NRA Looks to Review Deadline for N-Plants to Install Anti-Terrorism Facilities, Hoping to Make Goals More Attainable

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:13 JST, February 19, 2026

The Nuclear Regulation Authority decided on Wednesday to review the grace period for installing facilities for responding to specified major accidents as mandated anti-terrorism measures for nuclear power plants.

The grace period is currently within five years from the approval of the modification plan for the nuclear power plant. This review is based on the fact that most nuclear power plants restarted to date have failed to meet the installation deadline. The NRA intends to proceed with discussions, including over the possibility of extending the deadline.

The facilities are installed away from nuclear reactors and are designed to remotely cool the reactors in the event of terrorist attacks such as impacts by aircraft. The facilities are mandated under new regulatory standards based on lessons learned from the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The NRA set the five-year deadline with consideration for the time required for installation.

According to the NRA’s secretariat, 11 of the 12 reactors at six nuclear power plants were without such facilities by the deadline.

At the regular meeting on Wednesday, NRA members repeatedly expressed concerns, saying, “Construction [of the facilities] is not on schedule. Changes must be made [to the deadline].”

Going forward, the NRA will consider options such as shifting the start of the five-year grace period from when a modification plan for the nuclear power plant is approved to when commercial operations of the plant begin.

“It is not the role of a regulatory authority to enforce rules that cannot be followed, no matter how hard one tries. This review is intended to improve the current situation, not deregulate.” NRA Chairman Shinsuke Yamanaka said at the press conference on the day.

Under the current rules, among restarted reactors, Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s No. 2 reactor at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture and TEPCO’s No. 6 reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture would be shut down in the near future. This is because their facilities for responding to specified major accidents will not be completed by their respective installation deadlines of 2026 and 2029.