Japan nuke plant clears hurdle, set to restart
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A JAPANESE nuclear plant won preliminary approval yesterday for meeting stringent post-Fukushima safety requirements, clearing a major hurdle toward becoming the first to restart under the tighter rules.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority accepted a 418-page report that found that design upgrades and safety improvements at Kyushu Electric Power Co’s two reactors at the Sendai Nuclear Power Station have complied with the requirements introduced last July.
The regulators said the plant is now deemed capable of avoiding severe accidents such as the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns in an equally serious situation. All of Japan’s 48 remaining reactors are offline for safety checks and repairs since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima Dai-ichi, causing multiple meltdowns.
Five regulatory commissioners agreed to move to a next step, allowing the authority to hold a 30-day technical public comment period from today until August 15 before a final approval.
Authority’s chairman Shunichi Tanaka called it “a major step” and that the inspection for the Sendai plant incorporated lessons from Fukushima, particularly focusing on ways to build layers of protection in case of serious incidents in a country prone to natural disasters, including volcanic activity and earthquakes.
“Previously, safety inspections were merely design-based, but this time we focused on how to prevent severe accidents,” he told a weekly commissioners’ meeting, which was repeatedly disrupted by heckling from anti-nuclear protesters.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to bring at least some reactors back online.
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