Safety in 30 points ?

Govt to draft new criteria to restart reactors

The Yomiuri Shimbun

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120404005785.htm

Aiming to restart idled reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has instructed ministers related to nuclear power safety to quickly draw up a new set of safety criteria based on lessons learned from the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano was among those who attended the meeting on Tuesday, the first such meeting to be held.

The meeting was held to discuss the possible resumption of operations at the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s power plant in Oi.

The government will present the new safety criteria at the next meeting of related ministers scheduled for later this week, and will start consolidating opinions with the aim of making requests to relevant local governments, including the Fukui prefectural government, on resuming operations at reactors.

During the first meeting, Noda told the ministers: "Some have pointed out that the current criteria for judging whether to resume operations at nuclear reactors is difficult to grasp. I want you to draw up tentative safety criteria based on a causal analysis of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant."

The meeting was also attended by Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of nuclear power policy, and Yoshito Sengoku, acting chairman of the Democratic Party of Japan's Policy Research Committee.

As a condition for agreeing to give his approval for restarting the reactors, Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa requested the central government to create new safety criteria based on knowledge and lessons learned from the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has drawn up a 30-item list of safety measures, which includes provisions for multiple emergency power sources and reinforcing a device to lower internal reactor pressure during a crisis.

The government is expected to present the new safety criteria in easy-to-understand ways. However, it is unlikely the new criteria will make restarting reactors any more difficult, according to informed sources.

If the government decides the new criteria are appropriate and the reactors at the Oi power plant meet these criteria, Edano will visit Fukui to seek the prefectural government's approval to restart the reactors.

"It will not take much time before the government holds explanatory sessions with local governments and residents to improve their understanding about potentially restarting the reactors," a government source said, hinting the government will make its requests to local governments at an early date.

However, following the first meeting, Edano said: "It will take a certain amount of time [for the government] to win people's understanding. As a rough-and-ready approach is not desirable, we haven't had any concrete prospects [for a government conclusion on restarting the reactors]."

The government will forecast the electricity supply and demand for this summer sometime around Golden Week, which starts in late April.

If operations at the Oi reactors are not decided within the month, there is a high likelihood that businesses and households in the Kansai region will be asked to undertake strict electricity-saving measures. Whether a political decision on resuming reactor operations is made quickly is the real issue at this point.

30-point safety measures for nuclear plants

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120405_24.html

The government is drafting new safety standards for nuclear plants, based on steps drawn up by Japan's nuclear regulator following the Fukushima disaster.

The 30 steps are designed to address factors the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has singled out for causing the fuel meltdowns and huge radioactive leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last year.

The agency says the plant lost power sources needed to activate safety devices, and the operator installed key power sources in one place, which broke down due to a single cause. In addition, the tsunami disabled all functions to inject cooling water into reactors.

It says the operator was also slow to release radioactive air to prevent hydrogen explosions, and gauges and communication devices to grasp the situation inside the reactors were unusable.

The 30 steps call for plant operators to secure multiple emergency power sources, protect facilities from tsunami and install electrical equipment in different locations.

Other requirements include storing long-lasting emergency batteries and setting up headquarters that are quake-resistant and shielded from radiation.

The agency says 13 out of the 30 steps are emergency measures and some have already been implemented. The rest are mid- and long-term measures that require new equipment and facilities.

The agency explains that the 30 points are not the safety standards that communities are requesting before restarting reactors. Rather, it says, they are part of the process for drafting the standards.