Japan’s nuclear watchdog, set up after the Fukushima disaster, is under the gun now that the new safety standards it calls the toughest in the world took effect on July 8.
Japan’s nuclear watchdog, set up after the Fukushima disaster, is under the gun now that the new safety standards it calls the toughest in the world took effect on July 8.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority will start safety screenings based on the new standards for nuclear plants, a precondition for restarting reactors that have remained offline after the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.
Kansai Electric Power Co., Kyushu Electric Power Co., Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Hokkaido Electric Power Co. on July 8 applied to the NRA for restarting 10 reactors at five plants. Kyushu Electric plans to file an application on July 12 to reactivate two additional reactors.
Safety screenings are expected to take about six months. NRA officials have yet to decide which of the reactors they will examine in the first round of screenings.
Electric power companies, saddled with losses from the high fuel costs for thermal power generation, are eager to restart reactors as soon as possible to improve their earnings.
"We want to bring at least one reactor back online before winter arrives," said Osamu Sakai, executive vice president of Hokkaido Electric, which applied to restart three reactors at its Tomari plant on the northernmost island of Hokkaido.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has long been a champion of nuclear energy and a guardian of industry. The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing to restart idle reactors. Currently 48 of the nation's 50 reactors are offline.
“The government will work as one to realize the reactivation of reactors as soon as possible,” Abe said.
Some LDP members have called for expanding NRA staff to speed up the screening process.
The NRA, which was set up to reform the cozy ties between nuclear regulators and businesses, said it does not plan to comply because high levels of expertise are required.
“The true value (of the safety standards) will depend on whether we can inject life into them during the course of safety screenings,” said NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka, who has called the standards the strictest in the world.
Tanaka also said the NRA, which was granted the same degree of independence as the Fair Trade Commission, will not take the bottom lines of electric power companies into consideration when conducting safety screenings.
But he said the screenings will be carried out “as efficiently and speedily as possible.”
The NRA was established under the Environment Ministry in September by integrating the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), part of the industry ministry, and the Nuclear Safety Commission, under the Cabinet Office.
The NISA was criticized for acting like a “slave” to the electric power companies in a report compiled by the Diet panel that investigated the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Eighty people, mainly officials in the NRA secretariat, will be responsible for safety screenings.
Many of the current NRA staff conducted similar screenings for the NISA. But the screenings will be substantially different because the safety standards have been overhauled.
The new standards have strengthened earthquake and tsunami protective measures based on lessons taken from the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami that crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The standards have also enhanced measures to deal with catastrophic accidents. Three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant experienced meltdowns after cooling capabilities were lost when the disaster knocked out its backup emergency power generators.