In its statement, NRA said that it would not grant permission to make changes to the reactor installation at Tsuruga-2, because of its noncompliance with the requirement that \u201cimportant safety related facilities (such as reactor buildings) be installed on ground surfaces without outcrops of capable faults that may be active in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
After its announcement, NRA agreed to open the draft for public comments, based on which the report will be officially finalized.<\/p>\n
Since the new regulatory standards for Japan\u2019s nuclear power plants (NPPs) came into effect in 2013\u2014in the wake of the March 2011 accident at Fukushima Daiichi\u2014this was the first time that NRA had concluded that it could not clear a safety compatibility examination for a reactor (including research reactors and nuclear fuel cycle facilities).<\/p>\n
Almost nine years ago, in November 2015, JAPC had applied to NRA for an examination of Tsuruga-2 for compatibility with the new regulatory standards. Examination-related activities were suspended for a time due to doubts about data from JAPC\u2019s geological investigations. The point of contention was the activity and continuation of a fault known as the K Fault,\u00a0situated near a fault zone of crushed rock known as D-1, located within the premises of the Tsuruga NPPs and running directly below the Tsuruga-2 reactor building.<\/p>\n
Since September 2023, the NRA examination team held examination meetings eight times and carried out on-site investigations. At the most recent examination meeting, on July 26, investigators presented their confirmation of two points:<\/p>\n
(1) The difficulty of denying that the K Fault\u2019s \u201cactive nature\u201d had existed since the late Pleistocene epoch, i.e., since about 120,000 years ago.
\n(2) The similar difficulty of denying that the K Fault extended to the fault zone of crushed rock, known as D-1, which runs directly under the Tsuruga-2 reactor building.<\/p>\n
The draft review report was subsequently formulated at the meeting in line with the findings.<\/p>\n
After the July 26 examination meeting, JAPC said that it would \u201ctry to secure additional investigations and enhance the available data,\u201d underscoring its intention to continue efforts to restart Tsuruga-2. At an extraordinary examination meeting held one week later, on August 2, JAPC representative explained the additional investigations made by an expert team composed of outside engineers, among others, and released a comment on how the Agency would deal with the matter henceforth.<\/p>\n
In any examination of nuclear facilities\u2014especially those involving a look at geological features and seismic vibrations\u2014it is extremely difficult to determine the activity of prehistoric faults, a situation that complicates judgments based on regulatory standards. That is why the examination period had been so protracted this time.<\/p>\n
Upon approval of the draft review report on Tsuruga-2, Commissioner ISHIWATARI Akira, the person responsible for the NRA\u2019s examinations regarding earthquakes and tsunamis, stated his recognition that the \u201creview report demonstrates that the decision was made on a scientific basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Commissioner SUGIYAMA Tomoyuki, the person responsible for plant examinations, said that the report\u2019s conclusions lay in an \u201carea where judgments cannot be based on simple black-and-white thinking,\u201d that is, in a gray area without definitive conclusions.<\/p>\n
At a press conference after the August 28 regular meeting, NRA Chairman YAMANAKA Shinsuke looked back on the eight-plus years of the examinations at Tsuruga-2\u2014which had started before he assumed his current post\u2014and reiterated that the ruling this time was \u201cquite a monumental decision.\u201d He also referred to the work done by the examination team, saying that they had \u201cconducted the examinations prudentially\u201d and had \u201ctaken sufficient time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, citing JAPC\u2019s expected filing of another application for the NPP, he reflected his Agency\u2019s position when he said that \u201cnothing\u201d had been \u201cprecluded.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In its statement, NRA said that it would not grant permission to make changes to the reactor installation at Tsuruga-2, because of its noncompliance with the requirement that \u201cimportant safety related facilities (such as reactor buildings) be installed on ground surfaces without outcrops of capable faults that may be active in the future.\u201d After its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,8,7],"tags":[165,19,269],"class_list":["post-7184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-npps","category-policies","category-regulation-safety","tag-japc","tag-nra","tag-tsuruga-2"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7185,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions\/7185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}