Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, trade and industry minister Yukio Edano and two other Cabinet ministers on April 13 concluded that the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai Electronic Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture are safe enough to restart even though adequate safety standards and measures are lacking. A final decision has yet to be made.
Apparently the ministers want the reactors back online by May 5 when the No. 3 reactor at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s Tomari nuclear power plant, Japan's only operating reactor, is taken offline for a regular inspection. We believe the ministers are trying to prevent a situation that convincingly demonstrates that Japan can manage without nuclear power.
The Cabinet ministers made their judgement based on the results of a stress test and provisional safety standards despite the fact that Nuclear Safety Commission Chairman Haruki Madarame has publicly stated said that stress tests cannot be used to gauge the safety of nuclear power plants. The results of a stress test — a computer simulation — can vary depending on the data fed into computers and the computer programs used.