Takahama 2 cleared for ten more years
Unit 2 of Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui prefecture has been granted a ten-year operating life extension by the country's nuclear regulator.Unit 2 of Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui prefecture has been granted a ten-year operating life extension by the country's nuclear regulator.
.jpg "Takahama 460 (NRA)") |
| The four-unit Takahama plant (Image: NRA) |
At its 8 April meeting, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved Kansai's application - submitted last November - to operate the 39-year-old, 780 MWe (net) pressurized water reactor (PWR) for an additional ten years.
As part of its application to extend the life of Takahama 2, special inspections were conducted, including ultrasound tests on the reactor vessel's welds and eddy current tests on the primary coolant nozzles to identify degradation. The unit's containment vessel and its concrete barrier were also inspected for cracks.
Kansai was also required to submit to the regulator a long-term maintenance management policy, as well as implement an aging technology evaluation.
Takahama 2 will have operated for 40 years on 14 November 2015.
The NRA approved a ten-year life extension for unit 1 of the Takahama plant - also a 780 MWe PWR - in November 2014.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
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