30 Apr (NucNet): Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has issued a permit to the Electric Power Development Corporation (known as J-Power) to install a nuclear reactor at its Ohma nuclear power plant in Aomori prefecture in the north of the country.
Ohma will comprise a single 1,383-megawatt (gross) advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) unit with a full mixed-oxide (MOX) core. The unit will be the world’s first full-MOX light water reactor and could be online by 2012.
According to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, J-Power will soon file an application with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency for a permit for its plan to construct the Ohma unit. Construction will begin once that permit is granted, JAIF said.
The Ohma chamber of commerce and industry made its first request in 1976 for a nuclear power plant to be constructed in the town.
J-Power said last month it was delaying the start of construction of the Ohma unit until May 2008. The company said it had filed a document with METI to delay construction because of a prolonged seismic safety examination by the Nuclear Safety Commission.
J-Power still hopes to meet its original target date of 2012 for commissioning of the unit by finding ways to speed up construction work.
A Japanese government advisory committee first gave the go-ahead for the project in September 1999, but J-Power ran into difficulties over site acquisition. The company later adapted plans for the siting of the reactor core and announced a new timetable for Ohma.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Japan’s NISA Completes First Examination Of Ohma N-Plant Application (World Nuclear Review No. 127, 24 June 2005)
J-Power Revises Construction Date For Ohma Unit (News in Brief No. 35, 26 March 2008)
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