NRA Draft Report Says N-reactor Noncompliant

Jiji Press

17:28 JST, August 28, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Nuclear Regulation Authority on Wednesday adopted a draft screening report declaring the No. 2 reactor of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture noncompliant with the country’s new safety standards.

The NRA will decide whether to formally adopt the report after collecting public comments on it for about a month.

While it will be effectively impossible to restart the 1.16-million-kilowatt Tsuruga No. 2 reactor if the report is formally adopted, Japan Atomic Power Co., the operator of the plant, has indicated that it will reapply for approval to get the reactor back online.

The new safety standards, introduced in 2013 in response to the 2011 nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant, do not allow the installation of important nuclear plant facilities, such as reactor buildings, on any active faults.

So far, 17 reactors in the country have passed the NRA’s safety screenings under the new standards. It will be the first time for a nuclear reactor to be declared not meeting the standards.

At Wednesday’s meeting of the NRA, a commissioner said: “We spent a lot of time on the screening. I have no objection to the conclusion.”

Regarding a fuel storage pool at the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor building where some 1,100 units of spent nuclear fuel are kept, the NRA judged that no additional safety measures would be required as there are no problems with the current measures.

The screening report adopted Wednesday said the possibility cannot be denied that a fault near the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor building, called K, may move in the future and that a fault directly under the building may be connected to the K fault. The report thus concluded that the reactor cannot be considered to be meeting the safety standards.

Although Japan Atomic Power had denied activity or continuity of the K fault, a screening team of the NRA judged in July that it was difficult to deny either of them. After hearing opinions from Japan Atomic Power President Mamoru Muramatsu, the NRA decided on Aug. 2 on a plan to declare the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor noncompliant with the safety standards as reported by the screening team.

After the safety screening of the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor started in 2015, many problems were found in documents submitted by Japan Atomic Power, including unauthorized revisions of geological data. The screening followed an unprecedented course, with the process halted twice and the NRA issuing an administrative guidance to the plant operator.