Press Release
Notice on Petition for Inspection of Imported MOX Fuel Assemblies to be Used at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, Reactor No. 4 (for second production)
February 28, 2011
Chubu Electric Power Co.,Inc.
This is to announce that since production of 30 rods of the uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel has completed at the MELOX plant in France, which is a part of 60 rods (second production) to be used at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, Reactor No. 4, Chubu Electric Power, as of today, filed a petition for inspection of imported fuel assemblies with the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry with attached documents relating to inspection results and quality assurance initiative results for these 30 rods as based on Article 78-2 of the Electric Utility Law enforcement regulations.
[Background ]
- Notice on Petition for Inspection of Imported MOX Fuel Assemblies to be Used at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, Reactor No. 4 (for second production)
Attachment
Attachment1
Overview of Petition for Inspection of Imported MOX Fuel Assemblies (for second production)
The procedure for petition for inspection of imported fuel assemblies is as follows: pre-production plans, policies and so on are written up at the time of filing, then when production of the fuel assemblies is complete, an application is made that reflects the results of inspection and quality assurance initiatives during production.
The main content of the current application is as follows.
1. Inspection results
In the inspection of fuel sheath tubes and other components as well as pellets, fuel rods and fuel assemblies, we found that these items provided the quality required to operate safely and stably, including those items unique to MOX fuel, and these results have been added to the petition.
2. Quality assurance initiative results
The check of MOX fuel production status by our staff member stationed at MELOX plant during production, audits of production processes by a separately dispatched audit team, and other checks indicated there were no problems with quality assurance initiatives, and so the following items were added to the petition.
- Inspection of each production process and check of production status as performed by staff member stationed at MELOX plant
- Audit of each production process by audit team (process audit)
- Check of Chubu Electric's auditing by third-party organization (Bureau Veritas), etc.