Japanese nuclear watchdog approves operating life extension for ageing, tsunami-hit plant
- Japan Atomic Power’s Tokai No. 2 plant, found north east of Tokyo, uses the same boiling water reactor as the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant
- The Tokai plant has been stood idle since a magnitude 9.0 quake and subsequent tsunami wreaked havoc along the country’s east coast in March 2011
Japanese authorities on Wednesday approved for the first time an extension to the 40-year operating life of one of the nuclear power plants affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Japan’s nuclear watchdog allowed an extension of up to 20 years beyond the November 28 limit for Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tokai No. 2 plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, north east of Tokyo. The plant uses the same boiling water reactor as the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
The move, together with previous extensions of the operating limit at three other ageing nuclear reactors, could undermine the 40-year cap the country applies in principle to nuclear complexes. The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) had said extension beyond that would be “a rare exception.”
“We had factored in the NRA’s approval. It just means the NRA has lost its authority,” said Tatsuya Murakami, a 75-year-old former mayor of the plant’s host village, Tokai.
“With the Fukushima crisis we have witnessed how a nuclear accident can displace people, depriving them of the places they belong to,” he said, calling for a serious debate on evacuation plans in the event of a major accident at the plant.