Tepco likely to decommission Fukushima Daini units

The four reactors at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant in Japan are likely to be decommissioned, the president of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holding Inc (Tepco) today told the governor of Fukushima Prefecture. However, the company has yet to announce an official decision on the fate of the plant, close to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The four reactors at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant in Japan are likely to be decommissioned, the president of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holding Inc (Tepco) today told the governor of Fukushima Prefecture. However, the company has yet to announce an official decision on the fate of the plant, close to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The Fukushima Daini plant (Image: Tepco)

A meeting was held today in Fukushima Prefecture to discuss completion of restoration work of the J-Village national soccer training centre and progress in decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. During the meeting, Tepco president Tomoaki Kobayakawa told prefectural governor Masao Uchibori the company is considering decommissioning Fukushima Daini. He said he hoped the concerns of local residents would be eased if both Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants were decommissioned together.

Kobayakawa said if the status of the Fukushima Daini plant is left uncertain, reconstruction of the area would hampered, the Kyodo news agency reported. Uchibori was quoted as saying, "Decommissioning is strongly desired by Fukushima residents." Postponing decommissioning "will be detrimental to the recovery of the local community," he was reported as saying by the Nikkei.

The Jiji Press news agency said Kobayakawa told Uchibori that Tepco "will start detailed discussions" on the decommissioning of Fukushima Daini.

"The government highly rates Tepco's plan to decommission the Fukushima Daini plant," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was quoted by Jiji Press. "We want the firm to continue talks with people concerned on details of the decommissioning plan, in light of contributing to the promotion of Fukushima's reconstruction."

Fukushima Daini is a four-unit boiling water reactor plant about 11km south of Fukushima Daiichi. Although they experienced an emergency, the units were not damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused the nuclear accident at the neighbouring Fukushima Daiichi plant. The four reactors have since been maintained in cold shutdown with Tepco yet to make an official decision on whether to seek their restart or to declare them shut down.

Tepco also owns the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata prefecture. The company has applied to restart units 6 and 7 of that plant.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News