The central government is smoothing the way for restarting nuclear power reactors, but gaining the go-ahead from local officials and residents is anything but guaranteed.
The central government is smoothing the way for restarting nuclear power reactors, but gaining the go-ahead from local officials and residents is anything but guaranteed.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Jan. 31 that Japan’s appraisal methods for stress tests conducted by electric power companies are generally appropriate, but recommended improvements in seven areas.
A 10-member IAEA delegation, which spent about a week in Japan, submitted an outline of its report to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
“We received objective advice from an international organization on our country’s nuclear power regulation and evaluation, which has lost public confidence,” nuclear accident minister Goshi Hosono said at a news conference.
The same day, the Cabinet submitted to the Diet a bill on nuclear safety reforms, which calls for the creation of a nuclear regulatory agency on April 1.
The new agency, under the Environment Ministry, would take over the authority for nuclear power regulation from the NISA and other government organizations.
The bill would limit the operational life of nuclear power reactors to 40 years in principle, extending it up to 20 years in exceptional cases.
The government hopes to restart by summer some of the nuclear power reactors currently shut down.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said that if no reactors are restarted, and no effective countermeasures are taken, electricity supplies will fall about 10 percent short of demand this summer.
Officials hope that the IAEA’s endorsement of the stress test appraisal methods and the new legislation on nuclear power regulation will help win consent from local officials and residents for restarting those reactors.
Only three of Japan’s 54 nuclear power reactors are in operation because those shut down for regular maintenance cannot be restarted due to concerns following the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The three on line will be shut down by the end of April.
The NISA will begin final appraisal of stress tests conducted by Kansai Electric Power Co. on the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture.
In its draft evaluation, the agency said the test results were appropriate.
A NISA official said the IAEA’s recommendation for improvements will not affect the final appraisal of the stress tests for the two reactors.
The NISA will discuss the results of appraisal after hearing from experts on Feb. 8, and submit its report to the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.
The commission, which is under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet Office, will convene a meeting of 10 or so experts to discuss the results.
After the commission’s evaluation, Noda, Hosono, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura and industry minister Yukio Edano will decide whether the reactors can be restarted.
But gaining the approval of local officials and residents will be essential to the process.
Fukui prefectural government officials have said the stress tests are insufficient as conditions for restarting the nuclear reactors. They called on the central government to present new safety standards based on the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake last March.
“Stress tests are computer simulations," Governor Issei Nishikawa said Jan. 11. "They are insufficient as a basis to judge whether reactors can be restarted.
“The government must establish provisional safety standards based on the lessons from the (Fukushima) accident and evaluate the safety of nuclear power plants.”
Hirohiko Izumida, governor of Niigata Prefecture, which hosts Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, has also said that stress tests are insufficient as conditions for restarting reactors.
“It is meaningless to conduct tests without examining what happened at the Fukushima No.1 plant,” Izumida said.
Some of the measures included in the bill on nuclear safety reforms will not be implemented until summer 2013, because it will take up to 15 months to establish detailed standards.
Hiroshi Kawauchi, a Lower House member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said the government should discuss the restart of reactors only after fundamental safety measures are put in place.
Views are also divided among Cabinet ministers.
Fujimura has said the government will judge whether reactors will be restarted as early as February, but Edano has been wary, asking, “Are we allowed to restart reactors while neglecting safety and security?”