Utilities have no choice but to put plans on hold for the construction of new nuclear reactors amid a chorus of calls for reinforced safety steps in the face of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Utilities have no choice but to put plans on hold for the construction of new nuclear reactors amid a chorus of calls for reinforced safety steps in the face of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The power industry fears that this could significantly push back projects to build 14 new reactors. Three are already under construction in Aomori and Shimane prefectures.
Eleven reactors are planned for Fukushima, Aomori, Shizuoka, Yamaguchi and Fukui prefectures.
As the crisis escalated at the four hobbled reactors in Fukushima Prefecture after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, representatives of communities that would host the new nuclear reactors are demanding additional safety measures be put in place in case another natural disaster of this magnitude strikes.
In a written request, Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa called on the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to strengthen the oversight of the nuclear industry to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants.
"The disaster derived from an inadequate response by the power company and the central government in terms of facility and staff," said the written request handed in on March 17. "We will urge the central government to make sure the reactors' ability to 'cool' and 'contain' will never be compromised at any event."
The request took note of the disaster at the Fukushima plant triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Fukui Prefecture is home to 13 commercial reactors, the most in Japan.
Nishikawa said at a news conference on the same day that unless the government meets the prefecture's demand, he will not give the green light to the construction of two more reactors at the Tsuruga nuclear plant operated by Japan Atomic Power Co.
They are scheduled to go into operation in 2017 and 2018.
He also signaled the same for the planned use of mixed oxides, which use uranium and plutonium as fuel. The plan is controversial because plutonium is much more dangerous than conventional uranium fuel rods.
Heeding growing concern about the safety of reactors, Chubu Electric Power Co. announced Wednesday it was postponing by one year its plans to build a sixth reactor at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.
Construction was expected to begin in fiscal 2015. The delay is intended to give priority to strengthening anti-tsunami measures for the existing reactors.
But Chubu Electric could be forced to delay its plans even further as officials in Omaezaki, a coastal city hosting the plant, are increasingly alarmed by the serious breach at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
"We should review everything," Omaezaki Mayor Shigeo Ishihara said. "(Construction of the sixth reactor) is not something we should talk about now."
The reactors at the Hamaoka plant are widely considered among the most vulnerable because the plant is in an area projected to be struck by a huge quake in the future.
Chugoku Electric Power Co. has halted reclamation work for its two planned reactors in Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, that it began last month in response to increasing alarm expressed by local residents.
The power company said the reactors are designed to withstand a magnitude-8.6 temblor.
But this is clearly insufficient in light of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that hit two weeks ago.
"The suspension of the work will be prolonged," Yamaguchi Governor Sekinari Nii said. "The magnitude of the recent quake was well beyond levels projected."
Chugoku Electric also said it will work on anti-tsunami measures for the existing two reactors at the Shimane plant in Shimane Prefecture and a third now under construction there.
The operator planned to put the No. 3 reactor into operation in March 2012.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled Fukushima plant, will likely now encounter fierce opposition to its nuclear power plant projects from the proposed host communities.
But at a news conference Monday, Sakae Muto, executive vice president of TEPCO, sidestepped the issue of safety of nuclear reactors.
Asked if he thinks the myth of nuclear reactors' safety has collapsed, Muto said, "We will need to have many discussions based on the recent incident."
Kyushu Electric Power Co. said it does not plan any changes to its project to start building a third reactor at its Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture in March 2014.
"A change is not something we can decide alone," said Toshio Manabe, president of Kyushu Electric. "We will act in accordance with the government's policy."
Despite the scope of the crisis at the Fukushima plant, business circles are keen to push nuclear power generation.
"I don't think nuclear power policy is at a crossroads," said Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), a powerful business lobby.