Nuke Info Tokyo No. 128 (January/February 2009)

The Future of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Unit 7
The bureaucratic processes are in motion to restart Unit 7 of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. The Japanese fiscal year ends on March 31. We expect there will be lots of maneuvering until then.

Replacement of Hamaoka Reactors 1 and 2
On December 22, the Board of Directors of Chubu Electric Power Company decided that it would terminate operations at Hamaoka Reactors No. 1 and No. 2 and replace them with a new Reactor No. 6.

Problems with the Production of Glass Canisters at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant
“The problems are fundamental. They will take a long time to solve and I predict that it will be necessary for equipment to be replaced.”
Professor Michiaki Furukawa

Nuclear Plants and Facilities in East Asia and Japan
Maps current as at January 2009.

JCO Criticality Accident: Book Review
A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness is a translation of a Japanese book based on an NHK television documentary.

The Committee to Consider Pluthermal and Saga Prefecture’s Next 100 Years
Although Genkai-3 is scheduled to become the first nuclear power plant in Japan to implement pluthermal, many people are continuing to raise concerns about issues of safety, economics, and whether pluthermal is necessary in the first place.News Watch
—Pluthermal Developments
—MOX Transports from Europe in First Half of 2009
—Sunameri Whales Appeal for Reversal of Permission to Reclaim Sea
—Application to Build 3rd Reactor at Sendai
—Uranium Enrichment Plant: Last Cascade Barely Functioning
—Areva and Mitsubishi Form New Nuclear Fuel Company
—TEPCO Considers Building Reactors Overseas