Kyushu Elec. Finds 292 Damaged Pipes at Nuke Reactor

Kyushu Elec. Finds 292 Damaged Pipes at Nuke Reactor

Sep 10 - Jiji Press English News Service

Fukuoka, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--Kyushu Electric Power Co. said Friday that damage has been discovered in 292 pipes of a steam generator at its Sendai nuclear power plant's No. 1 reactor in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima.

The company is currently conducting a regular checkup of the No. 1 reactor. There has been no leak of radioactivity from the reactor, the power supplier said.

There are a total of 10,146 pipes in the steam generator. Of the 292 damaged pipes, 287 had grown thinner due to corrosion. The remaining five had cracks.

Kyushu Electric Power plans to cap all of the damaged pipes so they cannot be used by late October, when the checkup will be completed. As a full-fledged safety step, it plans to replace the steam generator entirely within four years.

At Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture on Aug. 9, a pipe rupture due to corrosion caused by irregular water flows resulted in the deaths of five workers.

On Tuesday, Kansai Electric said that it found 339 thinner pipes at the No. 4 reactor of its Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture, which is currently undergoing a checkup. END

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