Long way ahead for local consent to restart of TEPCO reactors

October 5, 2017

NIIGATA- Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. is expected to continue facing tough work to restart two nuclear power reactors in central Japan, with local approval still a long way ahead, although regulators have effectively confirmed their safety.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority adopted on Wednesday a draft report concluding that the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture meet the country's new safety standards introduced in July 2013, after the triple reactor meltdown at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan soon after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

With the report, the company cleared the main part of the NRA's safety screenings of the two idled reactors at the plant, which straddles the city of Kashiwazaki and the village of Kariwa.

The focal point now is whether relevant local governments will give the nod to their restarts.

Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyama maintains a cautious stance.

"I'm not in a position to raise objections to the central government's screenings," Yoneyama told reporters at the Niigata prefectural government office on Wednesday. But he added, "We can't discuss the restarts of the reactors unless the prefecture confirms their safety."

Since he took office in October last year, Yoneyama has stated that discussions on restarting the reactors must not be launched unless a thorough probe on the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident is carried out.

The Niigata prefectural government, which has conducted its own investigation of the accident, started a survey in the current fiscal year on the impacts of the nuclear disaster on people's health and daily lives and on evacuation plans in the event of an accident at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.

It will take "three to four years" to complete all these examinations, according to the prefecture.

"We will formulate an evacuation plan that isn't pie in the sky, reflecting lessons from the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident," Yoneyama told the first meeting of a panel on evacuation plans last month. Jiji Press