Nuclear Energy Institute Report on Japan’s Nuclear Reactors, May 14, 2012

Ohi Town Leaders Approve Reactor Restarts

Industry/Regulatory/Political

• Assembly members of the town of Ohi today approved the restart of two nuclear reactors in Fukui prefecture. The assembly last week agreed that restarting the Ohi facilities is necessary to help maintain jobs and the town’s finances. The town was briefed last month by central government and Kansai Electric Power Co. officials on the safety of the facilities’ reopening. Ohi’s mayor has said he will make a decision after considering the assembly’s approval and the opinion of a panel consisting of experts from Fukui prefecture. Once the Ohi reactors are given the go-ahead they will be the first to restart since the Fukushima accident. The last of Japan’s 50 operable reactors shut down for maintenance earlier this month, and government officials have been warning of power shortages this summer without some nuclear reactors in operation.
• The Japanese government last week agreed to take over 51 percent of Tokyo Electric Power Co. by June 27 and inject about $12.5 billion into the company.  Another $10.7 billion will be extended to TEPCO to help compensate people affected by the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The agreement gives the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) voting rights on the TEPCO board. A METI-controlled fund will take a two‐thirds stake in TEPCO after June 27, but with no additional voting rights. The fund is equally owned by the government and by 12 power companies. TEPCO and the government have agreed to a comprehensive restructuring program for the utility, which includes a 20 percent pay cut for employees, termination of some executives and spinning off subsidiaries. TEPCO also intends to ask the government for a 10 percent electricity rate hike for residential users. The utility plans to return to profitability within two years.
• Japan’s National Federation of Small Business Associations last week asked the government to restart the nation’s nuclear reactors to stabilize the power supply. The chairman of the association told Industry Minister Yukio Edano that a large increase in electricity rates would devastate small businesses. Edano said the government, which by June 27 will have a controlling interest in TEPCO, intends to streamline the utility’s management to minimize the impact on electricity rates.
• The ruling Democratic Party of Japan expects parliamentary debate on creating an independent nuclear regulator to conclude by the end of the month, with all parties agreeing that a new Nuclear Regulations Agency should take over the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and be independent of the Ministry of Economy. Opposition parties also are proposing replacing the Nuclear Safety Commission with an independent policy-setting agency.
• NEI has submitted for NRC review draft guidance documents on the industry’s FLEX strategy and on used fuel pool instrumentation and accident response staffing and communications. The documents respond to the NRC’s March 12 orders and information requests to comply with the agency’s post-Fukushima lessons-learned recommendations. NEI said its guidance will be coordinated with other ongoing Fukushima task force activities including seismic and flooding walkdowns and reliable hardened vent implementation. The industry last week urged the NRC to defer any significant action on lower-priority recommendations until work on the higher-priority items has been largely completed. The NRC is to review the industry guidance and issue its own implementation guidance on higher-priority actions by the end of August.

Media Highlights

• A survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun says six of 34 heads of local government prefectures and municipalities that host Japanese nuclear energy facilities favor restarting the reactors, while five say they are against bringing them back online. The other 23 say they will base their decision on local leaders’ and residents’ approval of the restart of Kansai Electric’s Ohi plant.
• The Washington Post reports on changes in TEPCO’s senior management as a result of the company’s restructuring. Kazuhiko Shimokoube, a lawyer and corporate restructuring expert, has been named the company’s chairman, while TEPCO’s managing director, Naomi Hirose, was named president. The Wall Street Journal reports that Hirose intends to restart TEPCO’s operable reactors to help return the utility to profitability. The company today posted a $9.7 billion loss for the 2011 fiscal year that ended March 31, the BBC said.

New Products

• NEI’s Safety First website has posted two stories from last week’s Nuclear Energy Overview on the industry’s Fukushima-related activities—one on NEI’s draft guidance for its FLEX strategy and the other on industry discussions with the NRC on its lower-priority post-Fukushima activities.

Upcoming Meetings

• NEI and NRC steering committees meet May 18 to discuss the guidance and schedules for implementing the orders and information requests the agency issued March 12 to address the Fukushima task force recommendations. The NRC is holding several other meetings on Fukushima-related issues this week—details may be found here.
• The National Academy of Sciences’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board will discuss a report by the American Nuclear Society’s special committee on Fukushima at a meeting May 30.