2012年4月26日木曜日

Ask a Housewife

Would you build your home directly over an active fault, if you knew for certain that the fault was there and that is was active? I don't think so. What are these power plant makers thinking?!



Thursday, April 26, 2012


Tsuruga plant may sit atop active fault
Reactors' fate in limbo after NISA reverses safety assessment


By MIZUHO AOKI
Staff writer

Reversing an earlier assessment, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency admitted an active and dangerous fault may be lurking directly beneath one of the two reactors of the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture.

The surprising judgement by NISA, announced Tuesday night, would force Japan Atomic Power Co. to decommission the plant's reactor 2 if the fault is confirmed as active.

NISA would also find it difficult to restart reactor 1. Both reactors were shut down for regular checks, but have not been restarted in light of the meltdown crisis that hit the Fukushima No. 1 plant in March 2011. In light of the Fukushima crisis, all reactors are subject to stress tests to gauge their disaster survivability.

The government's quake safety standards do not allow any nuclear reactor to be built right above an active fault or one that could move when a nearby fault causes an earthquake.

(from The Japan Times Online edition)