Chubu Electric eyes restarting Hamaoka nuke reactor in July+

NAGOYA, April 28 Kyodo -
Chubu Electric Power Co. plans to restart a nuclear reactor at its Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture after the present regular checkups in July, the utility said Thursday despite mounting local concerns about the plant's safety amid a nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture.
Chubu Electric President Akihisa Mizuno said the restart of the No. 3 reactor is contingent on local consent, but Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu indicated again his intention not to approve the restart in the immediate future.
''Measures against tsunami waves are insufficient. We think that it would be difficult to restart it in July,'' Kawakatsu told reporters in Shizuoka, adding whether to approve the restart will depend on ''new anti-tsunami measures.''
Located on the Pacific coast in Omaezaki, southwest of Tokyo, the Hamaoka complex stands in an area where a magnitude-8 class earthquake is strongly projected to hit. The ongoing crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was caused by the magnitude-9 quake and tsunami of March 11.
At the complex, the Nos. 4 and 5 nuclear reactors are now in operation. No. 1 and 2 reactors have already been decommissioned.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government will carefully consider whether the Hamaoka No. 3 reactor should be restarted in the event the operator files for it.
Chubu Electric had intended at first to restart the reactor in March but has delayed the move as the government has called for thorough checks on the safety measures for nuclear power plants following the quake-tsunami disaster.
Chubu Electric made the July restart plan as a precondition for estimating earnings for fiscal 2011 which starts this month and predicted that any delay in the restart beyond July could cost the company an additional 200 million yen per day.
Mizuno told a press conference in Nagoya that the schedule was made for the consideration of interested investors.
Kawakatsu said he had received no advanced notice on the plan.
Omaezaki Mayor Shigeo Ishihara said he received advanced notice and decided that he did not have to notify the prefectural government of the plan that should be separated from any actual schedule.
The condition for his possible approval of the restart is that Chubu Electric clear new safety standards that the central government would work out in response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident, the mayor said.
==Kyodo