Nuclear regulators acknowledge fault below Tsuruga reactor is active

Fukushima Update

via NewsOnJapan.com / May 23, 2013 /

The Nuclear Regulation Authority accepted on Wednesday an assessment that a reactor at the Tsuruga plant in western Japan is sitting above an active fault, making it increasingly difficult for the facility to resume operation.

It is the first time Japan’s regulatory authorities have acknowledged an existing reactor is located above a fault feared to move in the future, according to an NRA official. The judgment may leave plant operator Japan Atomic Power Co. with no option but to scrap the No. 2 reactor.

“We have received a report from a panel of experts that said there is an active fault…I think there is a need to accept the conclusion sincerely,” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at a meeting attended by other commissioners to discuss the panel’s conclusion.