Japan Regulator Confirms Safety of Sendai N-Reactors

Tokyo, July 16 (Jiji Press)--Japan's nuclear regulator on Wednesday approved safety measures for two reactors, opening the way for the country hit by a nuclear disaster three years ago to resume nuclear power generation. The Nuclear Regulation Authority adopted a draft report that the safety measures for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s <9508> Sendai nuclear power station in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, satisfy new safety standards that entered into force a year ago. After a 30-day public comment period from Thursday, the report is expected to become final, making the reactors the first ones in Japan to pass the NRA's screenings under the new standards. This is "one step forward," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. His administration seeks to restart reactors satisfying the new safety standards early. The government is determined to push ahead with plans to restart the Sendai reactors while obtaining local understanding, Abe said. The Sendai reactors will be put back into operation as early as autumn after due procedures, such as local approval and preoperation tests. Japan is experiencing its first summer without any active nuclear reactor since the March 2011 triple reactor meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in the country's northeast. The new standards were introduced on July 8 last year to ensure that all nuclear plants across the country prevent or deal with a severe accident like the one that happened at the TEPCO plant just after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent massive tsunami on March 11, 2011. The two Kyushu Electric reactors, each of which has an output capacity of 890,000 kilowatts, are among the 19 reactors on which power companies have submitted applications for NRA safety examinations since the new standards entered into force. The draft focuses on changes in the designs of the reactors that Kyushu Electric will make to improve their safety. The reactors will officially pass the screenings once the NRA approves the company's construction plans and safety rules for the reactors. In the draft, the NRA approved Kyushu Electric's assumption that ground acceleration of up to 620 gal could affect the reactors, up from 540 gal assumed in the firm's initial safety screening application. Kyushu Electric now takes into account major tsunami that could happen in the Ryukyu trench off Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu where the reactors are located. Assuming such a possibility, the firm is now braced for tsunami as high as 6 meters could reach the reactors, up by one meter from its previous assumption. In the draft, the regulatory body judged protective measures against such tsunami to be appropriate, including plans to build walls 15 meters tall to protect coolant water pumps. The authority also approved an improvement in the firm's monitoring system for local volcanic activities. The NRA examined plans to prevent and manage severe accidents by type of emergency. As instructed by the authority, Kyushu Electric added a plan to install equipment to prevent hydrogen explosions. The authority approved the firm's plans to install emergency power sources at various locations and build an emergency management base, as well as preparations for destruction of the facilities that would be caused by unusual events such as terrorist attacks and aircraft impact. The NRA spent one year to examine the firm's application made in July last year, though many observers had expected that the safety screenings would end in a half year. During the 110 hours of NRA meetings on Kyushu Electric's application, the firm was requested to add new measures on dozens of points. NRA Commissioner Kunihiko Shimazaki at one point expressed his strong concern about the firm's assumptions of tsunami. The NRA's examinations on other reactors are also taking longer than initially expected because applicants were ill-prepared and lenient in their assumptions of quakes and other adversity events. With the NRA's draft about the Sendai reactors is out, the next focus is whether local residents will support their restart. The Kagoshima prefectural government plans to hold briefings with locals in five locations within 30 kilometers from the power station, probably in October. But many locals remain uneasy about the restart. Some claim no effective evacuation plans have been drawn up. Outside the NRA, volcano experts question the stance of the authority and Kyushu Electric, which consider that the firm can respond to an eruption appropriately if it detects signs of the eruption through its monitoring system. But experts including Masaki Takahashi, professor at Nihon University, note difficulty predicting any eruption. END