Ikata Nuclear Power Plant
Encyclopedia
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
in the town of Ikata
Ikata, Ehime
is a small town located in Nishiuwa District, Ehime, Japan. Following a recent merger with the neighboring towns of Misaki and Seto, the town now spans the mountainous Sadamisaki Peninsula, the narrowest peninsula in Japan and the westernmost point on the island of Shikoku.This unique geography has...
in the Nishiuwa District
Nishiuwa District, Ehime
The is a district located in Ehime Prefecture. As of 2007 — The district has an estimated population of 12,304 with a total area of 94.34 km².The district consists of one town.*Ikata- History :...
in Ehime Prefecture
Ehime Prefecture
is a prefecture in northwestern Shikoku, Japan. The capital is Matsuyama.-History:Until the Meiji Restoration, Ehime prefecture was known as Iyo Province...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It is the only nuclear plant on the island of Shikoku
Shikoku
is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...
. It is owned and operated by the Shikoku Electric Power Company
Shikoku Electric Power Company
The is the electric provider for the 4 prefectures of the Shikoku island in Japan with few exceptions. Their image character is .On April 12, 1991 the company instituted Akari-chan as their image character and at the same time introduced the romanized nickname of Yonden .The company is also an...
.
The plant is on a site with an area of 860,000 m2 (212 acres). 47% of the site is green, compared to the other plants Yonden operates which are 13.8, 45.5, 20.1, and 21.2%.
Reactors on site
| Unit | Reactor type | Capacity | First criticality | Commissioned | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ikata - 1 | PWR Pressurized water reactor Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors... |
566 MW | February 17, 1977 | September 30, 1977 | Mitsubishi Mitsubishi The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy... 2-loop plant |
| Ikata - 2 | PWR | 566 MW | August 19, 1981 | March 19, 1982 | Mitsubishi Mitsubishi The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy... 2-loop plant |
| Ikata - 3 | PWR | 890 MW | March 29, 1994 | December 15, 1994 | Mitsubishi Mitsubishi The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy... /Westinghouse Westinghouse Electric Company Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is a nuclear power company, offering a wide range of nuclear products and services to utilities throughout the world, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs... 3-loop plant |
Technical achievements
On August 13, 2003 The maximum burnupBurnup
In nuclear power technology, burnup is a measure of how much energy is extracted from a primary nuclear fuel source...
for spent fuel was changed from 48,000 MWd/ton to 55,000 MWd/ton.
Ikata - 1 became the world's first all-in-one extraction of the core internals in a PWR. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
, or MHI, is a Japanese company. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi Group.-History:In 1870 Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi took a lease of Government-owned Nagasaki Shipyard. He named it Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works, and started the shipbuilding business on a full scale...
did replacement work of the upper and lower internals in order to accommodate more control rods and allow for higher fuel burnup.
Ikata - 3 loaded a partial MOX fuel
MOX fuel
Mixed oxide fuel, commonly referred to as MOX fuel, is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material. MOX fuel contains plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. MOX fuel is an alternative to the low-enriched uranium fuel used in the...
core for the cycle beginning February 24, 2010.http://www.worldnuclear.org/_news_database/rss_detail_features.cfm?objID=8C223A0E-8D6A-41E0-881A4BFB7AF6580D
Maintenance in 2011
On Sunday 4 September reactor no. 1 was shut down for regular inspections. These check-ups would last at least three months. At that time reactor No.3 was also shut down, although the normal inspections were long time finished before September. To resume operation, a stress test was required for all suspended reactors by the government, after the accidents in Fukushima. The Ehime prefectural government said it would decide whether to approve the resumption of operations after the results of the safety test came out. The Shikoku Electric Power Company said that if the No. 3 reactor did not resume operations, power supplies would be very tight in winter when electricity demand would be high. It was considered to restart a thermal power-plant which had been long out of use.Appearances in fiction
- In Godzilla vs. DestoroyahGodzilla vs. Destoroyah, alternatively titled Godzilla vs. Destroyer, is a 1995 science fiction kaiju film directed by Takao Okawara and written by Kazuki Omori. It was released in Japan on December 9, 1995. It is the 22nd installment in the Godzilla series of films and the seventh and last of the Heisei series...
GodzillaGodzillais a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
approaches the nuclear plant, and the actions of the Japan Self Defense Forces are stalled in action against the monster, fearing that a direct attack could cause a nuclear explosion (of Godzilla) and destroy the planet. Thankfully, the Super X-III weapon comes to the rescue and freezes the beast before he can do any more harm.