TOKYO (Kyodo) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said Thursday it will set up a new division dedicated to enhancing safety measures at nuclear power plants in Japan.
A team of about 20 people, including veteran engineers, will work on devising measures to improve nuclear power plants' ability to withstand natural disasters. This month the government announced it would subject all nuclear reactors in Japan to stress tests, designed to assess their ability to withstand extreme natural disasters like the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The new division will help nuclear plant operators prepare to cope with a complete loss of power in the event of a disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex 220 kilometers north of Tokyo experienced "station blackout" when a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck it in March.
The loss of power meant plant operators were not only unable to shut down the four nuclear generators operating at the time, but even to maintain critical cooling once normal procedures failed and back-up functions were rendered inoperable by the power blackout. That led to the meltdowns of three reactors, explosions and the release of radioactive material in the worst nuclear accident ever in Japan.
Mitsubishi Heavy is a manufacturer of pressurized water reactors run by such utilities as Kansai Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co.
