back from applying to get units started at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility after the local authorities rebuffed the company’s plans.

The equipment improvements the reactors need to comply with the new rules could cost the industry as much as $12 billion, according to one estimate.

About 80 Nuclear Regulation Authority staff members have been divided into three groups for the safety checks, with another group overseeing earthquake resistance.

Japan is set to be without nuclear power again in September, for the first time since June 2012, as its only active reactors, Kansai Electric’s Ohi No. 3 and No. 4 units, are scheduled to enter planned maintenance shutdowns.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/business/energy-environment/companies-face-long-wait-to-restart-nuclear-plants-in-japan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Britain’s Nuclear Plans at a Critical Point

March 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

But little has gone according to plan so far in this ambitious project, already more than four years behind schedule. Although envisioned as a big bet on Britain’s clean-energy future, the project has been bogged down in months of dickering between the British government and EDF Energy, the French state-controlled power company that is supposed to oversee construction and eventually operate the two plants in question.

EDF Energy, which already runs most of Britain’s aging fleet of nine nuclear power plants, is threatening to walk away from the project unless the government promises to guarantee a price for the electricity that is roughly double the current rate. With tens of billions of pounds and thousands of jobs riding on the deal, the issue might ultimately be decided at the highest reaches of the British and, possibly, French governments.

“This isn’t a decision about the price for one power station,” said Dieter Helm, a professor of energy policy at the University of Oxford. “This is about whether we want a nuclear industry or don’t we. That is the question. Only the politicians can decide.”

EDF Energy executives declined to comment for this article.

Mark Malbas, a spokesman for Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, which is leading the talks, declined to discuss the negotiations in detail, other than to say that they were continuing and that “we are focused on getting a fair deal for the consumer.”

Britain had been counting on nuclear energy as a big part of the effort to meet its commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by the mid-2020s. Originally, planners had called for five or so new nuclear plants to be up and running by 2025. But with even the first of those new plants not yet under construction, the risk is that as Britain closes down its older nuclear stations — which generate about 20 percent of the country’s electricity, at very low cost — there will not be new ones to replace them.

“It will be a big setback for British energy policy if these negotiations break down,” said Tim Yeo, a conservative who is chairman of the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee.

Britain’s nuclear ambitions already received a big setback last year, when two big German utilities, RWE and E.On, decided not to proceed with construction of a plant that had been planned for Wales. The companies cited the costs and the uncertainties of getting a return on their investment.

The EDF plan calls for a plant with two nuclear reactors to be built on a headland called Hinkley Point overlooking the Severn Estuary in southwest England. Already, earthmovers in recent months have been carving away at a hillside there. If the green light is given, that soil will be trucked into the next valley as part of a gargantuan project that is expected to create 25,000 construction jobs.

The site — 175 hectares, or about 430 acres — is just south of a 1970s-vintage nuclear station known as Hinkley Point B, which is operated by EDF. And looming over the fields are the eerie-looking boxy shells of two even older, 1960s-era reactors that have been shut down for more than a decade but still employ a couple of hundred people in the decommissioning.

EDF executives say they have already spent £1 billion, or about $1.5 billion, getting to the “shovel-ready” point for the new plants. After years of study, Britain’s nuclear and environmental regulators have approved designs, and about 70 percent of the necessary contracts are already lined up and ready to be signed. If and when the new plant, Hinkley Point C, comes fully online, it will supply about 7 percent of Britain’s electricity. That would be enough power to meet the needs of five million homes, with the added benefit of no carbon emissions.

On Tuesday, Edward Davey, Britain’s energy and climate change minister, is expected to announce the final decision on whether Hinkley Point construction can begin. It would be a moot announcement, though, if EDF does not agree to proceed.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 15, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the last name of an Investec analyst. He is Harold Hutchinson, not Hopkinson.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/business/energy-environment/britains-nuclear-plans-at-a-critical-point.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Japan to Begin Restarting Nuclear Plants, Premier Says

March 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

In a speech to Parliament, Mr. Abe pledged to restart nuclear plants that pass the tougher guidelines, which are expected to be adopted by a new independent watchdog agency, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, as early as July. He did not specify when any of the reactors might resume operation, and news reports have suggested that it might take months or even years to make the expensive upgrades needed to meet the new safety standards.

Still, by making the promise in front of the Diet, Mr. Abe indicated in the strongest way yet that he planned to move ahead with a campaign pledge to reverse his predecessor’s hopes that Japan would begin weaning itself off nuclear energy.

The speech came as the World Health Organization published a comprehensive, two-year analysis on the health risks associated with the 2011 disaster suggesting that the chance of getting certain types of cancers had increased slightly among children exposed to the highest doses of radioactivity. But the report said that there would most likely be no observable increase in cancer rates in the wider Japanese population.

The study’s authors warned, however, that their assessment was based on limited scientific knowledge; much of the data on health effects from radiation is based on acute exposures like those that followed the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and not chronic, low-level exposure. Near the Fukushima plant, some densely populated areas are expected to remain contaminated with relatively low levels of radioactive materials for decades.

The government’s initial reaction to the report — saying it overestimated the risks by failing to fully take into account government evacuations of citizens — suggested that officials did not see it as a help for Mr. Abe’s plans. Antinuclear sentiments in Japan are now strong, and the results could feed fears of any increased risks.

The question of when, and whether, to restart the plants has dogged the country for two years, as politicians and ordinary Japanese try to balance their fears of a moribund economy when oil and gas costs have already hurt the balance of trade and worries over another environmental crisis, especially if the industry is not well regulated.

Lax regulation and a cozy relationship between the nuclear industry and the government helped make Japan vulnerable to the Fukushima accident, the world’s second-worst nuclear plant disaster.

All of Japan’s 50 operable nuclear reactors were shut down following the March 2011 triple meltdown, which spewed radiation across northern Japan after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out vital cooling systems. Two were later restarted as an emergency measure to avert power shortages in the heavily populated region that includes the cities of Osaka and Kyoto.

Leaders from the previous Democratic Party government had vowed to slowly phase out nuclear power by the 2030s in favor of cleaner alternatives like solar and wind power. But Mr. Abe, who took power after his Liberal Democratic Party won national elections in December on a platform of economic revitalization, said the phaseout would keep Japan from the cheap electricity it needs to compete economically.

On Thursday, Mr. Abe said that Japan had learned the need for tougher safety standards, and he said the new standards would be enforced “without compromise.”

Mr. Abe also said Japan would continue seeking energy alternatives to reduce its dependence on nuclear power.

In January, the new nuclear agency released a list of its proposed safety regulations, which include higher walls to protect against tsunamis, additional backup power sources for the cooling systems and construction of specially hardened earthquake-proof command centers. The rules surprised many for their toughness, though skeptics worry that industry supporters in the government will manage to get around the regulations.

According to a report by the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, none of Japan’s 16 undamaged commercial nuclear plants would pass the new standards. The agency has said the new guidelines will be finalized and put in place by July 18.

The W.H.O. study focused on cancer incidence, not deaths, and some of the cancers listed are serious but have good rates of survival.

According to the study, girls exposed as infants to radioactivity in the most contaminated regions of Fukushima Prefecture faced a 70 percent higher risk of developing thyroid cancer than would be expected normally. The report pointed out, however, that the normal risk of thyroid cancer was just 0.75 percent, and that the additional lifetime risk would raise that to 1.25 percent.

Girls exposed to radioactivity as infants in the most heavily contaminated areas also had a 6 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer, and a 4 percent higher risk of developing cancers that cause tumors. Meanwhile, boys exposed as infants had a 7 percent higher chance of developing leukemia.

The study also said that about a third of the emergency workers who remained to try to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi plant were estimated to have a slightly increased risk of developing leukemia, thyroid cancer and other types of cancer.

The analysis was based on data available as of September 2011, and takes into account airborne contamination as well as contaminated food, water and other sources of contamination, the WH.O. said.

Some local government officials in Fukushima criticized the report for identifying specific areas and their associated exposure estimates. Radiation exposure is a sensitive topic in Japan, where victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings often experienced discrimination in marriage, for example, because of feared health effects.

“I feel extreme anger over this excessive analysis, which will plunge more residents into fear,” Mayor Norio Kanno of Iitate Village, told N.H.K. Iitate was one of the areas identified in the W.H.O. report as heavily contaminated. Villagers there are among tens of thousands of evacuees who have not been able to return home.

Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting from Washington.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/world/asia/japan-to-begin-restarting-idled-nuclear-plants.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Japanese Island’s Activists Resist Nuclear Industry’s Allure

August 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The move, while reminiscent of a Greenpeace action, was highly unusual in understated Japan. But it was emblematic of the islanders’ nearly three-decade fight against the powers arrayed against them — their own government and the nuclear industry it has championed.

“The sea is our livelihood,” said Ms. Takebayashi, 68, whose family has fished for sea bream, mackerel and other local delicacies for generations. “We will never let anyone sully it.”

The story of Iwaishima’s battle has become something of a touchstone in Japan, especially among those who feel uneasy in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for having accepted decades of government assurances that nuclear power was safe. And because the plans to build the plant are closer to approval than any others in Japan, many antinuclear activists see the island’s struggle as their best hope of ending the country’s reliance on nuclear energy.

If the plans are scuttled, they believe, the decision is likely to set a precedent that will end the construction of nuclear plants in Japan.

Iwaishima’s tale of resistance started in 1982. The town of Kaminoseki — made up of Iwaishima, two islets and the Murotsu peninsula off Japan’s main island, Honshu — was one of many backwaters that seemed ripe for the revitalization that the nuclear industry promised.

With no industry to speak of beyond small-scale farming and fisheries, the town struggled to keep up with Japan’s rapid changes in the postwar era.

So in 1982, when the Chugoku Electric Power Company first raised the idea of building a nuclear power plant on the peninsula’s deserted tip, many residents were enthusiastic.

Chugoku Electric wooed them, paying for lavish “study tours” to nuclear reactors around the country — trips that included stops at hot springs, according to residents who participated. It also offered local fishing cooperatives compensation for the loss of fishing grounds that would be filled in to build the 3.5-million-square-foot plant.

“The town needed the money,” said Katsumi Inoue, 67, who led a movement supporting the plant. “Kaminoseki was shrinking. We needed to grow.”

But Iwaishima, an island of about 1,000 people just two and a half miles from the planned site, was not convinced. The island’s fishing cooperative voted overwhelmingly against the plans. On a chilly morning in January 1983, almost 400 islanders cut short their New Year’s festivities to stage a protest march, the men in their fishing boots and the women in bonnets, through alleyways lined with stone walls.

It was the first of more than 1,000 protests the islanders would carry out, some of them involving scenes of high drama to rival Ms. Takebayashi’s 2009 protest.

In one protest this year, a small armada of fishermen raced out to sea to head off the utility’s vessels. “No nuclear power plant here!” they shouted, their boats’ engines in full throttle. “This sea does not belong to you.”

Not even the residents of Iwaishima are exactly sure why they were willing to challenge the establishment when so many of their compatriots were not. The best they can venture is that their livelihoods depend on the sea too much to take a chance, and that if disaster struck, it would be much harder to flee.

Beyond that, many of the island’s men had, over time, left for work elsewhere. Some of them worked in nuclear plants, and they returned home with worrisome stories. They would become part of the front line in the island’s struggle.

Kazuo Isobe, 88, was one of them. He left the island in Japan’s postwar chaos and initially worked at construction sites. But in the 1970s, he started work at the newly opened Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

He worked to clean up radioactive buildup at the plant’s No. 2 reactor, using rags while sweltering in a protective suit.

His radiation records from the time, which he provided, show he received about 850 millirems of radiation during just three months of work — about the amount of radiation allowed for nuclear workers in a year, and more than eight times as much as the limit set for civilians.

When Mr. Isobe heard, on a trip back to Iwaishima in 1982, that Chugoku Electric planned to build a nuclear plant just across the water, he was “terrified.”

“I had seen with my own eyes that radiation is hard to contain,” Mr. Isobe said. “I told everyone in the neighborhood not to agree to anything they said.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/world/asia/28nuclear.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Task Force Recommends Improvements for Nuclear Plants

July 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The task force recommendations were to be released Wednesday, but a copy of the summary was obtained Tuesday evening by The New York Times.

It lays out numerous areas for improvement, based on the experience in Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. American plants need to plan for simultaneous accidents at adjacent reactors, something they have never done, the task force said.

They also need to make sure that the “hardened vents” added to reactors over the years to prevent hydrogen explosions would actually work in an emergency, the report said, and determine where hydrogen, which is produced by overheated fuel, might flow. Japanese operators had trouble using the vents, resulting in the explosions in the secondary containments.

Some of the improvements the industry voluntarily adopted after the Sept. 11 attacks have not been regularly inspected or maintained, the report said. Those should be inspected using the more “formal” procedures that are in place for the plants’ original safety equipment, the task force recommended.

And plants should have a better way to add water to spent fuel pools and monitor conditions in those pools, the task force said.

Fukushima focused new attention on spent fuel pools, which usually have more radioactive materials in them than the reactors do. In desperation, the Japanese used water cannons to refill them.

Even now, the task force wrote, there was uncertainty about what happened at Fukushima, and information was “unavailable, unreliable or ambiguous because of damage to equipment at the site and because the Japanese response continues to focus on actions to stop the ongoing radioactive release.”

The five-member commission is scheduled to meet next week to consider the work of the task force, which it considers a quick, first look at the Fukushima disaster’s relevance to reactors in the United States.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c69f27c51604a2969758878bdc24701d

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Officials in Germany Support Closing 7 Nuclear Plants

May 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

FRANKFURT — Seven nuclear power plants in Germany that were shut down after the Fukushima disaster in Japan are likely to be closed permanently after a decision Friday by state environment ministers.

A government agency warned, however, that without the seven plants Germany could have trouble coping with a failure in some part of the national power grid.

The shutdown “brings networks to the limit of capacity,” the Federal Network Agency, which regulates utilities, said in a report published Friday.

Meeting in Wernigerode, in eastern Germany, the state environment ministers recommended that the seven plants be closed. The decision rests with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her cabinet, which will consider the issue on June 6.

Mrs. Merkel is under heavy political pressure to speed Germany’s exit from nuclear power after public alarm about the nuclear disaster in Japan cost her party votes in recent elections. In late March, a few weeks after the tsunami and earthquake hit Japan and led to the crisis at Fukushima, the Green Party, representing environmentalists, drove Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democrats from power in Baden-Württemberg, a state the conservatives had dominated for decades.

The Green Party is pushing for Germany to close all of its plants by 2020 if not sooner. “An exit during this decade is very doable,” Franz Untersteller, the environment minister in Baden-Württemberg, said in a statement Friday.

But businesses have expressed concern that the price of electricity could rise because Germany does not yet have enough other sources of energy to compensate.

The Federal Network Agency, in its report Friday, said Germany had transformed from energy exporter to energy importer since the nuclear plants were shut down.

When weather is ideal, Germany can generate almost as much power from wind and solar energy as 28 nuclear reactors, the agency said. The renewable energy fluctuates significantly, however, often requiring German utilities to buy power from other countries and creating problems for neighbors that had depended on German power.

The Federal Network Agency acknowledged that so far there had been no serious power failures since the seven plants were closed.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/business/global/28nuclear.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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