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J-Power on Tuesday applied to the Nuclear Regulation Authority to start safety screening of its uncompleted nuclear power plant in Oma, Aomori Prefecture.
Construction of the plant began in 2008, and was suspended after the March 11, 2001 disaster. Building work resumed in October 2012, even as all Japan's viable reactors were shut down amid safety concerns in the aftermath of the triple meltdowns at Fukushima caused by a huge earthquake and the resulting tsunami in March 2011.
J-Power said construction is likely to take another five years and hopes to have the plant online in 2021.
However, a city in Hokkaido last summer sought a court injunction to prevent the nuclear plant from being completed. Toshiki Kudo, mayor of Hakodate, asked the Tokyo District Court for an indefinite freeze on construction of the Oma nuclear plant.
Kudo says J-Power -- a formerly state-owned electricity wholesaler -- and Japan as a whole, have failed to learn the lessons from the crisis and are not doing enough to ensure communities near the power station are safe.
"After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the government expanded the zone expected to be severely affected in the case of a nuclear accident from eight to 10 kilometers to 30 kilometers around the site," Kudo said on the city's official website.
"But construction (at the Oma site) resumed without any explanation to, or consent from, Hakodate city or the southern Hokkaido region," he said, referring to the northern island where the city is located.
Hakodate, on the southern coast of Hokkaido, sits partially within the 30-kilometer radius of the Oma nuclear plant site across the Tsugaru strait. Oma is at the northern tip of the neighboring main Honshu island.
Kudo said the risk from Oma would increase because the operator plans to progressively increase the use of MOX -- a blend of uranium and plutonium -- until it is the sole fuel.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Thursday that safety screening procedures are likely to take at least a year.
© Japan Today/AFP
5 Comments
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avigator
Do not even go there, earthquakes and volcanoes will not let it happen.
citizen2000
More sign that the certification is just a paper work formality and will be expedited, LDP at hard work here !
Star-viking
klausdorth,
In the case of the Oma Plant, I think what the safety screening is to make sure the planned building meets the new safety regulations. J-Power probably doesn't want to have to modify the plant after completion - making modifications while constructing it would be much more sensible.
StormR
klausdorth wouldn't it not be to have each part or stage of construction checked and certified as it is built.