Safety drills monitored by NRA

April 9, 2015

Inspectors to monitor drills at nuclear plants

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

Apr. 9, 2015 - Updated 00:49 UTC+2

Japan's nuclear watchdog is to send inspectors to monitor drills on dealing with severe accidents at idled nuclear power reactors before they are put back online.

All commercial reactors in Japan are now offline. The Nuclear Regulation Authority must determine whether the operators' measures meet the stricter requirements introduced after the 2011 Fukushima accident.

Four reactors have cleared the new regulations -- 2 at the Sendai plant in southwestern Japan and 2 at the Takahama plant in central Japan.

Utilities have been required to explain procedures to handle severe accidents. One example is preventing damage to the reactor core by using newly introduced emergency power-generation vehicles and pump trucks.

At a meeting on Wednesday, NRA officials decided to have utilities carry out a comprehensive drill before the reactors are restarted, under the assumption a severe accident had taken place. They will send inspectors to monitor the procedures to see whether workers are capable of carrying them out.

Participants in the drills will be told beforehand what the accident scenario will be, such as loss of the entire power supply. They will be required to carry out the necessary procedures within a limited time.

Similar checks will be conducted once a year to confirm that workers are capable of responding to accidents.