Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda indicated June 18 that he would personally visit local government offices soon to convince them it is safe for nuclear power plants to resume operations.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda indicated June 18 that he would personally visit local government offices soon to convince them it is safe for nuclear power plants to resume operations.
He said that the instructions issued June 7 by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) to electric power companies regarding emergency safety measures for nuclear power plants based on the lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant had been implemented appropriately.
"Regarding the safety of nuclear power plants, the central government will assume responsibility to conduct careful explanations to local governments," Kaieda said. "We would like to ask those governments to allow the resumption of operations at nuclear plants."
A number of reactors have stopped operations due to scheduled inspections. While the cooperation of local communities will be indispensable for the resumption of operations, there are still strong concerns about possible safety problems even with the additional measures that have been implemented.
If resumption of operations should be delayed, serious electricity shortages are expected this summer when demand peaks.
Kaieda indicated at the June 18 news conference that he would begin visiting local governments from as early as next weekend to urge them to allow the resumption of operations.
Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, NISA officials instructed electric power companies in late March to implement emergency safety measures, including the installing of emergency generator vehicles.
A check of those measures led NISA officials to approve in May the resumption of operations at reactors that had stopped operating.
However, officials of some local governments, including the Fukui prefectural government, have said the safety measures implemented are insufficient.
To placate such concerns, NISA officials issued instructions to the 10 electric power companies and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency to implement additional measures to deal with possible serious accidents at their nuclear plants, based on a report the central government submitted on June 7 to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
On June 15 and 16, NISA officials visited the nuclear power plants to check that those measures had been properly implemented.
NISA officials concluded that appropriate short-term measures had been taken, such as confirming the procedures to be taken to release hydrogen gas from reactor buildings to prevent a hydrogen explosion from occurring.
However, Fukui prefectural government officials indicated they were still not convinced.
One high-ranking official said, "We will continue to ask the central government to release the results of evaluations of risks from earthquakes and tsunami, to set new standards to deal with aging nuclear power plants and to clarify the reasons for the judgement that all nuclear plants except for the one at Hamaoka were safe."