Japan Press Weekly

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2014 August 13 - 19 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Shika nuclear power plant operator applies for restart of its reactor

Hokuriku Electric Power Co. (Rikuden) on August 12 applied for a safety assessment by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in order to restart the No.2 reactor of the Shika Nuclear Power Plant (Ishikawa Pref.)

An expert panel of the NRA is still investigating the earthquake faults under the NPP site to determine whether they are active or not.

In the application, Rikuden recognizes a fault 1km away from the NPP as active and changed its estimate of the maximum strength of an earthquake from 600 gal to 1,000 gal. Rikuden previously claimed that the fault was not dangerous.

The power company also revised the estimated height of a possible tsunami from 5 meters to 7.1 meters.

Kodama Kazuya of a local civil group against nuclear power plants criticized Rikuden for putting priority on profits over security by moving to resume the operations of the NPP before the investigation into the dangers posed by active faults is completed.

Rikuden was the final applicant among all nuclear reactor operators in Japan, nine utilities and the Japan Atomic Power Company, for the NRA’s assessment based on the new safety standards.