At present, two
pressurized-water reactors are working in the project.
Under current arrangements in their collaboration, Toshiba has made steam turbines used at boiling- and
pressurized-water reactors while IHI has delivered other equipment needed at nuclear power stations such as pressure vessels for reactors.
NFI, Japan's sole producer of nuclear fuel for both boiled-water and
pressurized-water reactors, was established in 1972 as a fifty-fifty venture by integrating the nuclear power businesses of the two Japanese firms.
In April, it received an order for two 1.1-million-kilowatt advanced
pressurized-water reactors for a nuclear power station in Georgia.
As Japan's only producer of nuclear fuel for both boiling-water reactors and
pressurized-water reactors, the Tokyo-based company processes uranium powder into nuclear fuel and supplies power firms across the country.
2 reactors of the Tomari plant are 579,000-kilowatt
pressurized-water reactors.
The order, issued by the Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency, covers safety checks on pipes for cooling water and steam in the so-called secondary system of pressurized-water reactors. Inspectors from the agency say the accident in the Mihama plant was probably triggered by corrosion in a pipe for water coolants used to generate electricity.
Japan has 52 nuclear reactors in service, 23 of them pressurized-water reactors, the same as the one in Mihama.
When put together with the utility firm's 10 other
pressurized-water reactors, the same type as the No.
The so-called secondary system of
pressurized-water reactors, which have thinned due to corrosion, does not contain radioactive materials, and because of this power companies had been entrusted to take care of inspections.
The accident occurred in one of the
pressurized-water reactors, which account for about half of all nuclear power facilities in Japan.