NISA orders utilities to check quake resistance data

Submitted by Asahi Shimbun on
Item Description

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency instructed all electric power companies on July 22 to report by Aug. 22 any errors in data on the earthquake resistance of nuclear power plants and on any problems in systems to check data errors.

Translation Approval
Off
Media Type
Layer Type
Archive
Asahi Asia & Japan Watch
Geolocation
35.671452, 139.752088
Latitude
35.671452
Longitude
139.752088
Location
35.671452,139.752088
Media Creator Username
By TATSUYUKI KOBORI / Staff Writer
Media Creator Realname
By TATSUYUKI KOBORI / Staff Writer
Language
English
Media Date Create
Retweet
Off
English Title
NISA orders utilities to check quake resistance data
English Description

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency instructed all electric power companies on July 22 to report by Aug. 22 any errors in data on the earthquake resistance of nuclear power plants and on any problems in systems to check data errors.

The instructions came after a discovery, which NISA disclosed the same day, that data used in the anti-seismic diagnosis of the Genkai nuclear power plant No. 3 reactor contained errors.

The diagnosis results are expected to be used in stress tests, on which decisions will be made on whether to authorize the restart of nuclear reactors currently suspended.

NISA instructed Kyushu Electric Power Co., the operator of the Genkai plant, to report on recurrence prevention measures by the end of July and to submit a recalculation of the erroneous report by the end of October.

NISA said the recalculation would require about three months because the errors in the data also affect equipment and piping systems within the buildings.

Meanwhile, NISA also instructed electric power companies to conduct stress tests, consisting of two phases, for all nuclear power plants in Japan. These stress tests assess the plants' margin of safety with respect to accidents and natural disasters.

The first phase of stress tests will be used as a precondition for the restart of nuclear power plants that have been suspended. The second phase of stress tests will involve all 44 commercial nuclear reactors in Japan, except those at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear plants.

However, the latest discovery of errors in earthquake resistance diagnosis data for the Genkai plant has compromised the tests' reliability. Some part of the tests do not rely on the anti-seismic diagnosis data, but NISA said it will not analyze reports on the first phase of the stress tests before the electric power companies finish checking the data and file reports with NISA.

old_tags_text
a:4:{i:0;s:36:"Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency";i:1;s:19:"anti-quake measures";i:2;s:14:"nuclear safety";i:3;s:20:"nuclear power policy";}
old_attributes_text
a:0:{}
Flagged for Internet Archive
Off
URI
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201107234901