There are 14 potentially active fault lines in areas near the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and other nuclear-related facilities, the Japanese government has announced.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced the results of research undertaken by power utilities following the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The 14 faults discovered to be potentially active were previously considered unlikely to cause earthquakes.
According to the research, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake could occur on the potentially active Hatakawa fault line in Fukushima Prefecture, the largest magnitude earthquake estimated.
The agency said the intensity of any quakes from the fault lines would not exceed the level the facilities were designed to withstand. It also said there were no problems with the facilities' quake resistance.
Five of the 14 fault lines are near Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants.
The other nine are near Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tokai No. 2 power plant and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's Tokai reprocessing plant in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The No. 1 reactor of the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture on April 7 sustained a jolt greater than what it was designed to withstand during a strong aftershock from the powerful March 11 earthquake, according to nuclear safety officials.
The finding raises further doubts about the viability of the assumed quake resistance at the Tohoku Electric Power Co. complex, even though it had been shut down safely after the deadly quake last month.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has instructed the regional utility serving northeastern Japan to analyze the impact of such a jolt on key facilities at the three-reactor plant, the officials said.
Three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced a jolt stronger than a worst case projection when hit by Japan's largest-ever earthquake March 11, provisional data by the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. showed Friday.
The data suggest that the intensity of the strongest earthquake projected could have been underestimated. The nuclear safety agency stopped short of describing the finding as a problem but urged the utility to analyze it in detail.
According to the data, the lowest underground levels of the Nos. 2, 3 and 5 reactor buildings faced a seismic movement of 550, 507 and 548 gals in the east-west direction, respectively, and each figure exceeded the projected level.
An official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that exceeding the projection ''does not immediately mean that there is a problem in the safety'' of the buildings because they still have resilience.
How Tax Codes Negatively Distort Our Energy Choices
Tax codes are often written to support national goals, above and beyond mere revenue generation. This is often called "social engineering" although an engineer might not recognize it as such
- By Joseph Somsel -
The U.S. tax code is a marvelous and impressive intellectual structure. As an engineer I took a business class in taxation for corporations while getting my MBA. Engineering is the art of extracting utility from first principles of science and combining it with hard-won practical experience. I found, to my frustration, that taxation is not like that. Taxes are whatever Congress and the IRS say they are, logic or principle be damned.
"The power to tax is the power to destroy."
- Chief Justice John Marshall
How Tax Codes Negatively Distort Our Energy Choices
Tax codes are often written to support national goals, above and beyond mere revenue generation. This is often called "social engineering" although an engineer might not recognize it as such
- By Joseph Somsel -
The U.S. tax code is a marvelous and impressive intellectual structure. As an engineer I took a business class in taxation for corporations while getting my MBA. Engineering is the art of extracting utility from first principles of science and combining it with hard-won practical experience. I found, to my frustration, that taxation is not like that. Taxes are whatever Congress and the IRS say they are, logic or principle be damned.
"The power to tax is the power to destroy."
- Chief Justice John Marshall
Swedish power group Vattenfall [VATN.UL] said on Tuesday an inspection had revealed one broken control rod and cracks in about 30 percent of others at its Forsmark 3 reactor.
Forsmark communications director Claes-Inge Andersson told Reuters that about 100 out of 169 rods had been inspected and cracks had been found in some 25-30 percent of them.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating license for of Entergy Corp's (ETR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 852-megawatt FitzPatrick nuclear station in New York for an additional 20 years, the NRC said Tuesday in a release.
The FitzPatrick plant began commercial operation in 1975. Its license was set to expire in 2014. The renewal extends the license to 2034.
EDF the world's biggest single producer of nuclear energy, signed a formal agreement on Sunday to invest in and operate two new-generation reactors in the southern province of Guangdong.
France's Areva (CEPFi.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) took an unspecified provision for delays to a next-generation nuclear reactor project in Finland on Friday but the setback failed to dent a sharp rise in profits amid fears over high oil prices.
TOKYO, June 10 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) (9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) manually shut the 784-megawatt No.5 nuclear generator at its Fukushima Daiichi plant on Monday for the second time in less than a month due to technical trouble, it said on Tuesday.
TOKYO, April 23 (Reuters) - Electric Power Development Co (9513.T: Quote, Profile, Research), or J-Power, said on Wednesday it had received government approval to construct a 1,383 megawatt nuclear reactor, the company's first, which will use mixed oxide (MOX) fuel.
WINDHOEK, April 21 (Reuters) - Namibia's High Court has ruled as invalid permits allowing Forsys Metals Corp. (FSY.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) to extract groundwater in the Namib Desert, disrupting the Canadian company's plans to construct a uranium mine.
Forsys announced on Feb. 12 that Namibia's agriculture, water and forestry ministry had granted it permits to drill and extract up to 1,000 cubic litres of water per day for the construction of its Valencia mine.
It said the perm
