Japanese regulators disqualify a reactor under post-Fukushima safety standards for the first time

Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday formally disqualified a reactor within the nation’s north-central area for a restart, the primary rejection below security requirements that have been strengthened after the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe. The choice is a setback for Japan because it seeks to speed up reactor restarts to maximise nuclear energy.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority at an everyday assembly Wednesday introduced the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor is “unfit” as its operator failed to handle security dangers stemming from potential energetic faults beneath it.

Tsuruga No. 2, operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Co., is the primary reactor to be rejected below the protection requirements adopted in 2013 based mostly on classes from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi meltdown catastrophe following a massive earthquake and tsunami.

“We reached our conclusion based on a very strict examination,” NRA chairperson Shinsuke Yamanaka informed reporters.

The decision comes after greater than eight years of security evaluations that have been repeatedly disrupted by information coverups and errors by the operator, Yamanaka stated. He referred to as the case “abnormal” and urged the utility to take the consequence critically.

The choice is a blow to Japan Atomic Energy as a result of it just about ends its hopes for a restart. The operator, which is decommissioning its different reactor, Tsuruga No. 1, had hoped to place No. 2 again on-line, however it might require an examination of dozens of faults across the reactor to show their security.

An NRA security panel concluded three months in the past there isn’t any proof denying the potential of energetic faults about 300 meters (330 yards) north of the No. 2 reactor stretching to proper beneath the power, which means the reactor can’t be operated.

Japan’s authorities in 2022 adopted a plan to maximise using nuclear vitality, pushing to speed up reactor restarts to safe a steady vitality provide and meet its pledge to succeed in carbon neutrality by 2050.

Concern in regards to the authorities’s revived push for nuclear vitality grew after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit Japan’s Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1, 2024, killing greater than 400 individuals and damaging greater than 100,000 buildings. The quake prompted minor injury to 2 close by nuclear amenities, and evacuation plans for the area have been discovered to be insufficient.

Constructing key nuclear amenities, comparable to reactors, instantly above energetic faults is prohibited in earthquake-prone Japan.

Yamanaka stated the NRA just isn’t instantly ordering a decommissioning as a result of the reactor, which is offline and its spent fuel safely cooled, is not going to pose a serious menace if energetic faults transfer.

If the utility decides to reapply, it should deal with not solely the faults concern but it surely additionally should implement enough security measures for the whole plant, Yamanaka stated. Offering scientific proof of the standing of faults beneath key nuclear facilities is troublesome, however different operators that obtained restart permits all cleared the requirement, he famous.

The Tsuruga No. 2 reactor first began industrial operation in February 1987 and has been offline since Might 2011. The operator denied the NRA panel’s 2013 on-site inspection outcomes, which concluded that the faults below the No. 2 reactor have been energetic, and it utilized for a restart in 2015.

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