Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 23 2022

AsiaElec NUCLEAR AsiaElec

Japanese court orders Hokkaido

Electric not to restart Tomari NPP

ASIA JAPAN’S Sapporo District Court has ordered capable of engaging in discussions on safeguards
that the reactors at the Tomari NPP should against earthquakes, tsunami and volcanoes
remain offline. with NRA inspectors.
Hokkaido Electric had been hoping to restart In his ruling, Judge Taniguchi said the power
the plant, as surging fuel costs for thermal power company has “not provided evidence of the
plants have pushed down its revenues, Nuclear safety” of used nuclear fuel stored at the plant
Engineering International reported. and that the plant does not have adequate protec-
Presiding Judge Tetsuya Taniguchi cited tion against a tsunami. He added that the court
safety concerns in the ruling, siding with a had decided in January to terminate the hearing
request by more than 1,000 plaintiffs from the as the utility was not expected to be able to pro-
area who raised concerns there are not sufficient vide evidence for its claims in the foreseeable
safeguards to protect it from natural disasters. future. However, Hokkaido Electric Power said
“A sea wall required under the nuclear regu- it cannot accept the ruling and will “promptly”
lations does not exist,” Taniguchi said. However, file an appeal. The company said in a release that
he dismissed the plaintiffs’ demand for decom- it had repeatedly explained to the court the safety
missioning the plant, saying there is no specific of the plant from both scientific and technical
circumstance that would warrant it. standpoints.
All three units at Tomari NPP have pressur- Earlier, other district courts ordered the sus-
ised water reactors. Units 1 and 2 are 579MWe pension of the Ohi nuclear NPP’s units 3 and 4
and unit 3, which only began commercial oper- units in Fukui Prefecture (May 2014), and Tokai
ation in 2009, is 912MWe. Together they account unit 2 located in Ibaraki Prefecture (March
for about 25% of Hokkaido Electric Power Co’s 2021). However, the order on the Ohi plant was
installed (gross) capacity, and about 40% of its subsequently overturned by a high court and
total generated electricity. the Tokai 2 case is still pending. As of April, 34
The three reactors were taken offline between lawsuits are being fought over nuclear plants at
April 2011 and May 2012 for regular checks district courts and high courts across Japan.
and have remained idle since. Hokkaido Elec- The court ruling on Tomari NPP cannot force
tric applied for a restart in 2013, soon after the plant to halt operations unless it is finalised at
the more stringent reactor regulations were a higher court, but it could impact the ongoing
enforced by the government following the Fuk- assessment by the NRA. The lawsuit was filed
ushima nuclear disaster. The Nuclear Regulation in 2011 and dragged on as Hokkaido Electric
Authority (NRA) has meanwhile been assess- repeatedly failed to argue its case with credible
ing whether the reactors meet the new safety documentation. The court abruptly ended the
standards. hearings in January, despite the utility’s earlier
However, it is not clear when the assessment pledge that it would prove the plant’s safety by
will end as NRA says the utility lacks experts February.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 08•June•2022