Tsuruga: Restart or scrap?

September 4, 2014

NRA’s final ruling on fault to force scrapping of Tsuruga reactor

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/09/04/national/nras-final-ruling-on-fault-to-force-scrapping-of-tsuruga-reactor/#.VAizfGOnq1s

Kyodo

A panel convened by the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Thursday its opinion that a fault beneath a reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant is active has not been swayed by the additional data provided by its manager.

The move leaves Japan Atomic Power Co. no choice but to scrap the No. 2 reactor at the two-unit Tsuruga complex, which sits on the Sea of Japan coastline of Fukui Prefecture.

The NRA acknowledged last year that the fault is active, but Japan Atomic later submitted additional data to overturn the regulator’s judgment, which the panel rejected at its meeting on Thursday.

Taiki Ichimura, vice president of Japan Atomic Power, called for more discussions on the issue, but NRA Commissioner Kunihiko Shimazaki brushed it off, saying that its ruling was final.

“Enough scientific debates have been held,” he said.

The nuclear regulator might compile an amended version of its report as early as in October to reflect changes in details.

September 4, 2014

Utility defends safety of Tsuruga power plant

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140904_32.html

Sep. 4, 2014 - Updated 12:13 UTC+2

The operator of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture has presented new data to challenge the finding by Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority that a fault beneath the plant could move in the future.

The authority determined in May of last year that the fault beneath the plant's No.2 reactor has the potential to shift in the future. The finding has prevented the restart of the reactor and may lead to its decommissioning.

Utility officials explained at a meeting with experts from the authority on Thursday that a new analysis of deposits in a geological formation in the compound shows that the fault has not shifted over the past 120,000 years or so.

The utility also explained there is no possibility that the fault under the reactor will shift together with another fault located some distance away within the plant compound.

Many experts at the meeting said the utility has yet to produce enough objective data to support its claims.

Kunihiko Shimazu of the Regulation Authority has said it will start drawing up conclusions as to whether to allow the restart of the reactor at the next meeting.