Tsuruga : active or not active?

May 14, 2013

Tsuruga plant host city calls for cautious deliberations on faults

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130514p2g00m0dm040000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The mayor of the city hosting the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in western Japan on Monday called on nuclear regulators for "cautious deliberations" before reaching a conclusion on whether one of the plant's reactors are sitting above an active fault.

"I have doubts about (the Nuclear Regulation Authority's) rushing toward a conclusion," Kazuharu Kawase, mayor of the city of Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture, said when he visited the NRA's office just days before an NRA-appointed panel is expected to conclude that a fault below the Tsuruga plant's No. 2 reactor is likely to be active.

If the five NRA commissioners agree that the reactor is likely to be above an active fault based on the panel's assessment, plant operator Japan Atomic Power Co. may be left with no option but to scrap the facility.

Noting that Japan Atomic Power is yet to finish its ongoing investigations on the fault, Kawase added, "I want the NRA to cautiously deliberate the matter from a broad viewpoint, reflecting the outcome of the operator's investigations and various opinions in and outside the country."

The Tsuruga plant on the Sea of Japan coast has two units, with the No. 1 reactor starting commercial operation in 1970 and the No. 2 reactor in 1987.

Kawase has said during talks with a senior official of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry that the local economy is "battered" because of the suspension of the two reactors, while discussions over the faults have made prospects unclear.

The NRA's Deputy Secretary-General Hideka Morimoto, however, sought understanding over the panel's plan to compile its assessment on Wednesday.

"The panel has spent quite a long time (on discussions)...and is trying to summarize its assessment by using the data available at this moment," he said.

But he also said the assessment could be reviewed if Japan Atomic Power submits new findings.

In quake-prone Japan, nuclear power plant operators are not allowed to build reactors and other facilities important for safe reactor operation directly above faults that could move in the future.

The NRA plans to introduce new safety requirements from July in the wake of the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in 2011, a move that will pave the way for the restart of the country's reactors, most of which are now offline.

But a reactor with an active fault underneath is unlikely to be able to clear the safety assessments to be conducted by the NRA.