All Japanese nuclear plants will be screened for active faults

October 5, 2012

All nuclear plants to undergo quake fault assessment: NRA official

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121005p2a00m0na010000c.html

All nuclear power plants across Japan will undergo screening for active earthquake faults, a senior Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) official has told the Mainichi.

Kunihiko Shimazaki, acting chairman of the NRA, revealed the planned inspections, which will also apply to nuclear plants under construction, during an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun on Oct. 4.

Under the plan, six nuclear plants and facilities that had earlier been ordered resurveyed by the NRA's predecessor, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), will undergo field surveys. The remaining nuclear plants will also be screened under new safety standards, whose outline will be put forth by the NRA as early as the end of fiscal 2012.

NISA, which is now defunct, had ordered the six nuclear facilities re-examined on the grounds that "the possibility of active faults existing (under their premises) cannot be ruled out." The NRA will dispatch research teams comprising external experts to those facilities, starting with the Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture in late October.

Referring to the Oma nuclear plant in Aomori Prefecture, whose construction was recently restarted by Electric Power Development Co. (J-Power), Shimazaki said, "If we receive a report from the plant operator (on fault survey results), we will take similar measures," hinting that the plant would undergo a field survey. Some experts have pointed to the possibility of faults running under and around the plant being active.

"We will formulate new safety standards, and will proceed with regulations by applying them to existing nuclear plants. In the future, all nuclear plants will eventually be reviewed (for earthquake fault evaluations)," Shimazaki said.

Previously nuclear plants under construction had not been included in plans for fault re-examinations.

Asked how NRA will respond should an active fault be found directly beneath a reactor building, Shimazaki said, "We will take appropriate responses, including demanding the operator to suspend the facility's operation."