nuclear-news

Japan: Governor of critical region Shiga threatens to oppose nuclear reactor startups

“It appears to me that they are compromising technological safety in a half-baked way,” 

reactors should not be restarted until a new, more independent regulatory agency is set up.

Japan Shiga threatens to rain on nuclear restarts Apr 6, 2012  (Reuters) – Japan’s western Shiga prefecture, one of the nation’s biggest sources of drinking water, threatened on Friday to oppose the restart of nearby nuclear reactors unless the government met several demands designed to prevent a repeat of the Fukushima disaster.

Shiga, whose Lake Biwa provides water for 14 million people, more than one in 10 Japanese, lies near a string of nuclear plants in adjacent Fukui prefecture – giving Shiga a distinctive voice in the debate over the future of atomic power.

“We cannot say yes to restarts until we are certain that they are
absolutely safe,” Shiga Governor Yukiko Kada said in an interview. She
also listed other demands such as setting up a new atomic regulator to
supervise the industry before restarts could go ahead and clarifying
what the power supply and demand situation actually will be.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s administration is keen to restart the
two reactors at Kansai Electric’s Ohi plant in Fukui to avoid power
cuts. All but one of Japan’s 54 reactors are offline after undergoing
maintenance checks, and none has been restarted due to public safety
worries after Fukushima.

Shiga prefecture – or even Fukui – cannot legally block restarts if
the government chooses to go ahead, but lack of agreement would be a
huge political headache for the government given widespread public
concerns about safety…..
Edano, Prime Minister Noda and two other key ministers this week
basically approved safety standards that drew on lessons learned from
the Fukushima accident.

But not all of the safety check list must be met immediately if
operators can show how they will fulfill them later.

“There are areas that could take several years, such as making a
higher levee, building an earthquake-proof building or preparing
filters for when venting takes place,” Shiga Governor Kada said.

“I’d be hard-pressed to go along if those things are excluded, and
they say they’ve met the standards just based on what they’ve managed
to get done at the time.”

“It appears to me that they are compromising technological safety in a
half-baked way,” she added.

Kada also said reactors should not be restarted until a new, more
independent regulatory agency is set up.

Critics say cozy ties between regulators and utilities were one key
cause for the failure to prepare for a disaster like Fukushima, the
world’s worst in 25 years.

A new regulatory agency was scheduled to start on April 1 but the
legislation is stuck in a divided parliament….

April 7, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, opposition to nuclear