The commission's staff requirements memorandum calls for enhancing a March 2012 order requiring "hardened" venting systems at 31
boiling-water reactors with "Mark I" and "Mark II" containments.
Three of the plant's six
boiling-water reactors had suffered partial core-melt events that involved tremendously high temperatures and powerful radiation fields and interaction between seawater and nuclear fuel.
Among 30
boiling-water reactors in Japan, the Tsuruga reactor is the only one that lacks the system as its operator, Japan Atomic Power Co., believed it is less likely the container would be damaged due to pressure buildup, and thus setting up of the system had low priority.
After a 17-month probe the cabinet's Atomic Energy Council concluded that the design of the plant, which will have two 1,350 megawatt
boiling-water reactors, ''suffices to protect the health and safety of the public.'' State-run utility Taiwan Power Company (Taipower), which will operate the nuclear plant located in Taipei County's Kungliao township on the Pacific coast, was issued a construction permit earlier in the day, the council said.
The third Order applies only to
boiling-water reactors that have "Mark I" or "Mark II" containment structures.
The Guardian quoted Richard Lahey, who was head of safety research for
boiling-water reactors at General Electric when the company installed the units at Fukushima, as saying that workers at the site appeared to have "lost the race" to save the reactor, but assured that there was no danger of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe.
Under the project, NRG formed a joint venture with Toshiba, the supplier of the advanced
boiling-water reactors chosen for the South Texas plant, and later agreed to bring in a third partner, Tokyo Electric, which pledged to invest $125 million, according to the paper.
Boiling-water reactors resolved the issue by installing much larger strainers, but in the late 1990s the staff discovered that debris could also collect after a loss-of-coolant accident in pressurized-water reactors.
TEPCO said it has concluded an agreement with Nuclear Innovation North America LLC to participate in the New York-based company's project to build two advanced
boiling-water reactors, each capable of generating 1.35 million kilowatts of electricity in Texas.