May 31, 2011

Monthly Press Conference

Today, President Kawai made monthly press conference in Aomori City and talked about the "Report on emergency safety measures for Reprocessing Plant," "Report to the national government based on 'Reporting the necessary information for re-deliberation regarding whether considerations on seismic design are necessary, considering large plate shifts were detected due to the Great East Japan Earthquake,'" "Current state of the Reprocessing Plant," and "Support for Fukushima Prefecture."

Report on emergency safety measures for Reprocessing Plant

  • Yesterday, JNFL reported to the national government on emergency safety measures for when Reprocessing Plant lose all A/C power sources. JNFL carried out confirmation yet again, as the current focus was not on "it couldn't happen," but "assume it will happen, and what actions will be taken when it happens"
  • Until now, JNFL has layered several measures such as redundant emergency diesel generators, but from now on JNFL will realistically consider response if all emergenc diesel generators are rendered inoperable.
  • JNFL deliberated on long-term measures for the further enhancement of safety measures regarding specific issues that would arise in case of emergency, such as "Won't several power source trucks be necessary? How much time will be required to connect these trucks? Will these trucks truly be able to run if the roads on the site are damaged due to a large-scale earthquake?"
  • JNFL will undertake steady efforts which clarify what must be done immediately and what must be done despite the length of time required.
  • As an example of these efforts, JNFL created a scenario assuming the roads on the site were heavily damaged due to an earthquake, making it difficult for power source trucks to reach the emergency power source building where they would be supplying power. In accordance with this scenario, construction work to install an approximately 500m power cable between the fuel tank area and the emergency power source building was completed on May 25.
  • JNFL will be installing compressors with engines during June, which will be able to maintain hydrogen accumulation prevention function. This will make said function possible, even during shutdown of all three compressors that normally send compressed air to the high level waste fluid tanks and other tanks to prevent hydrogen accumulation in the tanks.
  • In the future, these emergency safety measures will be given top priority amongst all of JNFL's efforts, and they will be confirmed and evaluated by the national government.

Report to the national government based on "Reporting the necessary information for re-deliberation regarding whether considerations on seismic design are necessary, considering large plate shifts were detected due to the Great East Japan Earthquake"

  • On April 28, the national government issued an directive to "Report the necessary information for re-deliberation regarding whether considerations on seismic design are necessary, considering large plate shifts were detected due to the Great East Japan Earthquake." The government was notified of the results this afternoon.
  • The contents of this report compiled the evaluation results of the faults for which seismic design considerations had been deemed unnecessary in the seismic safety evaluation report. This evaluation was conducted as seismic back-checking and deemed feasible by the government.

Current state of the Reprocessing Plant

  • JNFL has been performing crane inspections and putting everything in order for vitrification cells. From today, A-line connection equipment replacement work will be started.
  • These replacements are scheduled for completion within June. This means the completion all of the equipment improvement work scheduled before pre-service inspection.
  • In the future, JNFL will perform mandated inspection of equipment such as safety steam boilers, progressing steadily forward while giving safety the highest priority.

Support for Fukushima Prefecture

  • JNFL has been dispatching workers to Fukushima Prefecture to perform screening and environmental monitoring. JNFL has also performed analysis of puddle water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant turbine buildings twice at Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant.
  • Furthermore, due to request from TEPCO for technical support on processing highly contaminated puddle water, JNFL will continue support which utilizes the experience and knowledge gained during commissioning at Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant.
  • Currently, both domestic and overseas companies are performing design, manufacturing, installation, and operation preparation of puddle water processing equipment. They were distributed roles in this work by TEPCO. JNFL will offer technical support for this process overall.
  • Specifically, from the processing equipment planning to stable operation periods, JNFL will conduct technical evaluation of facility planning and design, review of commissioning/operation planning, operation procedures, and operation results. JNFL will also deliberate on problem response measures.
  • Beyond the stable operation period, JNFL plans on performing actions such as operation parameter evaluation based on work site conditions. JNFL is currently making steady efforts towards processing commencement in mid-June.
  • The support structure is comprised of approximately 30 members, most of whom have reprocessing plant commissioning experience. These teams have been allocated to Fukushima, Tokyo, and Rokkasho. Since May 23, the Fukushima team began support activities for on-site commissioning.
  • Currently, TEPCO is diligently working towards the cold shutdown of reactors. JNFL is planning to perform the maximum amount of support possible in the field of chemical processing, particularly for reprocessing procedures, which is JNFL field of expertise.