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41-707: The Hamaoka Nuclear Exhibition Center, a free public exhibition on nuclear power, is situated next to the plant. Construction of the first unit, Hamaoka-1, commenced on June 10th 1971. The reactor reached its first criticality three years later and went into commercial operation in 1976. The second unit began construction in 1974 and successfully went into commercial operation in 1978. The first two units were built in close proximity and share some of their infrastructure. Both reactors are BWR-4 boiling water reactors from General Electric. The plant had originally been designed to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.5. Sand hills of up to 15 m height have provided defence against

82-628: A Chinese enterprise. Tsutsui sued the Yomiuri Shimbun for libel and was awarded 3.3 million yen in damages in 2015, on the basis that the truth of the allegations could not be confirmed. In November 2014, the newspaper apologized after using the phrase "sex slave" to refer to comfort women , following its criticism of the Asahi Shimbun ' s coverage of Japan's World War II comfort women system. The Yomiuri newspaper said in an editorial in 2011 "No written material supporting

123-607: A day and in several different local editions. The Yomiuri Shimbun established the Yomiuri Prize in 1949. Its winners have included Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami . The Yomiuri was launched in 1874 by the Nisshusha newspaper company as a small daily newspaper. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the paper came to be known as a literary arts publication with its regular inclusion of work by writers such as Ozaki Kōyō . In 1924, Shoriki Matsutaro took over management of

164-528: A full-power shutdown may require active cooling of decay heat from long-lived radioactive isotopes for a year or more. The progenitor of the BWR line was the 5 MW Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR), brought online in October 1957. A drywell containment building which resembles an inverted lightbulb above the wetwell which is a steel torus containing water. Described as an "over-under" configuration with

205-512: A hill 25m above sea level. Connections to the power grid were doubled. All this would protect the reactors against waves higher than the waves that occurred in the Fukushima accident. The barrier would also be 10 meters taller than the highest waves expected in the area in the event of 3 major earthquakes occurring at the same time. In March 2012, new earthquake modelling studies became available, which requested additional revisions, that extended

246-640: A mayor in Shizuoka Prefecture and a group of residents filed a lawsuit seeking the decommissioning of the reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant permanently, without success. Until 2011, the plant was protected from tsunamis by a row of sand dunes with 10-15m above sea level, compared to 10m tsunamis that were to strike after a magnitude 9 earthquake. In response to increased safety requirements after Fukushima, Chubu announced in July 2011 measures

287-582: A more modern and robust sixth unit on the eastern side of the plant. The decommissioning started in 2009 with the first of four stages. In a second stage from 2016 to 2022, equipment surrounding the reactors was dismantled, and the decommissioning is expected to complete in 2036. Units 3, 4 and 5 continued regular operation. [REDACTED] In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident all nuclear reactors in Japan were shut down within two years to allow

328-432: A reassessment of the safety measures concerning massive earthquakes and tsunamis. At Hamaoka, the likelihood of an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or higher to hit the area within the following 30 years was estimated at 87%. Thus, Prime Minister Naoto Kan requested on May 6, 2011 the plant be shut down to avoid a possible repeat of the Fukushima accident. Unit 3, which had been undergoing regular inspections since October 2010,

369-578: A shallow magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Tokai region was picked out by Kiyoo Mogi in 1969, 7 months before permission to construct the Hamaoka plant was sought, and by the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction (CCEP) in 1970, prior to the permission being granted on December 10, 1970. As a consequence, Professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi , a former member of a government panel on nuclear reactor safety, claimed in 2004 that Hamaoka

410-477: A tsunami of up to 8 m high until 2012, when Hamaoka was equipped with a concrete sea barrier. A second set of reactors, unit 3 and 4 were subsequently built on the plant site with the more powerful BWR-5 design of over 1 GW net capacity per unit. Unit 3 was constructed from April 18, 1983 and commenced commercial operation in 1987. Construction of unit 4 began on October 13, 1989 and commercial operation started in 1993. The fifth unit, Hamaoka-5, with

451-506: Is well known for its pro-American stance among major Japanese media. It is published by regional bureaus, all of them subsidiaries of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings , Japan's largest media conglomerate by revenue and the second largest media conglomerate by size behind Sony , which is privately held by law and wholly owned by present and former employees and members of the Matsutarō Shōriki family. The Holdings has been part-owned by

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492-523: The Hochi Shimbun and became known as the Yomiuri-Hochi . The Yomiuri was the center of a labor scandal in 1945 and 1946. In October 1945, a post-war "democratization group" called for the removal of Shoriki Matsutaro, who had supported Imperial Japan's policies during World War II. When Shoriki responded by firing five of the leading members of this group, the writers and editors launched

533-654: The Japan Fantasy Novel Award annually. It has been a sponsor of the FIFA Club World Cup every time it has been held in Japan since 2006 . From 1949 through 1963, the newspaper sponsored the Yomiuri Indépendant Exhibition , an unjuried annual art exhibition which gave rise to avant-garde and contemporary rising artists. In November 1999, the Yomiuri Shimbun released a CD-ROM titled "The Yomiuri Shimbun in

574-474: The Meiji Era ," which provided searchable archives of news articles and images from the period that have been digitalized from microfilm. This was the first time a newspaper made it possible to search digitalized images of newspaper pictures and articles as they appeared in print. Subsequent CD-ROMs, "The Taishō Era ", "The pre-war Showa Era I", and "The pre-war Showa era II" were completed eight years after

615-463: The 15 April 2012 mayoral election. Of three candidates, the sitting mayor Shigeo Ishihara was willing to grant a restart, after consultation with the city residents and taking into account the "lessons learned form the Fukushima crisis", if he were re-elected for a third term. Haruhisa Muramatsu, a travel agent and member of the Japanese communist party, said that the plant should be decommissioned, and

656-791: The Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) introduced in the early 2010s. As of August 2018, 83 reactors of this design family have been built, of which 67 reactors are operational . The design garnered world attention in the aftermath of the INES level 7 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 11 March 2011. GE had been a major contractor to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, which consisted of six boiling water reactors of GE design. The reactors for Units 1, 2, and 6 were supplied by General Electric,

697-453: The auxiliary building and the fuel building, all of which are normally kept at negative pressure which prevents the egress of fission products. Features of the containment : Yomiuri Shimbun The Yomiuri Shimbun ( 讀賣新聞/読売新聞 ) is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo , Osaka , Fukuoka , and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan ;

738-496: The claim that government and military authorities were involved in the forcible and systematic recruitment of comfort women has been discovered", and that it regarded the Asian Women's Fund , set up to compensate for wartime abuses, as a failure based on a misunderstanding of history. The New York Times reported on similar statements previously, writing that "The nation's (Japan's) largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, applauded

779-535: The company. His innovations included improved news coverage, a full-page radio program guide, and the establishment of Japan's first professional baseball team, now known as the Yomiuri Giants . The emphasis of the paper shifted to broad news coverage aimed at readers in the Tokyo area. By 1941 it had the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the Tokyo area. In 1942, under wartime conditions, it merged with

820-616: The daily Hochi Shimbun , a sport -specific daily newspaper, as well as weekly and monthly magazines and books . Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings owns the Chuokoron-Shinsha publishing company, which it acquired in 1999, and the Nippon Television network. It is a member of the Asia News Network . The paper is known as the de facto financial patron of the baseball team Yomiuri Giants . They also sponsor

861-488: The designs of a relatively large (~18%) percentage of the commercial fission reactors around the world. The progenitor of the BWR line was the 5 MW Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR), brought online in October 1957. Six design iterations, BWR-1 through BWR-6, were introduced between 1955 and 1972. This was followed by the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) introduced in the 1990s and

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902-486: The difficulty towards Chubu Electric's shareholders and further stated Kan "should seriously reflect on the way he made his request". Yomiuri followed up with an article that wondered how dangerous Hamaoka really was and claimed the request was "a political judgment that went beyond technological worthiness". Chubu Electric announced three days after the president's request to comply with it. Units 4 and 5 were shut down on May 13 and May 14 2011, respectively. In July 2011,

943-409: The drywell forming a truncated cone on a concrete slab. Below is a cylindrical suppression chamber made of concrete rather than just sheet metal. The GE Mark III Containment-system is a single barrier pressure containment and multi-barrier fission containment system, consisting of the containment vessel plus associated dry- and wetwell (pressure and fission barriers), the external shield building of it,

984-411: The even more advanced ABWR -design and a net capacity of 1.325 GW was constructed from 2000 on as a single unit. The reactor reached its first criticality on March 23, 2004 and went into commercial operation in 2005. Hamaoka is built directly over the subduction zone near the junction of two tectonic plates , and a major Tōkai earthquake was said in 2004 to be overdue. The possibility of such

1025-637: The evening edition of the Yomiuri . The Yomiuri features an advice column, Jinsei Annai . The Yomiuri has a history of promoting nuclear power in Japan. In May 2011, when Naoto Kan , then Prime Minister of Japan, asked the Chubu Electric Power Company to shut down several of its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plants due to safety concerns, the Yomiuri called the request "abrupt" and a difficult situation for Chubu Electric's shareholders. It wrote that Kan "should seriously reflect on

1066-409: The family since Matsutarō Shōriki's purchase of the newspaper in 1924 (currently owning a total of 45.26% stock); despite its control, the family is not involved in its executive operations. Founded in 1874, the Yomiuri Shimbun is credited with having the largest newspaper circulation in the world as of 2019, having a morning circulation of 7.0 million as of June 2021. The paper is printed twice

1107-523: The first "production control" strike on 27 October 1945. This method of striking became an important union tactic in the coal, railroad, and other industries during the postwar period. Shoriki Matsutaro was arrested in December 1945 as a Class-A war criminal and sent to Sugamo Prison . The Yomiuri' s employees continued to produce the paper without heeding executive orders until a police raid on June 21, 1946. The charges against Shoriki were dropped and he

1148-559: The grid as possible. At the beginning of 2024 the NRA review of Hamaoka was ongoing, without a clearly foreseeable timeline. Chubu is committed to reopening the plant for energy production. Hamaoka Nuclear Plant has never suffered from an accident or incident according to the INES scale since the beginning of its operation in 1976. The following events below INES-0 safety relevance have occurred: GE BWR#BWR-4 General Electric 's BWR product line of boiling water reactors represents

1189-433: The impact on such an event on the plant, and Kiyoo Mogi, by then chair of Japan's Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction , called for the immediate closure of the plant. After the earthquake, units 1 and 2 were considered too vulnerable and would have required expensive safety upgrades to meet new seismic standards to continue operation. So it was decided in December 2008 to decommission both units and replace them by

1230-459: The increase the plant's protection against tsunamis and flooding . A first set of measures to prevent flooding was implemented until the end of 2012. This included construction of a beakwater wall to first 18 and finally 22 meters above sea level, waterproofing of seawater pumps and the installation of water pumps in building basements. Existing diesel generator rooms were waterproofed, and spare generators with long term fuel supply were installed on

1271-833: The other four are The Asahi Shimbun , the Chunichi Shimbun , the Mainichi Shimbun , and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun . It is headquartered in Otemachi , Chiyoda, Tokyo . It is a newspaper that represents Tokyo and generally has a conservative orientation. It is one of Japan's leading newspapers, along with the Osaka-based liberal ( Third Way ) Asahi Shimbun and the Nagoya-based social democratic Chunichi Shimbun . This newspaper

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1312-701: The other three by Toshiba and Hitachi. Unit 1 was a 460 MW boiling water reactor from the BWR-3 design iteration introduced in 1965 and constructed in July 1967. After the plant became severely damaged in the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , loss of reactor core cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination in Units 1, 2 and 3 between 12 and 15 March. Safe operation of this reactor design family depends on continued coolant flow at all times during operation. A reactor after

1353-422: The plant, including protection against fire, tsunamis and flood. Ground and supports for pipes and cables had to be reinforced for earthquake resistance, outdoor equipment was secured against object impacts during tornadoes. The full implementation of these measures took four more years until 2017. In Omaezaki city, restarting or decommissioning the Hamaoka nuclear power plant became a big issue in campaigning for

1394-531: The reinforcement work to the end of 2013. In particular, additional gas turbine generators were installed on high ground for emergency electric supply of cooling equipment. In June 2013 the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) announced revised safety regulations concerning natural phenomena as well as mitigation of potential accidents, which must be fulfilled by the plant in order to restart. These regulations required additional upgrades to

1435-482: The revisions" regarding removing the word "forcibly" from referring to laborers brought to Japan in the pre-war period and revising the comfort women controversy. Yomiuri editorials have also opposed the DPJ government and denounced denuclearization as "not a viable option". Yomiuri also publishes The Japan News (formerly called The Daily Yomiuri ), one of Japan's largest English-language newspapers. It publishes

1476-545: The third candidate Katsuhisa Mizuno, a former city councilor, promised that the power plant would not be taken into service, if he should win the election. The pro-restart candidate Ishihara was re-elected. In 2013 mayors in the vicinity of the plant were divided in half about a possible restart. The first safety review by the NRA for a restart of unit 4 was sought in February 2014, and for unit 3 in June 2015. The review, however,

1517-515: The way he made his request." It then followed up with an article wondering how dangerous Hamaoka really was and called Kan's request "a political judgment that went beyond technological worthiness." The next day damage to the pipes inside the condenser was discovered at one of the plants following a leak of seawater into the reactor. In 2012, the paper reported that Nobutaka Tsutsui , the Minister for Agriculture, had divulged secret information to

1558-580: Was 'considered to be the most dangerous nuclear power plant in Japan' with the potential to create a genpatsu-shinsai (domino-effect nuclear power plant earthquake disaster). The plant showed stellar performance through the 1990s, however, problems that caused unit 1 to be shut down from 2001 on, and unit 2 from 2005 on significantly hurt the capacity factor figures of the plant. Both reactors were initially shut down in 2001 and 2004, respectively, for safety-related upgrades. The 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake , yet far away from Hamaoka, raised concerns about

1599-534: Was delayed by investigations into a possible geological fault under the plant. Chubu had launched its own surveys and reported no active fault line near the plant. In the following years, residents in the plant's neighbourhood increasingly supported a restart of the plant. In 2022 the fraction of opponents of the plant's restart was down to 32 percent, while 36 percent then supported the restart. The Kishida administration, which governs Japan since 2021 has expressed its devotion to bring as many nuclear reactors back to

1640-493: Was not to restart until further notice. Kan said that considering the unique location of the Hamaoka plant, the operator must draw up and implement mid-to-long-term plans to ensure the reactors can withstand the projected Tōkai earthquake and any triggered tsunami. Kan also said that until such plans are implemented, all the reactors should remain out of operation. The Yomiuri Shimbun , one of Japan's largest newspapers, criticized Kan and his request, calling it "abrupt" and noting

1681-531: Was released in 1948. According to research by Professor Tetsuo Arima of Waseda University on declassified documents stored at NARA , he agreed to work with the CIA as an informant. In February 2009, the Yomiuri entered into a tie-up with The Wall Street Journal for editing, printing and distribution. Since March 2009 the major news headlines of the Journal' s Asian edition have been summarized in Japanese in

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