The head of the government’s nuclear watchdog body took issue with a recent court injunction on reactor restarts, saying the ruling was based on a faulty understanding of the facts.
The head of the government’s nuclear watchdog body took issue with a recent court injunction on reactor restarts, saying the ruling was based on a faulty understanding of the facts.
“It showed that our efforts were not understood sufficiently,” Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said at a news conference on April 15 in response to the Fukui District Court’s decision a day earlier.
The injunction banned the restart of two reactors at the Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture that are operated by Kansai Electric Power Co.
In its ruling, the court said the new safety regulations lack "rationality" and do not guarantee safety.
Tanaka said, despite the ruling, the NRA has no plans to immediately review its safety guidelines or screening procedures.
“(The new regulations) were compiled based on lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and are among the most stringent in the world,” he said. “I have no clue as to the true intention (of the use of the term ‘rationality’).”
Tanaka went further in pointing out factual errors in the decision. Although the court said the quake resistance of equipment that sends cooling water to a pool that stores spent nuclear fuel at the Takahama plant was rated low, in reality, it had the agency’s highest rating, according to the NRA chairman.
He also said the requirements governing quake resistance at nuclear facilities were reached by factoring in additional safety precautions against the estimated maximum levels of shock at the sites. The requirements also took into account that previous quakes have exceeded the worst-case scenarios planned for by plant operators.