The news that a nuclear plant on the Sea of Japan coast may have been built on at least one active seismic fault line has cast doubt on whether the plant in Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, will ever be restarted.
Four outside experts on the five-member panel from the Nuclear Regulation Authority revealed at a meeting Wednesday that it is possible the fault running beneath the No. 1 reactor of the two-unit plant run by Hokuriku Electric Power Co. is active.
If the regulator issues a judgment reflecting that opinion, the utility would have no option but to shut down the unit permanently.
Furthermore, the panel said two other faults running beneath the plant’s emergency equipment could be active, too.
A regulatory official said the No. 2 unit could avoid decommissioning but that complex construction work would be required to bolster its safety before a restart.
In quake-prone Japan, it is prohibited to build nuclear reactors or other important facilities directly on active fault lines. The issue was thrust into the public spotlight after the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in March 2011 that caused all of the nation’s commercial reactors to be taken offline by September 2013.
Panel members have “largely agreed” on the evaluation of the faults, said NRA Commissioner Akira Ishiwatari, who heads the panel. Ishiwatari said he will compile a report on the matter and present it at the next meeting.
Hokuriku Electric maintains that the faults are not active.
“We had it checked by experts when we built the No. 1 unit. I don’t think there was a major oversight,” Executive Vice President Yutaka Kanai told reporters.
To restart a nuclear reactor, the utility that owns it must pass a safety screening based on new regulations adopted by the NRA, which was set up after the Fukushima crisis began. Hokuriku Electric has already requested a safety screening for the No. 2 reactor.
Amid an increase in imported fuel costs for thermal power plants in the absence of nuclear power, utilities are desperate to restart their nuclear reactors. However, many hurdles stand in the way.
A reactor at Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tsuruga nuclear plant on the Sea of Japan coast is likely to be scrapped after a different panel concluded in March that at least one of the faults running under it could move in the future.
At least two key geological faults under Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s Higashidori plant in Tohoku are also believed to be active.
The situation could affect the government’s plan to continue to use atomic power after the Fukushima crisis. It aims for reactors to account for around 20 percent of the nation’s total power by 2030, compared with 28.6 percent in fiscal 2010 — when the Fukushima No. 1 disaster struck.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to restart nuclear reactors that pass the NRA’s safety tests as soon as possible, but the majority of the public remains opposed.
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