Although that marks an overall improvement, he stressed that the situation can hardly be described as representing a “sustainable” profit structure. Chairman Yagi has been concerned about the high level of fuel costs within ordinary expenditures — a situation continuing since the giant earthquake of 2011 — and expressed his desire for the early restart of the country’s nuclear power plants (NPPs) for an inexpensive, stable supply of electricity to be realized.
Meanwhile, regarding current activities by the Nuclear Risk Research Center (NRRC) established within the Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in October 2014, he said that a task team for promotion of PRA utilization was created within the FEPC in January.
The task team has chosen the Ikata-3 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), owned and operated by the Shikoku Electric Power Co., as its model plant, and will address probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methodology there, with support from the NRRC.
Results and points for improvement will be shared with all the electric power companies, and gradually applied to evaluations of safety improvements to be made at each plant at the first periodic inspection after they are restarted.
