On January 30, a reactor at Kansai Electric Power Co’s Takahama nuclear power plant in central Japan’s Fukui prefecture shut itself down following an alarm regarding the rapidly decreasing number of neutrons. .
According to Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA), reactor No. 4 was shut down at 3:21 p.m. local time. There is currently no indication that the incident has affected the environment and the reactor’s cooling function is still operating normally.
Kansai Electric is investigating the cause of the incident. According to Kansai Electric, this is the first time a reactor decommissioned since the plant’s No. 3 reactor Takahama also ceased operations in 1988 because of similar alarms.
[Các quốc đảo TBD kêu gọi Nhật Bản hoãn xả nước nhà máy điện hạt nhân]
The Fukui prefectural government said the cause might be a problem with the neutron detector or with the control rods, which are used to control nuclear chain reactions through neutron absorption.
Reactor 4 was restarted on November 4, 2022 following periodic inspections. Last week, Kansai Electric carried out maintenance on its neutron detector on January 26 and found no abnormalities.
Japan has a total of 33 nuclear reactors, and less than a third of them are back up and running following the nuclear accident caused by the March 2011 tsunami. Since not all reactors operate year-round, Japan is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.
In the context of Japan facing its most serious energy crisis in decades, in August 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the country should consider building new generation nuclear reactors. .
Dang Anh (VNA/Vietnam+)