Dismantlement of Reactor

Kansai Electric Power Company on Tuesday decided dismantlement of two nuclear reactors in Mihama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui prefecture and notified the Governor of Fukui, Kazumasa Nishikawa. Japan Atomic Power Company followed KEPCO on one reactor in Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant. Those three were the first applicant of new forty-year rule of nuclear reactor, legislated after the severe accident in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Their decisions were not based on difficulty of controlling nuclear power, but on running cost of the reactors out of date.

Those three reactors stated operation between 1970 and 1972. Each of their outlet power is less than five hundred thousands kilowatts, smaller than newer ones with eight hundred thousands kilowatts or more.

After the accident in Fukushima, the government required every nuclear reactor of strict measures for safety. Old reactors like in Mihama or Tsuruga were having anxiety on deterioration of metal that consisted of reactor body or cable for electricity transmission. It was too costly for those power companies to maintain those small reactors in consideration of fixing problems those reactors would have, even if the exception of twenty-year extension rule would be applied to them. The decision was made based on deliberated calculation of gains and losses.

It will take twenty to thirty years to finish the dismantlement, which will include completely cooling nuclear fuels down, extracting the fuels, sending them to final processing facility and break down the facility for the reactors. The greatest problem so far is there is no such thing of final processing facility in Japan. Spending four years, the government started pilot operation of stocking radioactively contaminated soil in “intermediate stocking facility” in Fukushima without having approval of landowners. While it promised to build final processing facility out of Fukushima, Ministry of Environment had been making no effort for determination of the place so far.

In the context of cost performance as well, KEPCO and some other power companies are considering life extension of seven reactors with high power outlet beyond the limit of forty years. Moreover, they are making attempt of building new reactors or replacement of old reactors. “For the sake of Japan as a whole, replacement is necessary,” told Vice President of KEPCO, Hidemi Toyomatsu. Nuclear power companies believe themselves as indispensable for Japan’s national interest.

It is obvious that nuclear power generation can severely harm national interest of Japan. An accident in nuclear power plant causes evacuation of hundreds of thousands people around, long-term effort for decontamination and compensation, and discredit against the government that has maintained insufficient nuclear policy. Maintaining nuclear power generation is irrelevant.