Chubu Electric Power says that although it has made progress toward its December 2012 target for completing certain tsunami countermeasures at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, an extra year has become necessary to finish the project.

The Hamaoka NPS upgrades programme was established in July 2011, in response to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. It is split into three categories two for improving flooding prevention measures and one for enhancement of emergency measures.

Revisions to the latter programme, namely the power supply equipment measures, were announced in March 2012. This work includes increasing the number of gas turbine generators (on high ground), as well as associated cables, power panels etc. to ensure enough electrical capacity to operate multiple cooling equipment for the reactors and spent fuel pools in emergencies.

“Recently, while studying detailed plans for site work as we prepared to place orders for revised measures, we found that the amount of work had increased significantly, leading to problems such as too much work scheduled at one time, so an extension of about a year was necessary.”

Chubu says that some flooding prevention work, such as installation of the sea wall and increasing the reliability of waterproof doors in outer walls of buildings ‘continue to progress according to the original schedule.’ That work is due to be completed in December 2012.