Japan Press Weekly

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2015 February 11 - 17 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

NRA says Takahama NPP meets new safety standards

In defiance of serious concerns and questions from the general public, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on February 12 finalized a draft report acknowledging that the No.3 and No. 4 reactors at the Kansai Electric Power Company’s Takahama Nuclear Power Plant (Fukui Prefecture) meet the NRA’s new safety standards.

The NRA published the draft on December 17 last year and invited opinions from the general public, receiving more than 3,600 public comments within the prescribed period of 30 days.

Many of the comments raised questions in regard to the geological conditions at the Takahama plant, as its 30-km radius area spreads across three prefectures, and three other nuclear power stations (Oi, Mihama, and Monju) are located near the Takahama plant.

Among the public comments, some argued that the NRA should evaluate neighboring municipalities’ evacuation plans for nuclear accidents. Others wrote that it should take into consideration the possibility that natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis may hit nuclear facilities in the region simultaneously. However, the nuclear watchdog dismissed these kinds of concerns and opinions.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Fujino Yasufumi on the same day issued a statement criticizing the NRA report and called for its withdrawal.

Fujino pointed out that the Takahama NPP is located near the Oi NPP, which was ordered to not resume operations by a court in June last year. He said that most of the argument used to not allow resumption in the court order also hold true for the Takahama plant.

Fujino said that the JCP will do its utmost to block the nuclear power plant from restarting and achieve a Japan without nuclear power.