Proper evacuation plans should be prerequisite for restart

January 7, 2014

Editorial: Prioritize evacuation plans before restarting nuclear reactors

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20140107p2a00m0na002000c.html 

拡大写真

Tohoku Electric Power Co. applied with the government's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) for safety inspections of its No. 2 reactor at the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant in Miyagi Prefecture at the end of last year, a move prerequisite for restarting the reactor.

This is the first application for safety inspections on a nuclear power station in an area hit by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. With the move, seven power companies have so far applied with the NRA for safety inspections of 16 reactors at their nine nuclear power stations since the enforcement of the new regulatory standards for nuclear plants in July 2013.

Power suppliers are making haste to restart their nuclear reactors in a desperate effort to improve their financial situations, but many of the local governments hosting these power stations have not yet drawn up plans detailing evacuation methods or routes for local residents. Legally, compilation of evacuation plans is not a prerequisite for restarting nuclear reactors. Still, reactivation without such plans would be tantamount to reviving the myth of nuclear plants' infallible safety that was destroyed by the outbreak of the nuclear crisis.

The government should clearly declare that local municipalities hosting nuclear power stations must work out evacuation plans and ensure their effectiveness, in addition to idled nuclear reactors passing NRA safety inspections, as preconditions for reactivating them.

Recent opinion polls show that much of the public hopes that Japan will end its reliance on nuclear power.

Nevertheless, a draft of the basic plan on energy that the government worked out at the end of last year characterizes nuclear power as a base power source and states that Japan will retain a certain ratio of atomic power to Japan's total electricity consumption. Moreover, the draft says that the government will allow power companies to restart their idled nuclear reactors if their safety is confirmed through the NRA's inspections.

The new regulatory standards are the bare minimum that all nuclear regulators must meet before being reactivated.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set a target of decreasing Japan's reliance on atomic power. Such being the case, the government should play a leading role in determining how many nuclear plants should be in operation in light of the risks of accidents, and gradually decommission reactors beginning with those that are oldest and most vulnerable to earthquakes.

The Onagawa plant was hit by stronger shaking and higher tsunami in the Great East Japan Earthquake than anticipated. Its operator argues that the plant's main equipment withstood the disasters, but it is understandable that some local municipalities that host the power station are opposed to the planned restart of the plant for fear of an accident.

Following the quake and tsunami, the government revised the guidelines for countermeasures against nuclear plant disasters to require 135 municipalities across the country that are situated within 30 kilometers from atomic power stations to map out their own plans to evacuate local residents in case of a nuclear accident.

Still, a Cabinet Office survey shows that only 40 percent of these local bodies had drawn up such plans as of Dec. 2, 2013.

None of the local bodies hosting the Onagawa plant and the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture -- whose operators have applied for safety inspections -- have worked out their evacuation plans. That is also the case with local municipalities hosting the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, whose operator is set to apply for safety inspections within the current fiscal year. These local bodies face various difficulties in working out their evacuation plans, such as the large scale of damage that is feared will result from a powerful quake and the large population of their neighboring areas.

Even if local governments are to compile evacuation plans, they would be meaningless unless the municipalities repeatedly hold evacuation drills and ensure their effectiveness. The new regulatory standards for nuclear reactors should have required local bodies hosting nuclear power stations to map out evacuation plans as a precondition for reactivating idled nuclear reactors. In the United States, a number of nuclear plants were decommissioned because local bodies hosting them failed to work out evacuation plans for local residents.

The central government began in autumn last year to help municipalities around nuclear plants compile their evacuation plans. The government should step up these efforts and scrutinize the appropriateness of evacuation plans that local bodies produce.