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The effects of the Kumamoto earthquakes on Sendai Nuclear Power Station

April  21,  2016
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan

We would like to express our deepest condolences to the victims for all the people who lost their lives in the earthquakes in Kumamoto, as well as our sincere sympathies for all those who have been affected.

Regarding the effects of the Kumamoto earthquake on Sendai NPS, both Units 1 and 2 are continuing safe operation. No anomalies have been reported in the monitoring of plant status and field inspections.

Nuclear power stations are built in with a mechanism to automatically shutdown when detecting tremors that are above a set value. The value set for automatic shutdown at Sendai NPS is 160gal*.

On the other hand, the tremor observed during the main shock of the Kumamoto earthquake occurring at 1:25am on April 16 (Friday) (Seismic intensity 7, M7.3) was 8.6 gal* at the foundation of the Sendai NPS. This does not risk endangering safe operation of the nuclear power station.

Please refer to the following document for details of the effects of the Kumamoto earthquakes on Sendai Nuclear Power Station.

*Gal: A unit indicating the acceleration of the seismic motion, which is the change in speed during one second, and 1gal is equivalent to an acceleration rate of 1cm/second.
For example, when a vehicle starts rolling, the shorter the time it takes to reach a certain speed, the larger the acceleration. 

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