So what’s going on at Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant? This is the biggest nuclear power plant in the world and the combined capacity of its seven reactors is 7,965 MW. But like EPR, the biggest reactor in the world, it is also seriously crippled.
Black smoke rises from a burning electrical transformer near one of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear reactors.
© AP/PA Photos / Japan Coast Guard, HO
The site has been closed since July 2007 when an offshore earthquake led the government to suspect that the seven so-called earthquake resistant reactors weren’t all that earthquake resistant after all. The plant suffered an onsite fire that took a long time to extinguish as local fire brigades were not available and access roads were severely damaged. The plant suffered a number of leaks and aftershocks overturned drums of radioactive waste.
The quake and its associated ground acceleration exceeded by several times the plant's designed resistance and may have caused hidden damages to plant’s structures and safety systems. Whether this damage can be properly detected is heavily disputed among Japanese experts.
Nevertheless, utility TEPCO has pushed hard to get the reactors back into service despite potential weaknesses and the reality-proven fact that earthquakes can severely exceed the maximum forces against which the buildings were designed.
This year, the plant has just seen its second fire in as many months. On the first occasion the operator for some reason allowed the fire to burn for an hour before alerting firefighters. Despite Japan’s nuclear watchdog ordering the Tokyo Electric Power Co. to draw up fire prevention measure, the second broke out on Monday this week.
Fortunately (for the Tokyo Electric Power Co. at least), the IAEA inspectors, who had found ‘evidence confirming the findings of previous missions regarding the safe performance of the plant during and after the earthquake’, had already gone home.