TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's largest electric utility company Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, also known as Tepco, will postpone construction of an Aomori Prefecture nuclear reactor by one year to comply with the tougher screening process adopted after a major Niigata earthquake last July, the Nikkei reported at the weekend, without citing sources.
Tepco had planned to start building a reactor at the Higashidori nuclear power plant in the year to March 2009, eyeing an operational start in the year to March 2015, the business daily said.
With an output capacity of 1.38 million kilowatts, the Higashidori No. 1 reactor is expected to account for slightly more than 2 percent of the utility's power output once it comes on line, it said.
A permit from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry is required to build a nuclear reactor, but this permit is issued only after the plans have cleared two safety assessments -- the first by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the second by the Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission, the report said.
During the July earthquake, Tepco's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture was damaged by a tremor far stronger than the facility was designed to withstand, it said.
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