The Nuclear Regulation Authority appears to be moving toward approving Tokyo Electric Power Company Holding Inc.'s bid to restart two of the idled reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant in Niigata Prefecture — the same type of boiling water reactor (BWR) that suffered core meltdowns at its Fukushima No. 1 plant in 2011. Tepco sees the restart of reactors 6 and 7 at the Niigata plant as vital to its financial reconstruction. However, the way the NRA is wrapping up its safety screening of Tepco's plan seems less than convincing.
Even if the NRA gives it nod, it remains uncertain when the plant will be restarted given that Niigata Gov. Ryuichi Yoneyama says it will take "at least three to four more years" before making a judgment on whether to grant local consent to the restart, which he says will require a full review of the 2011 crisis. Instead of rushing to a decision, what's required of the NRA is a screening process that will be accountable to the public.
In a meeting last Wednesday, the NRA held off certifying the safety of the two Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors, as it had been widely expected to do, in the face of criticism that it has not sufficiently discussed whether Tepco, responsible for the 2011 disaster, is fit to operate a nuclear plant. It was believed that the NRA wanted to wrap up the screening while Chairman Shunichi Tanaka, who will leave the post this week, was still on board. Still, Tanaka told a news conference that the nuclear watchdog has reached a consensus that Tepco is qualified to run nuclear plants.