Major
fault line found running under nuclear reactor west of Tokyo
11
December, 2012
December
11, 2012 – TOKYO - A fault running directly underneath the Unit 2
reactor of the Tsuruga plant, operated by Japan Atomic Power Co. and
located about 330 kilometers (200 miles) west of Tokyo, “could be
an active one,” the panel said in a meeting to review an on-site
investigation carried out Dec. 1-2 into faults within the plant’s
premises.
The
government’s top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura,
stressed, however, that steps need to be taken before any final
decision.
“We
shouldn’t make any predictions at this stage,” he said. For one,
the panel’s assessment needs to be reviewed by the new regulator,
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it isn’t known when the
commission will meet. Still, NRC Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said the
commission won’t be able to consider a request to restart the plant
as long as there is a possibility the fault is active.
Japan
Atomic Power submitted an open letter to the NRC Tuesday asking for
clarification of the experts’ views, which it said “are not fully
explained and lack scientific basis.” If the commission determines
there is an active fault under the unit, the company won’t be
allowed to restart it, and might have to decommission it.
Japan
Atomic Power said the conclusion of the panel was “totally
unacceptable.” The company added that “we will conduct additional
surveys and prove our position with objective data.” A shutdown
isn’t a foregone conclusion, experts say.
“All
the panel is saying is that the fault could be an active one. That
means they are arguing that it is equally possible that the fault is
inactive,” said Hiroaki Koide, a nuclear-reactor engineer at Kyoto
University. “I suspect there is still a good chance of the reactor
getting restarted in the future.”
Opened
in 1970, the Tsuruga plant is one of the oldest in Japan.
The
major fault line, the Urazoko fault, was found in 2008 to be running
250 meters (825 feet) from the two reactor buildings. Several smaller
faults extending from the main Urazoko fault run directly under Unit
2′s reactor.
Despite
the discovery of the Urazoko fault, Japan Atomic Power continued to
operate the plant, saying the smaller faults wouldn’t move in
tandem with the bigger one.
Some
geologists have argued that the land could shift along these faults
if a major earthquake triggers movement along the Urazoko fault.
The
March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant raised
fresh concerns, and the regulator has since been reviewing the safety
of all of Japan’s 50 reactors.
Currently,
only two reactors are operating in the country, and those also are
under investigation because of concerns over fault lines. The
suspension of nuclear reactors has resulted in a sharp decline in
Japan’s power-generating capacity.
On
the northern main island of Hokkaido, the government is calling for
voluntary power conservation amid rising demand due to winter
weather. Supply concerns are expected to re-emerge when demand peaks
again in summer.
-WSJ
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