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Kansai Electric restarts reactor at Takahama nuclear plant

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My Home-Country is still free of nuclear.

Yes, the generation itself is clean but even the newer/safer plant designs haven't done anything to reduce the generated waste.

My country had a good plan to entomb the waste in concrete inside abandoned salt mines. Still we voted against it.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Irrational fear is no way to live. Nuclear power is the cleanest power available. Let the luddites walk and burn candles.

And asbestos was once lauded, too.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Zichi,

France limits reactor life extensions to 10 years. There are also the reactors with high carbon steel like the Takahama No 2.

France does that, but that is solely a political decision, they were originally talking about 20 years, but the Greens had to be assuaged.

For electrical cables, basic information is lacking regarding the roles of prolonged exposure to moisture, radiation, temperature, mechanical stress, and electrical elds on the properties of the polymeric insulation. The general in uence of the complex residual stress states associated with structural material joining operations on stress corrosion cracking (including radiation-induced stress relaxation and ow localization phenomena) is not well understood. 

Thanks for the report. Looks like a good read. It is, however, concerned with plants being relicenced for operation beyond 60 years, not reclicenced for operation beyond 40 years, which what my post was about

The regulations here are set by the NRA, each country has different standards.

Yup.

Everyone involved with nuclear energy, everyone in the nuclear village had stated for decades, that nuclear energy was safe and that a nuclear disaster could never happen.

Nope.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster which the Diet investigation and others called manmade which TEPCO also agreed it was could have been avoided if the correct safety standards and procedures had been in place and today we wouldn’t be having these conversations. 

Well of course they had to call it manmade. All the blame had to be dropped at TEPCO's feet. If there was more deeper investigations questions would have had to been asked, like "Who was supposed to be monitoring the threat to Tohoku?" and "Was the threat even predictable?"

The was a lack of serious safety standards which I found shocking because I had assumed those dangerous plants like others would be operated at the highest safety standards even beyond those required by regulations. But they were not.

Pretty hard to regulate against a largely unknown threat. It took everyone in Tohoku by surprise. Still, passive hydrogen recombiners should have been mandated - but that is not just a fault of TEPCO. Also, PM Kan should have offered help and not interference.

Not even the simplest of procedures were in place.

For example?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Nuclear power is the cleanest power available

After chernobyle, fukushima and all the accident covered up to date by the nuclear village, there are still people who thinks we do believe this...unbelievable..., it is so clean that it cost trillion to ..."clean" ...definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Nothing changed in Japan, another Fukushima is on the making as long as those nuclear plants are running, just a matter of time.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Tragic mistake.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Irrational fear is no way to live. Nuclear power is the cleanest power available. Let the luddites walk and burn candles.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

I'm opposed to letting future generations of the world receive the burden of nuclear waste disposal, it's just such an impossible and dangerous job....,

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Great news another possible nuclear disaster in the making just waiting to happen if a country cannot clean up safely one disaster why risk any more .

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Probable with many nuclear power plants is they are of old technology, which are very dangerous. Today's newer plants are much safer to operate and better for the enviroment. People have a tendency to freak out when they hear words such as Gun or Nuclear, because they dont understand the how and why. What governments around the world need to do is shut down plants that are pre 1980s but i no that will not happen. Instead they should at least upgrade or replace with newer plants.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Disobedient Judge against national policy are demoted one after another in Japan.

Obedient Judge to government are promoted,and often given "Amakudari".

Though Japan's High Court recognized existence of many unsolved problems,

permitted restart of Nuclear Plants.

One of prediction:Takahama Nuclear disaster will cause at least 180 thousand Evacuees.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Zichi,

The embrittlement problem has been the subject of contuous study since the 50s. Reactors are checked, and test samples are exposed to reactor radiation levels to give data on the progression of embrittlement. Reactors were licenced for 30 to 40 years, but embrittlement data has show it is safe in many cases to relicence reactors for at least 20 more years.

As to the replacement of cabling and pipework, the NRC's "General Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants" gives percentages of 30% cabling replacement and 20% of piping.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

5SpeedRacer5 Today 08:04 am JST

So don't be a resident of Kansai. Everybody in the world lives where they live because they like it, or they just shrug and stay out of inertia, or they are in a prison of one form of another.

Silly argument. Why do people need to move out when they can shut down the NPP?

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Japanese Abe Government and major media instigate fear against Missiles or Nuclear Power of NorthKorea. 

But They never mention risk of attack to domestic Nuclear Plants.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Proof the companies own the government. Nobody wanted this

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Simply put, over half of the population surveyed would not like to see any NPP restarts in Japan. Perhaps a quarter would.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Quote: "Shiga Gov Taizo Mikazuki voiced frustration and urged the national government to reduce its reliance on nuclear power, saying his prefecture would be greatly impacted in the event of an accident."

Interestingly, support for such restarts even seems to be falling throughout Japan.

In a national survey carried out by the Mainichi Newspaper on March 11th & 12th this year were 55% against, 26% for. A similar survey conducted in March of 2016 found 53% against and 30% for, indicating a widening gap.

The source is in Japanese, but you can see the percentage figures even if you do not read Japanese. (Possibly there is an English version somewhere.)

https://mainichi.jp/articles/20170313/k00/00m/010/101000c

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"We will... carefully continue our work with discipline and regard safety as the priority,"

Sorry, but PROFIT has already been stated as the priority, since the only absolute way to guarantee safety would be to decommission the plant -- which is already well past it's declared period of use. KEPCO staff and their families should have to live on the plant grounds if they honestly claim it is safe and will be safe.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Why protest? Why groan and moan?

Why advocate change? Or safeguards? Or accountability?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

555speedracer5

I was born here in Kansai (Kobe), and have been a resident of Osaka/Kobe for the last 16 years. It's not your place to suggest to me to not be a resident then and up and leave.

Actually as a citizen and a resident, ina democracy I have every right to my opinion and my say and I also have the right to reside where I please.

Nuclear power is dangerous regardless of whether or not you are afraid, and I do not want the Kansai plant to be turned on.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Shorter speed, love it leave it. Don't complain or try to change things for the better. Everything is fine as it is and we should all shut up and follow our revered and by all accounts competent leaders.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

"The first reactor at this plant was started in 1974. This reactor (#4) was started in 1984. This reactor is 33 years old and built with a 40 year life span. "

Well, just off the cuff, I will say that I don't see a reason why most of these reactors can't last until 60 or so. What few people here will understand is that utilities will just shut them down when it no longer makes financial sense to run them. That is happening in places in the US, and it is a quiet process. Sometimes it is better to get rid of the old Volvo than to keep painting over the rust. Sometimes a rusty Volvo is all you need.

Some reactors in Japan will never be started up again. Others are in pretty good shape and have obviously not had much wear and tear for the last 6 years. Decommissioning is a huge cost that utilities want to avoid for as long as possible, too, so there are financial reasons for NOT declaring an end to their useful life. Balanced against that are the huge costs of upgrades that need to be made to keep them running safely. A lot of these plants have spent the last 6 years getting expensive upgrades, so I would expect them to be used longer than their rated lifetimes. PG and E shut down their San Onofre plant for financial reasons. It happens.

I have a weird opinion about this. I think cutting off the plants at 40 years is overly harsh, but if utilities ask to extend a plant out to 80 or 100 years, I would almost certainly oppose it. It would be great if these nuclear reactors could be replaced with something else at the same site, such as an LFTR, but even offshore wind would be pretty cool. Nuke power plants have a lot of infrastructure beyond the reactors themselves.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

"As a resident of Kansai, this is not what I wanted to read when I woke up"

So don't be a resident of Kansai. Everybody in the world lives where they live because they like it, or they just shrug and stay out of inertia, or they are in a prison of one form of another. There are countries that do not use nuclear power. Anyone who feels as though their life is endangered has a duty to their family and children to go there. There are even parts of Japan where no nuclear power plants are operating. Fukushima is one such place.

I have personally made that decision. I have weighed the evidence and decided to live in an area with nuclear plants, even a damaged one. I encourage everyone to take this matter seriously and CHOOSE their lifestyle according to their principles. Why protest? Why groan and moan? Vote with your feet! I did. You can too.

What is left unstated in your worldview expressed in the quote above is that a lot of people in Kansai are seeing this as happy news. Things are getting back to normal. The safe reactors there are even safer than they were 6 years ago, and everything is ready to move ahead. Kansai will be producing LESS CO2 and will be spending less to import fossil fuels.

I hasten to add that this is a big step along the way to curing Japan's.... arrhythmia.... and getting back to the pulse of progress it was making in reducing CO2 emissions. For a lot of people, nuclear power has meant "Fukushima", as if that is what this is all about. As reactors start to come back on, people will realize more and more that nuclear is better than coal. It isn't perfect, but it is a step along the path to a better future. That view is so "normal" that it is the prevailing view, the consensus, in countries that use nuclear power around the world.

-14 ( +5 / -19 )

I hope they installed auxiliary distant power lines, Remote Back up batteries, and generators, and new safety valve switches for the cooling pumps. AND regular inspections, cause if this was goes ..it wont be much of Japan left.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Irrational and patently undemocratic. Fission is a dinosaur teechnology that is intrinsically uneconomic without huge public finance support; if they had to shoulder the clean up cost at decommissioning they would close down bankrupt.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Nuclear plants at sea level on a archipelago prone to massive earthquakes and tsunami--what could possibly go wrong. As ever, have yourself an exit strategy.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

I want all the nuclear power plants halted since the 2011 earthquake to restart operations after examinations of safety. It will help TEPCO to pay compensations to the victims of the earthquake. It is not realistic the same scale of the earthquake happen often. We should not allow selfish individuals give damages to the national economy.

-11 ( +4 / -15 )

The first reactor at this plant was started in 1974. This reactor (#4) was started in 1984. This reactor is 33 years old and built with a 40 year life span. Upgrades were made in 2012 after the tsunami that wiped out Fukushima dai-ichi, but it is still the same ageing reactor and faces the same back-up failure as Dai-Ichi. Even a three year old kid only has to get burned once before he stops playing with matches. How many nuclear disasters will it take for Japan to realise they are playing with fire?

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Even though a majority of Japanese do not want nuclear power plants,the governing powers in Japan force this unwanted and uncontrollable energy source on the public.

Democracy is not to be seen!

5 ( +11 / -6 )

So 2017 is the year when the government starts turning the reactors back on.

As a resident of Kansai, this is not what I wanted to read when I woke up.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

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