{"id":6469,"date":"2023-02-07T18:47:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T09:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/?p=6469"},"modified":"2023-02-07T18:47:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T09:47:53","slug":"news-watch-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/?p=6469","title":{"rendered":"News Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Injunction to Halt Mihama Unit 3 Operation Rejected<\/strong><\/p>\n

Osaka District Court handed down a decision on December 20, 2022 rejecting a request for an injunction against operation of the Unit 3 reactor of the Mihama Nuclear Power Station (PWR, 340 MW). Nine citizens of Fukui and nearby prefectures had filed a complaint seeking to halt the operation of this superannuated nuclear power plant (NPP). It was the first in Japan exceeding 40 years in service (with 52 years having elapsed since it began operating) to be restarted. At a hearing held on May 23 last year, the court also requested Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kanden) to submit written documentation to the effect that they would wait for a decision to be issued before restarting the reactor, where operations had been halted, pending the establishment of facilities for responding to specific severe accidents (the so-called \u201canti-terrorism facilities\u201d). However, Kanden announced on June 10 that it would restart the reactor two months ahead of schedule, and on August 30, they went ahead and restarted it. They explained their action as necessary to meet higher power demand in summer, but that was merely the official excuse, with the real purpose of the earlier restart suspected of being to put pressure on the court by requiring it to shut down an operating NPP rather than an idled one.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs had decided not to bring up the NPP\u2019s superannuation directly, as it would have taken time and they wanted an early decision. What they emphasized most strongly was that an active fault had been determined to exist in extremely close proximity to the Mihama NPP. The criteria for facility approval by Japan\u2019s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) require particular consideration to cases in which earthquakes could be centered in extremely close proximity to NPP grounds. Kanden argued that \u201cearthquakes with epicenters in extremely close proximity to NPP grounds\u201d meant within 250 meters of their grounds, and the NRA approved Kanden\u2019s application, not considering it a case of extremely close proximity to the Mihama plant.<\/p>\n

The court did not determine how many kilometers away would constitute \u201cextremely close proximity\u201d either, but rejected the injunction on the basis that \u201cit cannot be deemed unreasonable\u201d for the NRA to have determined that the fault was not in close proximity.<\/p>\n

To protest the restart of Mihama Unit 3, Ishiji Masaru and his fellow plaintiffs have stood in front of the Mihama NPP\u2019s PR building every Sunday morning. Immediately behind that is the Shiraki-Nyu Fault with Mihama Unit 3 directly in view. One can get the sense that if the Shiraki-Nyu Fault moves, if will affect the Mihama NPP. At a press conference on the decision to reject the injunction, Ishiji implored the judge to try standing there and see for himself.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the decision fully upholds the controversial emergency measures and evacuation plans for Mihama Town\u2019s residents, which has them evacuating to Oi Town (with a lower population than Mihama). The decision ended with the declaration that there were no deficiencies in these evacuation plans.<\/p>\n

The legal counsel issued a statement criticizing the decision, saying \u201cAlthough the court took five months to make this decision, it is short on content. It seems that the tragedy of the Fukushima accident has slipped the judge\u2019s mind. We strongly protest this decision that is tantamount to abandoning the role of the judiciary.\u201d They concluded, \u201cThe superannuated nuclear power plant should be halted, and we will continue our battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs filed an appeal with Osaka High Court on January 4, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Continuing Delays for Expected Completion of Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant<\/strong><\/p>\n

On December 26, 2022, Japan Nuclear Fuel, Limited (JNFL) announced a new completion date for the spent fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho Village, Aomori Prefecture, which is to be completed \u201cas early as possible in the first half of fiscal 2024.\u201d JNFL had previously announced on September 7, 2022 that the completion would be delayed beyond the previously estimated first half of fiscal 2022, but had not stated precisely when it was set for. Including this new delay, there have been 27 delays in total. JNFL President Masuda Naohiro visited the Aomori Prefectural Office and Vice-president Sendo Toshikazu visited the Rokkasho Village Office on December 6 to report the new target date for completion. President Masuda held a press conference, where he was asked when \u201cas early as possible\u201d would be. He replied, \u201caround April to June of 2024.\u201d He estimated that approval of detailed plans would take about a year or so, after which the operator\u2019s inspection and confirmation prior to use would take about four to seven months. He declared his determination to \u201ccontinue to endeavor to achieve an even earlier completion, utilizing resources from all over Japan and placing the highest priory on safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

JNFL had split its detailed plans into two sets when applying for approval. The first of these received approval from the NRA on December 21, and President Masuda boasted that it was \u201ca great step toward completion,\u201d but it had taken two years from the date of application to its approval. At the \u201cReview Meeting on Compliance with the New Regulatory Requirements for Nuclear Fuel Facilities\u201d on November 15, the NRA Secretariat\u2019s Director of Safety Regulation noted, \u201cI wonder how many decades longer we will have to take to work through all the problems in these applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, finally, the first set of plans has been approved. The application for the second and final set was filed on December 26, the same day the construction plans were revised. It is difficult to imagine approval of the second set, covering about 25,000 remaining devices and pieces of equipment, proceeding within JNFL\u2019s estimated \u201cyear or so.\u201d A 28th<\/sup> delay is simply inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

MOX Fuel Arrives at Takahama NPP<\/strong><\/p>\n

The transport ship carrying MOX fuel produced by the French company Orano Cycle, which departed from Cherbourg Harbor, France, on September 17, 2022, followed the Cape of Good Hope\/Southwest Pacific Route, arrived at the exclusive harbor of Kanden\u2019s Takahama NPP in Takahama Town, Fukui Prefecture on November 22. On the open sea it traveled together with a dummy ship, the Pacific Heron, but in the harbor, the real transport vessel, \u201cPacific Egret\u201d passed in front of protesters.<\/p>\n

Since 1999, when data on MOX fuel manufactured by BFNL of the UK was found to have been fabricated, Kanden has turned to France for fuel production. Big problems have arisen at the Melox plant in France, however, with lumpy plutonium powder and a decreased production capacity, resulting in only 16 assemblies arriving in November 2021, which was half of the expected 32 assemblies. The arrival of the other 16 assemblies was delayed by a year. No schedule has been established for the production of the 32 assemblies in Kanden\u2019s order that have yet to be delivered.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

JAEA to Provide Basic Design for Poland\u2019s HTGR <\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) Director Koguchi Masanori signed a revised agreement on November 22, 2022 adding basic designs for a research reactor to the existing R&D cooperation agreement (Implementation Arrangement for Cooperation in R&D in the Field of HTGR (high-temperature gas-cooled reactor) Technology: concluded Sept. 2019) with Professor Krzysztof Kurek, Director General of Poland\u2019s National Centre for Nuclear Research.<\/p>\n

Poland\u2019s government expects the HTGR to be used as a heat source for the chemical industry, planning to introduce a test reactor (thermal output 30 MW) in the latter half of the 2020s, and a commercial reactor (thermal output 165 MW) in the 2030s.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

TEPCO Criminal Proceeding: Tokyo High Court\u2019s Unjust Verdict <\/strong><\/p>\n

In its ruling on January 18, 2023, Tokyo High Court upheld the initial decision in the TEPCO criminal proceeding, finding the defendants, three former Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) executives, not guilty. What differs between this and the Tokyo District Court decision on July 13, 2022 on the shareholder representative action<\/a> (where the executives were ordered to pay 13 trillion yen in compensation) is said to be that in criminal trials, which impose criminal penalties on individuals, the presumption of innocence applies as a principle, so strict proof is required. However, Tokyo High Court did not recognize the judge\u2019s questioning of witnesses and on-site verification, delivering the verdict after only three hearings. This ruling on such a basis does nothing to alleviate the impression that rather than strictness, the conclusion had been decided from the start.<\/p>\n

The Fukushima nuclear power plant prosecution team and criminal litigation support team\u2019s counsel issued a statement pointing out, \u201cThe verdict… in our view, did not cite research results based on the long-term assessment by the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion, and in claiming that there was no basis for a \u2018realistic possibility\u2019 of stopping the nuclear power plant\u2019s operation, it denied the necessity itself for tsunami countermeasures. Seeking a \u2018realistic possibility\u2019 regarding scientific knowledge upon which accident countermeasures are based is a clear mistake, given the current state of seismology. We think verdicts of this kind excuse the failure to take needed steps to prevent accidents, and constitute dangerous reasoning which is laying the ground for future nuclear accidents to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Injunction to Halt Mihama Unit 3 Operation Rejected Osaka District Court handed down a decision on December 20, 2022 rejecting a request for an injunction against operation of the Unit 3 reactor of the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,40,41,42,6,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activefault","category-international","category-lawsuit","category-mox","category-news","category-rokkasho"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6485,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6469\/revisions\/6485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}