The examinations of the plants are currently being undertaken by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) to confirm compatibility with new regulatory standards. The power company also said that it expected to restart the units thereafter.
Both NPP sites require work to bury tanks for diesel fuel for emergency diesel generators, as well as increased work as a result of fire-protection measures. At Onagawa-2, Tohoku Electric will remove the two existing partially-buried diesel tanks (each 330kl) and replace them with six new underground tanks (each 110kl) at the same location. At Higashidori-1, four new underground tanks (each 180 kl) will be installed separately from the two existing tanks (350 kl).
The power company submitted applications for the compatibility examinations for Onagawa-2 to the NRA in December 2013, and for Higashidori-1 In June 2014. More than 50 evaluation meetings have been held for Onagawa-2 already.
Meanwhile, an NRA expert panel on investigation of a fault zone of crushed rock within the premises of Higashidori-1 did not present its evaluation report to the NRA until March 2015, so the full-scale examination of that reactor started rather late. It is expected to proceed in earnest from now on.
