NRA to designate nuclear plants for priority safety screenings

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The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it will designate nuclear power plants for priority safety checks from among the six that are currently being screened to determine if their reactors comply with its tightened regulation standards.

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NRA to designate nuclear plants for priority safety screenings
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The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it will designate nuclear power plants for priority safety checks from among the six that are currently being screened to determine if their reactors comply with its tightened regulation standards.

The decision came during a regular meeting of the government's nuclear watchdog Feb. 19.

The plants are to be singled out as early as March, making them likely to be the first to be brought back online.

While operators have requested NRA safety screenings for 10 nuclear plants across Japan, such examinations are presently under way only for six of them--the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, the Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture, the Ikata plant in Ehime Prefecture, the Takahama and Oi plants in Fukui Prefecture, and the Tomari plant in Hokkaido.

Requests for those plants were submitted last July when the new regulation standards went into effect.

The NRA is expected to work out draft screening reports on a plant-by-plant basis as it nears the end of the screening process, once the standard seismic ground motion and the standard tsunami heights have been established. The standard seismic ground motion and the standard tsunami height, or the largest expected values that should be considered, have yet to be designated at any of the nuclear plants.

After the NRA selects the plants to be prioritized, it plans to concentrate on hammering out its first draft screening reports.

The NRA also plans to call for opinions from a broad audience on the draft screening reports, because they will be the first under the new regulation standards. It plans to co-host public hearing sessions with local governments in and around areas hosting nuclear plants if such requests are made by those governments.

The opinions contributed during the public calls and hearing sessions could be incorporated into the screening reports, NRA officials said.

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