POWER April 2012 - 12

THE BIG PICTURE: Nuclear Aftershocks
In the year following the Fukushima accident in Japan, the nuclear sector has seen several setbacks (text in orange) as well as major
milestones (white). Background image from video of the Daiichi plant in the early morning hours of March 12. Courtesy: TEPCO
-Sonal Patel is POWER's senior writer.
March 11, 2011: A magnitude 9.0 temblor and 130-foot-high tsunami waves kill 25,000 people and inundate
Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO's) Fukushima Daiichi plant. Cores of Daiichi 1, 2, and 3 largely melt within the
fi rst three days of the crisis.
March 18: Israel drops plans for new nuclear plant.
March 28: The Chinese government reduces its nuclear capacity targets by about 10 GW from the 90 GW
previously expected by 2020.
April 13: Taiwan halts plans for new reactors.
April 19: NRG Energy pulls fi nancial backing for the South Texas Project expansion of two new advanced
boiling water reactors.
May 12: Pakistan's third nuclear plant, Chashma Unit 2, begins commercial operation.
May 25: Switzerland abandons plans to build new reactors, while European Union regulators agree on a framework
for stress-testing theirs.
May 30: German Chancellor Angela Merkel endorses blueprint to shut down all 17 German reactors by 2022.
June 11: Italy overwhelmingly votes to abandon nuclear power.
Aug. 3: UK announces closure of its Sellafi eld Mixed Oxide Plant.
Aug. 7: China's Ling Ao Phase II-2 unit officially begins commercial operation.
Aug. 18: Tennessee Valley Authority Board authorizes utility to complete Bellefonte nuclear plant in Alabama.
Aug. 24: 5.8-magnitude Virginia quake rattles eastern U.S., prompting 11 nuclear stations to report unusual events
to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Sept. 22: Siemens announces it will quit the nuclear business.
Sept. 29: Construction completed at Atucha II, Argentina's third nuclear plant, 30 years after work began.
Nov. 3: Taiwan rejects plans to operate its two existing nuclear plants beyond their planned 40-year lives in
effort to make the island " nuclear free. "
Nov. 3: Mexico abandons plans to build as many as 10 new reactors and focuses on new natural gas plants
after gas discovery boosts.
Nov. 18: Post-quake restart at North Anna nuclear plant (Va.).
Dec. 5: Indonesia approves construction of its fi rst nuclear plant.
Dec. 6: TEPCO technical analysis concludes fuel in Daiichi 1 mostly melted out of reactor pressure vessel
(RPV) and into primary containment vessel. Fuel melted in Units 2 and 3 but remained in RPVs.
Dec. 12: Russia begins commercial operation of new Kalinin Nuclear Plant Unit 4 in the Tver region.
Dec. 12: Canada's Bruce Power abandons plans to build a new nuclear plant in Alberta.
Dec. 14: UK regulators issue interim design approvals for EPR and AP1000, Gen III+ reactors.
Dec. 17: Japan's government and TEPCO declare Daiichi 1, 2, 3 are in cold shutdown.
Dec. 23: NRC approves Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor design.
Jan. 6: Spain's new conservative government asks nuclear safety council to consider operation of 42-year-old
Garoña plant until 2019. Spain also chooses small town Villar de Cañas as site of future waste storage facility.
Jan. 18: UK nuclear safety regulators grant interim acceptance to Areva EPR and Westinghouse AP1000.
Jan. 26: U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's Blue Ribbon Commission releases its fi nal report on how to manage
and dispose of spent fuel waste.
Feb. 9: NRC issues fi rst nuclear combined construction and operation license for new AP1000 reactors to the
Vogtle expansion in Georgia.
Feb. 22: Kuwait scraps plans for four new Japanese-built reactors.
Feb. 23: South Korea's two newest reactors, Shin Kori 2 and Shin Wolsong, are connected to the grid.
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