Japan Nuclear Plant in Quake Zone to Close as Precaution

TOKYO – A nuclear power plant in central Japan will close this week until it can build stronger anti-quake and tsunami defenses, its operator said Monday, in response to a government plea to shutter the facility in the wake of the nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

¶Nuclear safety experts have long warned of the dangers posed by the Hamaoka plant, which lies in an area riddled with known fault lines about 120 miles southwest of Tokyo. The government’s own experts have estimated that there is a close to a 90 percent chance of an earthquake of about magnitude 8.0 hitting the area within the next 30 years.

¶Board members at Chubu Electric Power had initially failed to reach a decision at a meeting on Saturday, a day after Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister, asked the operator to close the plant, citing quake and tsunami risks in the region. Local reports said that executives had debated the financial losses that would result from closing the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, as well as the power shortages that might result from losing a major source of power in the region.

¶But the operator decided to obey the government request, an “agonizing decision” for the company, Akihisa Mizuno, president and chief executive at Chubu Electric, told a press conference Monday.

¶“The request from the prime minister is one that carries a lot of weight, and which is based on growing public concern over nuclear power in the wake of the serious accident at Fukushima,” Mr. Mizuno told reporters.

¶“We are prepared to put into place safety measures to strengthen our defenses against tsunamis,” Mr. Mizuno said. “We believe this is the only way we can regain the trust of the local community, and of wider society,” he said.

¶Two reactors at the plant will be closed, while a third, already shut down for scheduled inspections, will remain offline, Mr. Mizuno said.

¶Two older reactors at the plant were decommissioned in 2009.

¶Mr. Mizuno also said that the utility had asked the government for assistance “to help avoid or lessen” the impact on its shareholders.

¶He said that the company’s earnings would likely be hurt by the Hamaoka shutdown, though it was impossible to estimate by how much.

¶Shares in Chubu Electric slumped 10 percent ahead of the announcement, on news that the board was meeting to decide on the fate of the Hamaoka plant.

¶The trade minister, Banri Kaieda, lauded the operator Monday for its decision to close the plant. “I know that Chubu Electric faced a lot of difficulties, and I deeply respect its swift handling of the matter,” Mr. Kaieda told a press conference.

¶On top of its location in a earthquake-prone area, safety experts charge that the Hamaoka plant has inadequate protections against tsunami risks. The facility relies on sand dunes to block waves, and though it is building an additional 15-meter breakwater, it will not be ready for another two years, according to company executives.

¶But some experts have advocated for moving more quickly on safety measures, warning that even after halting operations at the plant, the reactors would remain vulnerable while they cooled down, as would the spent fuel rods.

¶Mr. Kan said on Friday that he was asking that the plant close after “considering the tremendous repercussions a major accident at Hamaoka would have on the entire Japanese society.” He said that Chubu Electric would be asked to strengthen its defenses before the state’s nuclear regulator would authorize a restart.

¶The prime minister’s request to shutter the Hamaoka plant less than two months after the Fukushima accident came relatively swiftly by standards in Japan, where leaders generally prefer to build a consensus before announcing big policy changes.

¶It came after intense criticism from opposition lawmakers and others of Mr. Kan’s handling of the Fukushima disaster, including accusations of a slow government response in the early hours of the crisis.

¶Despite the accident, Mr. Kan has said that Japan remains committed to nuclear energyuse, and that he would not seek to close any more nuclear facilities. Resource-poor Japan depends on nuclear power for almost 30 percent of its energy needs, and a quick shift to other forms of energy is unlikely.

¶Though the Japanese government has promised to bolster alternative energy generation like wind or geothermal power, those sources only make up about 1 percent of Japan’s energy consumption

¶Indeed, by closing the Hamaoka plant, Mr. Kan will worsen a power shortage in the short term that threatens to hamper industrial production and make the coming summer a hot and sticky one for Japanese households.

¶Some offices and factories in eastern Japan have already dimmed lights and altered operating hours after the government requested that they reduce their energy use by at least 15 percent this summer, after 11 reactors in east Japan were knocked out in the March 11 quake. Last week, the government publicized guidelines urging households to cut down on energy use by turning down their air conditioners, for example.

¶Though Chubu Electric supplies a separate zone from east Japan, the utility had been providing the region with back-up electricity following the quake. Chubu Electric said Friday it now planned to stop sending electricity to electricity.

¶Chubu Electric also generates power for much of the country’s industrial belt, including Aichi prefecture, where Toyota Motor is headquartered. By stopping the Hamaoka plant, the utility says it would lose about 3.6 million kilowatts, or about 12 percent of the total power it planned to generate in the year to March 2011.

¶Without Hamaoka, the utility will is still expected to meet estimated peak demand in the region this summer, but by a very narrow margin, a company official said. If demand turns out to be more than expected, he said, the company may have to impose rolling blackouts unless it can find alternate sources of energy.

¶Goshi Hosono, the deputy-secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party and a special advisor to Mr. Kan, said at a press conference Monday that he was confident that the energy shortage would not be crippling.

¶“If we can conserve energy in a rational way, I believe we will be able to get over the summer months without severe limits on energy use,” Mr. Hosono said.