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Japan's nuclear watchdog confirms safety of two reactors, likely back online by year end

10 September 2014 20:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Japan's nuclear watchdog on Wednesday confirmed that Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s two nuclear reactors had passed the government's stricter guidelines for safety checks in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Sendai power plant run by Kyushu Electric Power Co. is located in the city of Satsumasendai in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, has become the first nuclear power plant to pass the new stricter safety guidelines, meaning the plant will likely be one of the first to be brought back on line, if not the first.

Despite ongoing concerns about safety from public officials and citizens in the area, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) granted its approval, stating that the Sendai plant was now first in line for being restarted, out of the 48 reactors that were idled in the wake of the 2011 disaster, which involved an earthquake and tsunami-triggered triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi complex. "This was a big step forward,"said Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority at a news conference. But he reiterated his warning that clearance isn't a promise of safety. He added that the NRA will"steadily proceed"with safety screening of other nuclear reactors.

Up until now, power companies have applied for safety screening of a total of 20 nuclear reactors at 10 nuclear power plants in Japan, but prior to firing up the reactors in Sendai, the plant needs to submit more documents to the NRA to complete the screening process, meaning the reactors will unlikely be online before December.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been a staunch supporter of bringing the nation's nuclear power stations back online, as a comparatively weak yen has continued to push up the price of Japan ' s fuel imports, like liquified natural gas and coal, used to compensate for the lack of atomic energy here.

Despite Japan's current account surplus swinging back into the black in July, the Finance Ministry noted this week that the nation's trade deficit in the recording period stood at 828.1 billion yen, short of the 725.9 billion yen expected by analysts, with the figure following a deficit of 537.1 billion yen logged in June.

The figures showed that Japan's exports, owing to the yen's retreat versus the U.S. dollar, increased 8 percent to 6.247 trillion yen from 6.115 trillion yen a month earlier, compared to imports logged in the same period that were up 7.6 percent to 7. 075 trillion yen, from 6.652 trillion yen in June, on an annualized basis.

And analysts confirmed that, as has been the trend in recent months, natural resources being used to create energy have pushed up the price of Japan's imports and with the latest GDP figures showing the economy here contracted the most since the financial crash in 2008, the government is desperately trying to get its fiscal house in order, including reducing import costs, as the April tax hike continues to threaten to push the economy back into recession.

The NRA's unanimous approval of the Sendai plant's safety inspection would have been cheered by the government, although work ahead remains to convince the citizens in the local municipality of the plant's safety. "It would be difficult to restart unless there is an acceptable environment for residents,"Tanaka said earlier Tuesday."Related parties should discuss safety issues, including emergency evacuation plans that municipal governments must prepare,"the NRA chief said.

But the public remains strongly divided regarding its nuclear energy stance, with 56 percent saying they were against the use of nuclear energy and 32 percent saying they want the nation's idled reactors restored, according to the latest poll conducted by the Nikkei business daily at the end of August.

Kagoshima Gov. Yuichiro Ito told a news conference Wednesday that the prefecture will start informing its residents from next month the details of the result of the nuclear watchdog's screening process.

The governor, as well as the mayor of Satsumasendai, are both proponents of restarting the reactors, but local residents are concerned that evacuation plans drawn up by local officials to cater for a Fukushima-like disaster happening in the prefecture may be ineffective.

Nevertheless, the final version of the NRA's screening report revealed certified safety measures and upgraded equipment at the Sendai plant, as proposed by its operator, and reflected more than 17,800 public comments received by the authority, after the panel approved and released its draft version on July 16.