November 16, 2011
5:16 pm EDT
Industry/Regulatory/Political
- Shikoku Electric Power Co. has submitted the results of first-phase stress tests for its Ikata Unit 3 reactor to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The results show Ikata 3 could withstand an earthquake with ground acceleration 1.9 times as strong as the reactor’s design basis and a 47-foot tsunami, four times its design basis. Shikoku Electric is the second utility to submit a stress test result after Kansai Electric did so for its Ohi Unit 3 reactor Oct. 28. Read More »
November 14, 2011
6:01 pm EDT
Industry/Regulatory/Political
- The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) last Friday publicly released a detailed timeline of events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The report, prepared as part of the industry’s integrated response to the Japan events, was delivered to U.S. industry executives, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, members of Congress, stakeholders and the news media. Tony Pietrangelo, NEI’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer, said, “We are sharing this report with the widest possible audience because it is important that we all work from the same set of facts in determining the appropriate response.” Read More »
November 9, 2011
1:47 pm EDT
Plant Status
- Sustained nuclear fission did not occur at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility last week, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said, confirming earlier reports from Tokyo Electric Power Co. Plant employees detected a trace amount of radioactive xenon-135 gas in the reactor 2 containment vessel last week, which led to initial concerns there might have been an ongoing nuclear reaction in the vessel. After investigation, TEPCO said the xenon was produced through spontaneous fission, a form of radioactive decay. NISA said the density of the xenon did not change when a boric acid solution was injected into the reactor, demonstrating that criticality was not occurring.
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November 7, 2011
5:48 pm EDT
Plant Status
- Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported Sunday that it has begun removing radioactive cesium from the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 2. TEPCO said this is a preparatory step to desalinating the pool water to avert corrosion of metallic components. After the March 11 accident, TEPCO used seawater to cool the fuel in the reactors and the pools. The company has been purifying and recycling water since July to cool the reactors, but it has now begun to purify the water in the used fuel pools. TEPCO reported that it has already begun desalinating reactor 4’s pool.
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November 4, 2011
3:06 pm EDT
Plant Status
- The trace of radioactive xenon found earlier this week in reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi is too small to have resulted from a criticality incident in the reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has concluded. The company said yesterday that the small amount of xenon-135 detected in a gas sample taken from the reactor 2 containment vessel resulted from the spontaneous fission of curium-242 and -244, which are found in nuclear fuel. Spontaneous fission is a form of radioactive decay that does not lead to a chain reaction. A criticality event would have resulted in higher levels of xenon, TEPCO said. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency will evaluate the results.
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