To prepare for large-scale nuclear disasters, the Japanese power industry will jointly establish an organization in fiscal 2015 to perform centralized control and operation of robots and other equipment.
The Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) will set up a base in Fukui Prefecture this fiscal year and install a special dedicated team. After the experience of failing to promptly dispatch equipment and personnel for assisting the emergency response effort in the accident at the Fukushima I nuclear power station of Tokyo Electric Power, the industry aims to develop a new organization that will have the capacity for providing advanced support in nuclear emergencies.
By use of remotely operable robots or other means, the new support system is intended to help minimize the exposure of workers responding to an emergency situation in a highly radioactive environment.
Chairman Makoto Yagi of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) announced the concept at a regular press conference held on July 20. It is planned that JAPC will act as a central agency and procure three robots this year to be used for surveillance and removal of obstacles at disaster sites. In addition to securing transportation means for emergency equipment, a total of about 100 personnel, consisting of about six workers at each nuclear power plant in Japan, will be designated to operate such equipment. By March next year, a base will be established in Fukui Prefecture in light of the circumstances that the prefecture has many nuclear plants and is situated at about the midpoint of all nuclear plant sites in the country.
JAPC will station a special dedicated team composed of about eight members at the base. The team will be responsible for centrally controlling equipment and training electric utility employees in the operation of the equipment. The final shape of the nuclear emergency response support organization, which is scheduled to launch in fiscal 2015, will be further negotiated among the members of Japan’s power industry.
