Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Japan's New Nuclear Regulatory Body Discontinues Use of Stress Tests




New nuclear regulatory body not to continue 'stress tests' The Mainichi Sep 25, 2012 http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120925p2g00m0dm030000c.html

[excerpted] (Kyodo) -- Japan's new nuclear regulatory authority will not continue the current procedure to assess the safety of reactors for their reactivation because it plans to create fresh criteria, the authority's head Shunichi Tanaka said Monday.

"We will not use 'stress tests' as our judgment criteria," Tanaka said in an interview with Kyodo News, referring to the two-stage safety examination process that the government introduced after the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi complex erupted in March last year
.... 

But Tanaka's remarks mean that utilities will have to go back to square one in trying to restart their reactors....

Majia Here: This is an interesting and potentially hopeful development as the stress tests seem woefully insufficient, especially given that many reactors are on or near known faults.

The increased activity of Mt Fuji also presents new risks for nuclear plants.

I hope that the new regulator actually does some regulating.

Nuclear power plants cannot operate safety in Japan, or anywhere else for that matter.
 

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