Old Nuclear Reactors To Be Closed in Hamaoka, Japan

December 23, 2008

greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan
BUSINESS & POLITICS (news)

The nuclear power plant debate in Japan has suddenly reached a new
level with the announcement that Chubu Electric will close its two
oldest reactors at Hamaoka, in Shizuoka prefecture near Tokyo. These reactors have not been up and running for a long time due to fears
about earthquakes in the region, and the electricity company also
announced that instead, they will replace them with a new, bigger
reactor at the same location. Local residents have tried to get all
five reactors shut down permanently. To echo John's view about coal
mines: the best nuclear power plant is a closed nuclear power plant. If
things were only that simple.

In Japan, many of the country's 50 or so nuclear power plants are
getting old and replacing them will be very expensive. To replace the
oldest reactors, Chubu Electric Power Co. will register special losses
of about 155 billion yen for the business year ending March 2009, but
the company has no clear plan for how to properly dismantle or tear
down the old reactors. Decommissioning work on the reactors, which are
currently not operating, would be completed around 2035, according to
Mainichi.

That is more than 25 years from now...

Asahi notes in an editorial today that what is worrisome is that there
are no firmly established procedures for shutting down an old reactor:

Decommissioning a 1.1-million-kilowatt reactor produces 500,000 to
550,000 tons of waste. While it contains no high-level radioactive
waste, about 3 percent of the matter is polluted with radioactivity.
Some sticky questions remain unsolved, such as where the waste
materials from the reactor and its peripheral equipment should be
buried.
It is vital to work out a viable plan for decommissioning reactors
before the nuclear retirement era comes into full swing.

I like Chubu Electric's project to help local residents reduce their
electricity consumption. They have been working with local governments
and Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO) to promote high-efficiency water heaters that
conserve energy and reduce CO2 emissions.

Families who install Eco Cute high-efficiency water heaters and
"Sho-ene Navi" (energy saving navigation meters) in homes are being
reimbursed for part of their costs, and tose receiving reimbursements
will submit their energy savings data as part of the project.

Energy is not a simple question for any country, but Japan needs to do
much more to convince people that its old nuclear reactors are safe,
and to reduce electricity use.

CNIC: Earthquakes and Nuclear Safety in Japan