TEPCO Postpones Restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa N-Reactor

Niigata, Jan. 19 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said Monday that it has decided to put off the restart scheduled for Tuesday of the No. 6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan. The postponement comes after a problem was found during a test on Saturday to remove control rods that suppress nuclear fission reactions in the reactor. TEPCO did not disclose when it now plans to restart the idled reactor, but officials said that it would take one or two days to complete remaining necessary preparations. The company will also review the planned restart date for the reactor’s commercial operations, currently set for Feb. 26. The problem, which has already been resolved, was not a serious issue in terms of safety, according to the company. However, Yutaka Kikukawa, an official at the nuclear plant, told a press conference Monday that the problem was “not something that can be condoned,” adding, “We need to share information and respond sincerely whenever issues are identified.” The company found that an alarm designed to prevent unintended control rod removals did not become active during the test. An investigation revealed an error in the removal prevention function settings. After correcting the settings, the problem was sorted out Sunday. A total of 88 errors were found in the alarm settings, which may have been incorrect since the start of the reactor’s operations in 1996. Engineers are now removing all 205 control rods at the reactor one by one to check for further issues. TEPCO initially planned to spend two days raising the pressure inside the reactor after removing the control rods Tuesday and then start power generation and transmission Jan. 27. The current plan then calls for suspending the reactor to check for abnormalities, bringing it back online again if no problems are found, conducting a final inspection Feb. 26 and putting the unit to commercial operations later that day. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]