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Corporate Information

 
Press Release (Mar 19,2012)
Status of TEPCO's Facilities and its services after the Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake (as of 3:00 pm, March 19)

Due to the Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake which occurred on March 11, 2011, TEPCO's facilities including our nuclear power stations have been severely damaged. We deeply apologize for the anxiety and inconvenience caused.
With regard to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, on April 17, 2011, we have compiled the roadmap towards restoration from the accident and on July 19 we accomplished the Step1 target "Radiation dose is in steady decline". Then on December 16 we confirmed the accomplishment of the Step 2 target "Release of radioactive materials is under control and radiation doses are being significantly held down".
In addition, on December 21, 2011, we have compiled the "Mid-to-long-Term Roadmap toward the Decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units 1-4, TEPCO".
In addition to the maintenance of the plant's stable condition, we will implement Mid-to-Long Term countermeasures towards the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units 1-4 to enable evacuees to return to their homes as soon as possible and reduce the anxiety of the people in Fukushima and the whole nation as soon as possible.

Below is the status of TEPCO's major facilities.

* The updates are underlined.

[Nuclear Power Station]
・Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: Unit 1 to 3: shut down due to the earthquake:
(Units 4 to 6: outage due to regular inspections before the earthquake)

* In order to stop the offset power and change the station power supply with starting to operate the south switching station, at 5:12 am on March 19, we stopped the operation of reactor monitoring indicator of Unit 3 (the temperature of reactor pressure vessel)*1and the cooling operation of spent fuel pool. At 5:33 am, we stopped the cooling operation of common spent fuel pool. Regarding spent fuel pool of Unit 4, temperature of water in spent fuel pool when we stopped is approx. 28 °C and expected temperature increase rate is approx. 0.55 °C/h. Regarding common spent fuel pool, temperature of water is 21.3 °C and expected temperature increase rate is approx. 0.23 °C/h. The period of suspension of cooling is approx. 14 hours, but regarding the temperature of pool water there is no problem on cooling.

*1: During the suspension of operating power supply, it is not content with Article 138 and 143(limiting condition for operation*2) in Safety Regulation. Therefore, we apply the Article 136 (exemption of limiting condition for operation in order to conduct maintenance work). Using temporary generator, we can monitor the temperature.(At 5:56 am on March 19, temporary generator started to supply power.)
*2: Reactor Facility Safety Regulation provides necessary conditions such as the numbers of the permitted machines etc. or criteria of temperatures and pressures for securing multiple safety function for operating reactors and for keeping nuclear power stations stable and these are treated as conditions for operation. When there happen some malfunctions of equipment provided in the regulation and a nuclear power station can not clear the conditions temporarily, operators have to take required countermeasures.

- At 8:27 am on March 19, 2012, we started transferring the accumulated water from On-site Bunker Building to Process Main Building.
- From 8:41 am on March 19, we started transferring the accumulated water from the basement floor of the turbine building of Unit 3 to the centralized radiation waste treatment facility (Miscellaneous Solid Waste Volume Reduction Treatment Building [High Temperature Incinerator Building]).
- At 9:45 am on March 19, we started increasing nitrogen injection to the reactor from approx. 2.5m3/h to 3.0m3/h due to preparation of investigation on the inside of Unit 2 reactor (The injection amount to core spray system is still approx. 6.0 m3/h).
- At 10:33 am on March 19, we started decreasing nitrogen injection to the reactor from approx. 10 m3/h to 5 m3/h due to preparation of investigation on the inside of Unit 2 reactor (There was no change in the injection amount to reactor pressure vessel).
- At 1:24 pm on March 19, we started injection of hydrazine to spent fuel pool of Unit 2 through the circulating cooling system.

・Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station:
Units 1 to 4: shutdown due to the earthquake

・Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station:
Units 6: under normal operation
(Units 1 to 5 and 7: outage due to regular inspections)

[Thermal Power Station]
・Power supply has returned to normal and the facilities damaged by the earthquake are now being handled in a timely manner.

[Hydro Power Station]
・Power supply has returned to normal and the facilities damaged by the earthquake are now being handled in a timely manner.

[Impacts on Transmission Facilities]
・Power supply has returned to normal and the facilities damaged by the earthquake are now being handled in a timely manner.

[Impacts on Power Supply and Demand Balance]
We expect to maintain stable power supply in March.
Daily supply and demand balance is announced at our "TEPCO Electricity Forecast".

Appendix: : Past Progress (As of 3:00 pm, on March 19, 2012) (PDF 708KB)
Appendix: : Past Progress (From March 11, 2011 to July 31, 2011) (PDF 225KB)
* Revised past progress
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