A Japanese electricity firm is to build an 18-metre (60-foot) high barrier to protect a nuclear plant from tsunamis, the company said Wednesday.
Work on the 1.6-kilometre (one mile) long barrier to protect the Hamaoka complex will begin next week and is due to be completed by the end of 2012, Chubu Electric Power said in a statement.
Hamaoka, on the Pacific coast around 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Tokyo, had its reactors shut down on government orders in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which began with the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11.
The height of the protective wall was decided according to historical records of tsunamis in the area and computer simulations. Seismologists say there is an 87 percent chance of a magnitude-8 earthquake hitting the region in the next 30 years.
