Press Release

Press Release

Submission of Guidelines and Implementation Plan for Measures to Increase the Seismic Safety of Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station Unit No. 2

August 17, 2012
Chubu Electric Power Co.,Inc.

Based on instructions*1 received from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Chubu Electric Power has compiled guidelines and implementation plans for measures to increase the seismic safety of Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station Unit No. 2, and presented them to NISA today.

1. Content of NISA directive

An evaluation of the seismic safety of Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station Unit No. 2 (reported on March 29, 2012), conducted on the basis of an instruction from NISA, used the basic earthquake ground motion set for seismic safety evaluations of Unit No. 3 and other units; however, Unit No. 3 and the other units were designed with consideration of stronger ground motion than Unit No. 2, and have also been subject to construction work to increase their earthquake resistance margin.

Despite the fact that Unit No. 2 is at the stage of decommissioning, a large number of spent fuel rods are stored in the spent fuel pool, and the structural soundness of the unit is therefore as important as that of Unit No. 3 and the other units.

The Cabinet Office is presently conducting a study of a potential major earthquake in the Nankai Trough, but we have been instructed by NISA to implement measures to quickly increase the seismic safety of Unit No. 2, without waiting for the results of this study.

In addition, NISA instructed us to submit our guidelines and implementation plans for these measures by August 17 this year.

2 Guidelines for measures / Implementation procedures

As a measure to increase the seismic safety of Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station Unit No. 2, we will conduct seismic safety evaluations of all the equipment and facilities indicated in the previous seismic safety evaluation report using the target earthquake ground motion employed in the improvement of the seismic safety margin of Unit No. 3 and the other units.

Based on the results of the evaluation, we will work rapidly to implement the necessary measures to increase the margin of safety for Unit No. 2.

The table like implementation procedures

*1 Directive of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency: Concerning Measures to Increase the Seismic Safety of Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station Unit No. 2 (Instructions), issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on August 03, 2012(08.01.2012 NISA Number 03)

*2 Depending on the state of progress, the procedure may be reconsidered. In addition, appropriate responses will be made as necessary to the findings of the study of a potential major earthquake in the Nankai Trough presently being conducted by the Cabinet Office.

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