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@Nancy here it is: www.tepco.co.jp

Utility eyes LNG for Hamaoka decision
Kyodo
Monday, May 9, 2011

NAGOYA — Chubu Electric Power Co. was planning to hold another extraordinary board meeting Monday to determine the fate of its controversial Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture as its chairman flew to the Middle East to shop for LNG.

The power plant, which was built close to a known fault line, was urged to close Friday by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is concerned another catastrophic quake — the widely feared "big one" — could produce another nuclear disaster south of Tokyo.

After an inconclusive board meeting Saturday, Toshio Mita, chairman of the utility, which serves the central Chubu region around Nagoya, departed for Qatar to procure supplies of liquefied natural gas to run its thermal power plants, officials said.

In the meantime, other officials continued brainstorming ways to keep power supply stable this summer if the utility decides to grant the request, they said. The prime minister's request is not legally binding.

On Sunday, Kan urged the company to cooperate and emphasized that he had no intention of pursuing the suspension of any other nuclear power plant aside from Hamaoka.

At issue is whether Chubu Electric can secure enough generation capacity for the summer by rebooting its suspended thermal power plants, and whether it can procure enough fuel to do it at a time when Tokyo Electric Power Co., the nation's biggest utility, is trying to do the very same thing to deal with the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

Mita will meet with Qatari Energy and Industry Minister Mohammed Saleh Al-Sada and the president of the state-run LNG company Qatargas about the utility's needs, officials said.

The utility is also examining if it can be held responsible by shareholders if its earnings suffer after accepting the government's request, which is not enforceable under current law, the officials said. While refusing the highly publicized request appears difficult, some within the company have objections, they said.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku separately defended Kan's request by emphasizing the high likelihood of the Hamaoka plant being hit by the powerful quake, which is expected to strike within 30 years, and questioning its preparedness for an earthquake or tsunami. "The likelihood of a quake measuring intensity 6 (on the Japanese seismic scale of 7), or bigger, in the area of the Hamaoka plant within 30 years is higher than 80 percent. Other nuclear plants are less than 10 percent likely, with most less than 1 percent," Sengoku said.
search.japantimes.co.jp

@estacion Oh I bet that meeting in Quatar is going to be unpleasant. The brokers or whomever their chairman is going to try to buy LNG from. They know Chubu is in a difficult position, I am sure the price on LNG just went way up. :-(

@marie rich thanks! Those are some big movements when your talking about a building basement.

@Nancy Always happy to be of any service! I'm the dumbest one in the group. Lol

@smoss we can't find a concrete answer on how much MOX is at Fukushima if TEPCO's PR statements are any indication the GoJ doesn't know how much MOX was there either.

@Nancy The blurb came from the link that won't post, and is actually a reasonable analysis: International Panel on Fissile Materials, entitled "Japan's Spent Fuel and Plutonium Management Challenges"

14 wikileaked US State Dept. cables about nukes in Japan, apparently there are many more to come: www.wikileaks.ch

A summary of the cables: online.wsj.com

@all Following a timeline: 8 Feb. 2001: TEPCO announces freeze on power plant construction (including thermal power plants in Fukushima Pref.)
26 Feb. 2001: Governor states that “loading of MOX fuel is not possible at the moment”
29 March 2001: TEPCO abandons May implementation
29 Aug. 2002: TEPCO fabrication of inspection data revealed
24 Sep. 2002: Governor retracts 'prior consent'
20 January 2010: application process recommenced with request for prior consent
6 August 2010 prior consent granted (see above) Areva/Melox
Contract signed for 32 assemblies *****No date for fuel shipment given***** Fuel loaded 8/21/2010 Reactor started with MOX 9/18/2010

@smoss so the big question is what did they do to get that consent put back in place? IIRC there was a governor that ended up in jail on trumped up charges. Did a new governor give the approval? What would it be about running mox that was worth ruining someone's career and the extensive PR campaign they did with the locals? There had to have been some major motivator to go through all of this vs. just running uranium.

@all MOX fuel has been stored at Fukushima I -3 since January 2000. www.cnic.jp 1

@Nancy I think the motivator was that they were running low on capacity, and had all these old, underpowered reactors, and they could amp them up a little and maybe eke another 5-10 years out of them.

Besides, they need them to generate the power required to keep it all cool and circulating.

@radioguy IIRC does MOX have higher output of power? I know it is harder on the reactors, they had to have them approved. Trying to figure out if the additional power results in a profit. I suppose over time vs. running on uranium or shutting down.

I think it is used mostly because it is cheaper, it is reprocessed fuel. It behaves a bit differently then the usual fuel though.

"Goto said that the MOX also has a lower melting point than the other reactor fuels. The Fukushima facility began using MOX fuel in September 2010, becoming the third plant in Japan to do so, according to MOX supplier AREVA." dcbureau.org

@Nancy @radioguy NPFM "Japan's Spent Fuel and Plutonium Management Challenges"

@Nancy It ups th epower output. I don't remember the numbers, but I remember thinking . o O (Wouldn't they love to MOX up R1 to up that 400Mw to closer to the BWR-4's.)

@Nancy - thanks! and Holyshit

But now we are safe from terrorists, they never put their lives at risk!.