A five-member panel of the Nuclear Regulation Authority last Wednesday issued a report saying that the D-1 fracture zone of pebbles and sediment running beneath the No. 2 reactor of Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture is an active fault.
Because constructing important nuclear-related facilities above an active fault is banned, the company will very likely have no other choice than to decommission the reactor.
On the basis of the report, the NRA is expected to decide soon not to allow the restart of the reactor. The NRA should not bow to the pressure that is expected to come from the company and the Liberal Democratic Party. It should make a decision solely relying on convincing scientific findings