March 31, 2021
The Fukui International Human Resources Development Center for Atomic Energy
(FIHRDC-AE) was established in April 2011 and has organized a variety of
training courses, seminars, workshops, and meetings to support human resource
development in countries embarking on nuclear power all over the world.
Celebrating the past 10-year achievements, the FIHRDC-AE/WERC has compiled
the past records and updated comments including feedbacks of the participants
to the events into its 10-year report.
We expect this report could further broaden our cooperation and bring new collaborations in the international community.
June 1, 2019
Mr. Fumizo Iseki, Ms. Mikiko Ojima, Ms. Mami Morimoto and Ms. Mika Hatakenaka
left and Mr. Hirofumi Yamazaki, Ms. Minako Nakano, Ms. Yukiko Koda and
Ms. Ayumi Takemura joined FIHRDC/WERC.
Eight staff of FIHRDC/WERC are looking forward to helping you and your
colleagues in various training courses in Tsuruga.
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October 22, 2018
Course of Nuclear Plant Safety (NPS) JFY2018 is being held in October 15 - November 9. Eleven participants attended the course from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Vietnam.
In four weeks, they are leaning the related safety technology for nuclear power plants, including project management for NPP construction, emergency preparedness and response, and nuclear fuel cycle. And also, considering the change of situation after the Fukushima Daiichi accident, they are discussing the appropriate way for nuclear plant safety.
October 1, 2018
Ikata Unit 3 (PWR, 890MW) of the Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc. started
loading of fuels into the reactor core on October 1, 2018. Objection was
supported by a different presiding judge of the Hiroshima High Court on
September 25 against the court injunction which had prohibited the operation
of the Unit 3 since December 13, 2017. Another proposal for injunction
by residents to the Oita District Court was also rejected on September
28.
The loading of the all 157 fuel assemblies is expected to be completed by October 4, and the Ikata Unit 3 is scheduled to be restarted on October 27.
A major controversy at the Hiroshima High Court was evaluation of influence of volcano eruption of Mt. Aso in the Kyushu Island.
Residents protested that the guideline concluded by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) underestimates the influence of the ash from the volcano. The judge of this time supported the NRA’s position.
August 28, 2018
Course of Site Preparation & Public Relation(SP＆PR) JFY2018 is being
held in August 27 – August 31. Ten participants attended the course from
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam and an observer from Poland.
In this week, they are leaning the related law for the site preparation and public relation, including risk communication, Japanese site preparation policy. And also, considering the change of situation after the Fukushima Daiichi accident, they are discussing the appropriate way for public relation and site preparation.
July 26, 2018
Course of Nuclear Energy Officials (NEO) JFY2018 is being held in July 23 – August 10.
Nine participants attended the course from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Mongolia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. In Coming three
weeks, they are leaning the outline of the Fukushima Daiichi accident,
Risk communication, Nuclear safety culture and Leadership, Emergency preparedness
and response, and the important issues to introduce nuclear power plants
to these countries. This is the first training course in Japanese Fiscal
Year (JFY) 2018 for the FIHRDC/WERC where Mr. Chiyokazu Fukae left and
Mr. Yukinobu Hirose joined from the Kansai Electric Power company on July
2, 2018.
July 18, 2018
The Kanazawa Branch of Nagoya High Court dismissed the proposal of residents
to stop the operation of Ohi Units 3&4 on July 4, 2018. The plaintiff
group composed of 189 residents decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court
on July 17. The judgement of the High Court became, therefore, final and
binding on the deadline date of the appeal, July 18. Ohi Units 3&4
continue operation at the rated power of 1.18GW each.
Genkai Unit 4 (PWR, 1.18GW) restarted on June 16, 2018, and power generation
on June 19 after a long lay down since December 2011.
Currently in Japan, eight commercial nuclear reactors are in the status of “in operation” including two reactors in their refueling outage.
May 10, 2018
Ohi Unit 4 (PWR, 1.18GW) of the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. restarted
at 5:00pm of May 9, 2018 and reached the criticality at 3:00am of May 10.
The commercial operation will be started in early June.
The Ohi Unit 4 is still under a court case as well as Unit 3 which has
been waiting for the judgement since last November in the second court
trial at the Kanazawa Branch of the Nagoya High Court examining the appeals
by a part of residents to halt their operations.
April 16, 2018
Regional Workshop on Instructor Training Course: Leadership of the IAEA
is being held at the FIHRDC/WERC in April 16 – 20 as an activity of the
Asian Nuclear Safety Network (ANSN). Fifteen participants attended the
course from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Viet
Nam, and Republic of Korea. Dr. Zia Hussain Shah of the Regulatory Activity
Section, NSND of the IAEA leads this training course.
This is the first training course in Japanese Fiscal Year (JFY) 2018 for the FIHRDC/WERC where Mr. Masanori Watanabe left and Mr. Fumizo Iseki joined from the Fukui Prefectural Government on April 1, 2018.
April 16, 2018
The new Chairman of the WERC, Mr. Hakuei ISIZUKA, made a welcome speech at the opening session of the Regional Workshop on Instructor Training Course: Leadership of the IAEA at the AQUATOM building of the FIHRDC/WERC on April 16, 2018.
Mr. Ishizuka was a Vice Governor of the Fukui Prefectural Government just
before joining the WERC after holding the prefectural positions of the
General Directors of the Department of Public Safety and Environment, and
the Department of General Affairs.
The former Chairman Mr. Nobuaki ASAHI resigned the Chairman of the WERC
on April 12, 2018 after 13 year appointment since April 2005.
March 30, 2018
On March 28, the FIHRDC/WERC sent invitations for the courses of Nuclear
Technology Seminar of Nuclear Energy Officials (NEO), Site Preparation
& Public Relation (SPPR), and Nuclear Plant Safety (NPS) in JFY2018
to the correspondents of: Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC); China
Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) and National Nuclear Safety Administration
(NNSA) of China; National Nuclear Energy Agency(BATAN) of Indonesia; Institute
of Nuclear Physics (INP) and RSE "National Nuclear Center of the Republic
of Kazakhstan"(RSE NNC RK); Malaysian Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia);
Nuclear Energy Commission (NEC) of Mongolia; Philippine Nuclear Research
Institute (PNRI); King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE)
of Saudi Arabia; Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board (SLAEB); Thailand Institute
of Nuclear Technology (TINT); Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK); and
Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute (VINATOM). The details of the training
courses are available in the website of the FIHRDC/WERC.
Experts and officials of the countries are encouraged to apply via the
organizations indicated above. The dead line of the application is April
27, 2018 which is quite earlier than usual year due to the earlier durations
of the training courses.
March 29, 2018
The Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc. decided to decommission its Ikata
Unit 2 (PWR, 566 MW) on March 27, 2018. The Unit 2, aged 36 years, is estimated
to cost high for plant life extension to sixty years fulfilling the requirements
of the new regulation standards.
March 23, 2018
Genkai Unit 3 (PWR, 1.18GW) of the Kyusyu Electric Power Co., Inc. restarted in the morning of March 23, 2018.
The commercial operation will be started in late April after completing pre-service inspection including the continuous operation test at the rated power.
The first court trial for the restart of the Ikata Unit 3 (PWR, 890MW) of the Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc., which is shown in a yellow ball in the figure below, is scheduled in April 23.
The operation of the unit was halted following the injunction by the Hiroshima High Court in last December. The injunction was sustained on March 22 against the objection made by the operator.
March 15, 2018
Ohi Unit 3 (PWR, 1.18GW) of the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO) restarted on March 14, 2018 and reached criticality at 3 am of March 15.
Power generation is expected to be started around 5 pm of March 16 and full power operation will be started around March 19.
KEPCO is also preparing for the restart of Ohi Unit 4 (PWR, 1.18GW) in mid-May and the price cutting of electricity in summer.
December 25, 2017
Kansai Electric Power Company LTD. (KEPCO) announced its decision to decommission
the Ohi Units 1&2 (PWR, 1175MWe) on December 22, 2017. Ohi Units 1&2
started their operation in 1979 with their unique structure of their container
vessel (CV) equipping ice condensers which cool down inside the CV in the
case of severe accident and enable to smaller the volume of the CV. To
reinforce the seismic measures of the units adapting to the new regulation
requirements after the Fukushima Daiichi Accident, the inside working area
of the CV is inevitably tightened and that causes difficulties on safety
activities in case of accident. Mr. Shigeki Iwane, President of the KEPCO,
explained this to Mr. Issei Nishikawa, the Governor of the Fukui Prefecture,
as the reason of the decision on the permanent shut-down of the Ohi Units
1&2.
December 15, 2017
On December 13, 2017, the Hiroshima High Court sentenced the injunction against the operation of Ikata Unit 3 which has been operated since August 2016 and was under refueling outage from October 3, 2017.
(Sorry for wrong description in the thread of this facebook figures on October 24 and November 28.)
The Ikata Unit 3 shall not be operated by October 30, 2018 except the following two cases:
[1] The Hiroshima High Court accepts the objection from the Shikoku Electric Power Company, the owner of the Ikata Unit 3; or
[2] The court judges the validity of the operation that is under trial in another civil law suit.
The Hiroshima High Court also describes: [1] The judgement of the NRA on
the effect of volcano is not rational; [2] The siting of the Ikata NPP
is inappropriate because the possibility of the reaching of the pyroclastic
flow to the site from the past Aso caldera-forming eruption is not very
small; and [3] The Hiroshima City, the trial was proposed, in the range
of the 100 km radius from the NPP, is inside the area that the residents
possibly suffer significant consequences on their lives and bodies in case
of accidents of the NPP.
November 28, 2017
On November 27, 2017, Mr. Issei Nishikawa, Governor of the Fukui Prefecture announced that he agreed to restart the Ohi Units 3&4 (PWR, 1.18GW) following the meeting on November 26 with Mr. Hiroshige Seko,
Minister of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (METI) who expressed that the national government promotes the energy policy in a responsible manner.
The Governor Nishikawa also stressed the necessity of the plan to construct intermittent storage facility of nuclear spent fuels which should be built outside the Fukui Prefecture.
The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO), the operator of the Ohi Units 3&4, will begin to load nuclear fuels in early December and restart the Unit 3 in mid-January 2018.
The Unit 4 is expected its fuel loading in early February, and restart in mid-March.
November 6, 2017
Participants to the training course of Nuclear Energy Officials (NEO) visited the Kobe Shipyard of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industry (MHI) On October 31, 2017.
They observed the manufacturing process of steam generators, simulators and non-distractive testing facilities in the MHI factories.
The training course is operated by the FIHRDC/WERC, organized by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture Sports Science and Technology (MEXT) from October 23 to November 10.
The ten participants are from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. Another two Polish experts joined the NEO as observers funded by the JICC project.
October 6, 2017
On October 4, 2017, Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) of Japan accepted
a draft of a document which confirms the safety measures of Kasiwazaki-Kariwa
(KK) Units 6&7 submitted by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)
complies with the new regulatory requirements set after the Fukushima Daiichi
Accident. Both units are 1356 MWe-ABWR. This approval is the first case
for the Japanese boiling water reactors after the accident. The KK Units
6&7 are expected to be restarted within several years completing their
plant modification and obtaining consents to the restarts by the local
governments represented by the Niigata Prefecture.
September 29, 2017
Ten experts from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam joined the Training Course of Nuclear Plant Safety (NPS2017) operated by the FIHRDC/WERC, organized by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture Sports Science and Technology (MEXT) held in September 19 through October 13.
The trainees visited the Kindai University and learned reactivity measurement and neutron and X-ray radiography using the University Training and Research Reactor of Kindai University (UTR-KINKI) which is a 1W reactor restarted on April 12, 2017 clearing the new regulation standards set after the Fukushima Daiichi Accident.
This was the first international training for the UTR-KINKI after its restart.
September 22, 2017
An IAEA training course was held in the FIHRDC/WERC in the AQUATOM building
from 11 to 15 of September 2017 inviting Ms. Abida Khatoon, a private external
expert of the IAEA and 10 participants from seven Asian countries. The
course was organized as an instructor training course of the Asian Nuclear
Safety Network (ANSN). The course focused on the leadership on safety.
Responsibilities of operators, regulators and country officials were intensively
discussed. The next training course on the same topic is planned to be
held again in the next April.
September 7, 2017
On September 2, a city festival, Tsuruga-Masturi started combining with the traditional Kehi-Shrine Shinto Festival.
The shrine locates almost 300 m east of the FIHRDC office in the AQUATOM building.
Every year, the biggest festival of the Kehi Shrine is held to celebrate the given happiness by the Shinto God from September 2 to 15.
Citizens of Tsuruga also enjoy with several kinds of parades shown in the pictures.
August 29, 2017
On August 28, 2017, the Kyusyu Electric Power Company announced its Genkai
Unit 3 (PWR, 1.18GW) is expected to be restarted in January 2018. Ohi Units
3&4 (Both PWR, 1.18GW) of the Kansai Electric Power Company are also
expected to be restarted in January and March of 2018, respectively. All
announcements were released with the applications of pre-service inspections
of the units to the NRA submitted on the same day.
What is FIHRDC-AE
The Fukui International Human Resources Development Center for Atomic Energy (FIHRDC-AE), founded in April 2011 in Fukui, has intension to be a focal point of nuclear human resource development (HRD) in Japan. To achieve this goal, FIHRDC-AE has established close cooperation with not only many research institutes and training centers in the Fukui Prefecture but also universities and other organizations in its neighboring regions: Kansai and Chukyo. The activities of the center always aim to contribute to nuclear safety and HRD in the world through fostering competent human resources to meet needs from home and abroad.
Energy Research and Development Centralization Plan
The Fukui Prefectural Government established the Energy Research and Development Centralization Plan (ERDCP) in March 2005 to realize a self-reliant cooperation between the region and nuclear organizations. Utilizing the very specific features of the prefecture with various types of 15 reactors in Reinan (the south region of the prefecture), the ERDCP aimed to make the region to be a center of research activities on nuclear power.
The FIHRDC was also established as a part of the activities of the ERDCP.
