Nuclear watchdog approves restart of Miyagi reactor hit by 2011 tsunami

Slowly but surely they have to turn these back on.  Economics and climate concerns all push in that direction.

Nuclear watch dog? Haven't really done a good job. Thinking......

marcelito, the costs of the extra LNG that Japan has had to buy to cover the shuttered nuclear reactors runs to between 10 and 15 trillion yen per year, 30 to 45 times the total Tohoku Electric will spend.

The tsunami topped the seawall last time around, I seem to remember, so this time they have made it 95 feet high in order to counter possible 75 foot waves. Good luck, and I mean it.

Yeah, sure. What could possible go wrong?

Over 3 billion dollars...how long do they want to keep this aging plant going to just recoup all the costs ....

Its not about recouping costs, its about profit! These reactors are cash cows for the investors, and they cant turn off the public spigot!

The UN should step up, and not just for the sake of Japan, but the world. They need to, if necessary, threaten sanctions against Japan, if they DONT let outside inspectors certify the safety of these reactors first!

Do it for the world!

T

Patricia YarrowToday 06:00 pm JST

Yeah, sure. What could possible go wrong?

Well, under the worst possible conditions, nothing went wrong.

The Fukushima Daichi Plant was an example of how not to build a nuclear generation plant in an earthquake/tsunami area.

The Onagawa Plant was an example of how to build a nuclear generation plant in an earthquake/tsunami area.

Through and after the disaster it operated as required and is a model of sound design, construction and management.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onagawa_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Gary

marcelito, the costs of the extra LNG that Japan has had to buy to cover the shuttered nuclear reactors runs to between 10 and 15 trillion yen per year, 30 to 45 times the total Tohoku Electric will spend.

Also, a recent research paper found that over 20,000 additional deaths have resulted from the increased use of fossil fuels in Japan since the reactors were all shut down, mostly due to increased air pollution.

Without Nuclear power Japan imports more fossil fuels and spends more which is not good for the environment.

Security wise importing large amounts of oil is also dumb and a potentional security risk which many don't like to talk about.

Remember the two ships owned by Japan who got hit with missiles in the middle east.

It can happen and it did happen.

Japan's nuclear watchdog? I think that should be, Japan's nuclear lapdog. This is an agency created and employed by the nuclear power ministry of Japan. Would anybody be daft enough to expect a different outcome?

340 billion yen spent for refitting which, as pointed out, will take at least 10 years to pay off. Add to that all the costs of running the facility since 2011 (did they lay anyone off?) and what you have in 2030 is a very old reactor that you still have to decommission and no return on investment.

Hokkaido has huge wind resources and plenty of space for windmills. It makes essentially all of its energy burning coal! That 340 billion should have been used building wind power in Hokkaido and a better connection to the Tohoku Electric grid to supply its surplus to. Britain, Holland and Germany have managed this, why cannot Japan?

I disagree with this endless building of higher walls. Reactors should be designed to be walk.away safe. Modern Gen 4 designs are that, the outdated designs they talking about here are not,

All I know is that I absolutely loathe everything nuclear. Nuclear waste. I don’t know anything about it except it seems to be common knowledge that it’s a mess to dispose of.

I call BS on that ..20,000 additional deaths in Japan since 2011 due to Japan,s use of extra imported LNG / fossil fuels... who funded the researchers " for this paper?

You can call BS on anything you want. But doing so based on zero evidence shows you have a massive bias.

The underlying paper is from The IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn Germany funded by the Deutsche Post Foundation.

Bet it was some research tank / university expert with a grant that can be traced to N power interests as usual.

And you would be wrong, as usual.

Nuclear waste. I don’t know anything about it except it seems to be common knowledge that it’s a mess to dispose of.

And common knowledge, as is often the case, is wrong.

GyGene:

>    All I know is that I absolutely loathe everything nuclear.

So you loath the sun? Because that is a giant nuclear reactor.

Also, a recent research paper found that over 20,000 additional deaths have resulted from the increased use of fossil fuels in Japan since the reactors were all shut down, mostly due to increased air pollution.

Provide links when you make statements of facts like this. Or do you expect people to believe everything you write?

Pro nuclear here.

I have not noticed any difference in air quality.

Provide links when you make statements of facts like this. Or do you expect people to believe everything you write?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/10/31/shutting-down-japans-nuclear-plants-after-fukushima-was-a-bad-idea/?fbclid=IwAR0lk6rYmIcvoX4FInR7DKno75aiiP2XJZlR5QNxIDj36NW5LQO93fADG30#1258ea1d19a4

http://ftp.iza.org/dp12687.pdf

Now you will complain everytime anyone, including those you agree with, doesn't provide a link to facts to support any claim they make, right?

Now you will complain everytime anyone, including those you agree with, doesn't provide a link to facts to support any claim they make, right?

Nice try, but when someone makes an off the wall statement like you did, it helps to have something to back them up!

marcellito,

But then you are comparing LNG imports for the whole country , not just Tohoku Electric which as the article says spends 35 billion per year...so thats 10 years operation for them. If we were to compare apples with apples we would need the cost of restarts for all the idled plants vs the total cost of Japans imports.....then again as zichi rightly points out, that doesnt even begin to describe the picture of the total clean up fo Daiichi mess, future decomissioning and storage etc....as we all know, the taxpayer will be hit for those.... profits to the power companies and future expenses to the taxpayer...what a sweet deal for the N village.

What are you taking about? The article says that Tohoku Electric expects to pay 340 billion yen on the countermeasures.

marcellito,

I call BS on that ..20,000 additional deaths in Japan since 2011 due to Japan,s use of extra imported LNG / fossil fuels... who funded the researchers " for this paper? 

Very conspiracy-theoresque response there.

There have been a few papers on the issue of avoidable deaths from knee-jerk government reactions to the Fukushima accident:

"Be Cautious with the Precautionary Principle: Evidence from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident", Matthew Neidell, Columbia University; University of Chicago; Shinsuke Uchida, Shinshu University; University of Maryland; Marcella Veronesi, University of Verona, Institute of Labor Economics Discussion Paper No. 12687

Summary: Rise in electricity prices after the NPP shutdowns lead to increased mortality during cold weather - they suggest 1,280 extras deaths over the 4 years 2011-2014. Note, this is a preliminary discussion paper.

"Implications of energy and CO2 emission changes in Japan and Germany after the Fukushima accident", Pushker A. Kharecha, Makiko Sato, Columbia University Earth Institute, Energy Policy Vol. 132

Summary: Post-Fukushima CO2 emission rises in Japan and Germany were limited despite major cuts in nuclear power. This was due to record-high renewable power levels and lower/steady total energy use. However large amounts of emissions and deaths were avoidable if coal and gas were reduced instead of nuclear. These avoidable impacts will make it harder to meet near-term national mitigation targets. Major energy users should reduce fossil fuels instead of or before nuclear. 

Bet it was some research tank / university expert with a grant that can be traced to N power interests as usual.

Nope.

Zichi,

Star-viking

"marcelito, the costs of the extra LNG that Japan has had to buy to cover the shuttered nuclear reactors runs to between 10 and 15 trillion yen per year, 30 to 45 times the total Tohoku Electric will spend."

Compared with the eventual costs of dealing with the nuclear disaster site will be more than ¥100 trillion not including the costs of the nuclear waste storage for tens of thousands of years.

Which has nothing to do with Onagawa.

Or the costs to decommission 24 reactors , ¥60 billion each and again does not include the cost of nuclear waste storage.

Nuclear plant operators do have decommissioning funds that should, at least, offset some of that cost. There is also the increasing use of SAFSTOR to consider: closing the reactor concerned, defuelling it, and then keeping it under observation as the radioactivity of contaminate parts reduces over the 60 years of the programme.

In future, the available reactors can only generate about 15% of total power. About half prior to the 3/11 disasters. Renewable energy could be upped to supply 30% and coal burning replaced by LNG. But the power companies all signed long term contracts for Australia coal. 

Disregarding the fact that we want to end all fossil fuel use to avoid disastrous climate change, there is no guarantee that prices will not rise for LNG.

The No2 reactor became operational in 1995 so in 2011 was 16 years and now technically, 23 years. 825 MW capacity with about 60% for 60% of the time. That means the reactor generates 495MW for 14 months out of the two year reactor cycle. Then shuts for about six months for refuelling.

¥20/kWh. 495000 kWh x ¥20¥-costs =¥6 = ¥14. profits for the cycle = ¥7 million pre tax.

Where you are getting your stats? From the IAEA*, Onagawa 2 has supplied 81.16 TWh over its lifetime, with an availability of 48.6 % - however this includes the shutdown years - at pre-shutdown the availability was 73.9% - 588 MW. Per year that is 5153 GWh, or 5,153,017,440 kWh.

At ¥20/kWh, that's ¥103,060,348,800 - 100 billion yen per year, neglecting costs.

Working with your stats:

495 MW for 14 months is 495,000 kW x 10220 hours - 5,058,900,000 kWh

Multiplying that by ¥20/kWh gives 101,178,000,000 yen - 101 billion yen per year

So, our basic stats match.

3 years and 4 months of Onagawa 2 operating would pay off the costs of the updates - and also reduce fossil fuel costs enormously.

marcelito,

Great news!

@Star viking - What are you taking about? The article says that Tohoku Electric expects to pay 340 billion yen on the countermeasures.

What Im talking about is that TE expects to pay 340 billion , and it pays 35 billion per year in additional fuel replacement cost as the article states ( vis below )....so thats roughly 10 years of the extra fuel costs saved just to recover the countermeasures spending as it is today , that what Im talking about...

Tohoku Electric applied for a safety screening for the No. 2 reactor in December 2013, and its restart would save the utility 35 billion yen annually in fuel costs.

If you check my latest post above, you'll see that Tohoku Electric can be expected to get ¥100 billion per year from Onagawa 2's electricity - probably 70 billion with costs removed (according to Zichi's calcs). So, making 70 billion yen, and saving 35 billion yen in fuel costs is 105 billion yen per year - they could, if they wanted to, pay for the countermeasures in a little over 3 years.

@Don Palmer The underlying paper is from The IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn Germany funded by the Deutsche Post Foundation."

Well....on the first page of the paper you quote it has a disclaimer that states -* Any opinions in this paper are those of the authors and not IZA and IZA takes no institutional policy positions****....so the paper is not IZA official opinion paper but merely as it says "preliminary work circulated to encourage discussion " by the authors ....also containing another nice disclaimer - "citation of such paper should account for its provisional character*** " which of course you conveniently don,t mention.

Tellingly, , the author researchers "*acknowledge support from Ministry of Health ,Labour and Welfare of Japan ***"** in providing figures for the research and also " *acknowledge financial support from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science,** ( a quasi government agency aka amakudari hotbed that used to be under auspices of Ministry of Education,Culture,, Sports , Science and Technology till 2003 and*

*Murata Science Foundation**, ( run by Murata Electronics, a major J-Inc player company ).*

marcelito, this is conspiracy-theory level stuff. The paper has a proper disclaimer, and we will have to wait to see how the final peer-reviewed paper is.

Of course there is support from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: where do you think the health stats come from.

And as for your animus towards the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, do a Google Scholar search for it, with the words "Grant-in-aid" added: around 129,000 results. All, nasty stuff like:

Physarum solver: A biologically inspired method of road-network navigation

Mutations affecting components of the SWI/SNF complex cause Coffin-Siris syndrome

The use of induced pluripotent stem cells in drug development

The fact is, academic research is supported by a range of organisations, using data from other organisations, with the intent to increase knowledge.

zichi, quote: I think the highest level of the Tohoku tsunami was 46 meters.

46 meters is over 150 feet! But that was in angles of coves and inlets where the tsunami waves were funnelled and squeezed up.

Not if, but WHEN it happens again, hope these guys don't try the "How could we have known?" crap again.