J-Power applies for safety check of Oma nuclear plant under construction in Aomori

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Electric Power Development Co. (J-Power) applied Dec. 16 for safety screenings for its Oma nuclear power plant, currently under construction in Aomori Prefecture.

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J-Power applies for safety check of Oma nuclear plant under construction in Aomori
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Electric Power Development Co. (J-Power) applied Dec. 16 for safety screenings for its Oma nuclear power plant, currently under construction in Aomori Prefecture.

It marks the first screening application submitted to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for a nuclear plant under construction since new safety standards were introduced in July 2013.

J-Power estimates that the screening process will take about one year and hopes to complete construction of the plant by 2020 for the start of operations in fiscal 2021.

The Oma plant is the first nuclear power plant to be constructed and operated by J-Power, a private utility company set up through capital contributed by the central government and regional utility companies.

The Oma plant will be the world's first fully MOX nuclear facility, where only mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, consisting of plutonium and uranium, is used. The MOX fuel is created by using plutonium produced through the processing of spent nuclear fuel.

At conventional pluthermal nuclear plants, at most one-third of the nuclear fuel is MOX fuel, with conventional uranium fuel making up the rest.

Compared with uranium fuel, it is more difficult for control rods to suppress nuclear chain reactions when MOX fuel is used, and the NRA will be focusing on whether adequate measures are being considered to deal with that factor.

Construction began in 2008, and the plant is currently 37.6 percent complete.

After the new screening standards were set, J-Power raised its projected earthquake preparedness scale from 450 gals to 650 gals.

Measured with seismographs, a gal is a unit of acceleration that measures the extent of an earthquake's seismic waves. Earthquakes with high levels of magnitude also have high gal measurements.

The anti-seismic capabilities of equipment at the plant were based on that higher projection.

Construction work on safety measures will be implemented based on the screening results.

The Hakodate city government in Hokkaido filed a lawsuit in April in the Tokyo District Court that named J-Power and the central government as defendants and called for an injunction against construction work.

Hakodate lies across the Tsugaru Strait from Aomori Prefecture and is located within a 30-kilometer radius of the Oma plant.

Construction is also proceeding at two other nuclear plants in Higashidori, Aomori Prefecture, and Shimane Prefecture, but applications for safety screenings have not yet been submitted for those two projects.

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