Hamaoka nuclear reactor shut down in Japan

The Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Japan was completely shut down Saturday, The Mainichi Daily News reported.

The shutting of this NPP follows an unprecedented request by the government due to fears of a large earthquake possibly hitting the area on an active major fault line, the operator said.

Chubu Electric Power Co. said it hopes to resume the plant in Shizuoka Prefecture soon after taking measures to block quake-triggered tsunami waves but Gov. Heita Kawakatsu remains cautious about the idea. The government said the suspension will last for two to three years.

The operator finished work at 10:15 am to stop atomic fission at its last active reactor, the No. 5 unit, of the plant in Omaezaki, about 180 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.

The utility began putting control rods into the reactor's core earlier in the day.

The No. 4 reactor, the other unit which was operating, was suspended Friday.

The No. 1 and 2 reactors have already been shut down for decommissioning, while its No. 3 reactor was suspended for regular checkups.

The operator said it will bring the No. 5 reactor to a stable condition called a ''cold shutdown'' on Sunday morning. The No. 4 unit already entered stable condition Friday night.

Chubu Electric, based in Nagoya, will lose more than 10 percent of its power supply capacity with the shutdown of the 3.6 million-kilowatt Hamaoka plant, its only atomic plant.

The company said it will reboot its suspended thermal power station to meet the summer peak demand and ask its users to save electricity.

The Hamaoka complex stands in an area where a magnitude-8 earthquake is strongly projected. The so-called Tokai Earthquake is the only quake against which authorities in Japan compile top-level prevention measures on the assumption that they will be able to predict it.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu Electric to halt the Hamaoka plant as Japan struggles to contain its worst radiation leakage accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant, resulting from the March 11 massive quake and tsunami.