Chubu Electric Wants to Restart Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in July

Aaaahhhh please don't....

From Kyodo News English (4/28/2011, full article by subscription):

Chubu Electric Power Co. plans to restart a nuclear reactor at its Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture after the present regular checkups in July, the utility said Thursday despite mounting local concerns about the plant's safety amid a nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture.

Chubu Electric President Akihisa Mizuno said the restart of the No. 3 reactor is contingent on local consent, but Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu indicated again his intention not to approve the restart in the immediate future.

''Measures against tsunami waves are insufficient. We think that it would be difficult to restart it in July,'' Kawakatsu told reporters in Shizuoka, adding whether to approve the restart will depend on ''new anti-tsunami measures.''

Chubu Electric's Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant is dubbed by the opponents as "the world's most dangerous nuclear power plant". The plant sit right in the center of the expected Tokai earthquake zone, and the plant itself sits on earthquake faults.

Measures against tsunami waves being insufficient is irrelevant, although they are indeed insufficient (Hamaoka's protection against tsunami is 10 to 15-meter sand berms). As it sits on the earthquake faults and on the soft rock and in the dead geographical center of the expected Tokai earthquake zone, it will be a miracle if the plant remains intact when the big one hits.

Shizuoka Governor Kawakatsu, an Oxford PhD in economic history, seems now to be making it hard for Chubu to re-start the operation after the protests by the local municipalities. But back in March, he was all for re-starting as soon as the then-current emergency measures were satisfactorily carried out. What were the measures? Emergency safety drills. (For more, see my March 24 post.)

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