2nd Japan nuke unit resumes power supply
Source: Agencies |
July 22, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
KANSAI Electric Power Co said its 1,180-megawatt No. 4 reactor at its Ohi nuclear plant resumed supplying electricity to the grid yesterday, Japan's second nuclear unit to regain power since last year's Fukushima crisis led to the shutdown of all units.
The move came three days after the unit was restarted, and the reactor is set to begin full-capacity power generation around July 25-28.
Japan ended two months without nuclear power on July 5, when the Ohi No. 3 unit resumed power output for the first time since a nationwide safety shutdown that followed a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 that crippled the Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima nuclear complex.
Japan had idled the last of its working reactors in early May, leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970.
All but two of the country's 50 nuclear reactors have been offline for checks amid concerns about safety, and the gap is being met by firing up costly fossil fuel units and through energy-saving steps.
Japan's health ministry, meanwhile, said it would investigate reports that workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant were urged by a subcontractor to place lead around radiation detection devices in order to stay under a safety threshold for exposure.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported yesterday that an executive from Build-Up, a subcontrator to plant owner Tokyo Electric Power, told workers to cover the devices called dosimeters when working in high-radiation areas.
Dosimeters can be worn as badges or carried as devices around the size of a smartphone to detect radiation.
Nine workers wore the lead plates around the devices once after the executive's plea, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing the subcontractor's president.
Japanese law has set an annual radiation exposure safety threshold of 50 millisieverts for nuclear plant workers during normal operations.
But a massive earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant in March 2011 led to a breach of containment structures that released radiation, keeping large areas around the plant off limits more than a year later.
A Tokyo Electric Power spokesman said yesterday that the company was aware from a separate contractor that Build-Up made the lead shields, but that they were never used at the nuclear plant.
Build-Up could not be reached for comment.
The move came three days after the unit was restarted, and the reactor is set to begin full-capacity power generation around July 25-28.
Japan ended two months without nuclear power on July 5, when the Ohi No. 3 unit resumed power output for the first time since a nationwide safety shutdown that followed a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 that crippled the Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima nuclear complex.
Japan had idled the last of its working reactors in early May, leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970.
All but two of the country's 50 nuclear reactors have been offline for checks amid concerns about safety, and the gap is being met by firing up costly fossil fuel units and through energy-saving steps.
Japan's health ministry, meanwhile, said it would investigate reports that workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant were urged by a subcontractor to place lead around radiation detection devices in order to stay under a safety threshold for exposure.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported yesterday that an executive from Build-Up, a subcontrator to plant owner Tokyo Electric Power, told workers to cover the devices called dosimeters when working in high-radiation areas.
Dosimeters can be worn as badges or carried as devices around the size of a smartphone to detect radiation.
Nine workers wore the lead plates around the devices once after the executive's plea, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing the subcontractor's president.
Japanese law has set an annual radiation exposure safety threshold of 50 millisieverts for nuclear plant workers during normal operations.
But a massive earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant in March 2011 led to a breach of containment structures that released radiation, keeping large areas around the plant off limits more than a year later.
A Tokyo Electric Power spokesman said yesterday that the company was aware from a separate contractor that Build-Up made the lead shields, but that they were never used at the nuclear plant.
Build-Up could not be reached for comment.
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