Japanese regulators disqualify reactor under post-Fukushima safety standards

the presence of possible active fault lines...underneath it.

You'd think they would have checked that out BEFORE THEY BUILT IT.

@JeffLee the problem in Japan, no matter what happened bow still accepted.

Another plant were trying to restart only being postponed afterward.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/11/9fef3436db74-urgent-nuclear-reactor-restarted-in-japans-2011-disaster-hit-region-to-stop.html

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/12/japan/japan-onagawa-nuclear-plant-glitch/

RE: You'd think they would have checked that out BEFORE THEY BUILT IT.

The first reactor was built on this site commissioned in 1970. Planning and construction would have started around 10 years earlier. In 1960 the technology to detect (long dormant) seismic faults was not available.

Japanese was industrializing rapidly and the demand for (secure) energy supplies was paramount. Any nuclear power plat had to be placed close enough to a demand on vacant land on the coast. Therefore Fukui (and all subsequent sites) was chosen. In hindsight Fukui was not a good choice.

RE:Another plant were trying to restart only being postponed afterward.

I am familiar with the Onagawa site. This facility is PROOF that a safe nuclear facility CAN be built and operated in quake prone Japan. The (overly) long delays in restarting Onagawa have more to do with economics and politics than with physics. It is operating and generating now.

All of the surrounding municipalities have coordinated a shakedown campaign to squeeze every yen they can out of Tohoku Denryoku. Very convenient for local construction companies which have close ties to local politicians. A trough to feed from.

Local authorities accepted the building of nuclear power plants due to the numerous large subsidies paid to them, enriching the local inhabitants, companies and officials in those same authorities, and replacing income lost from dying traditional industries, .

However the subsidies only lasted for a limited period of time, so they allowed more planta to be built, leading to the massive multi-reactor plants seen in Japan, 10 at Fukushima I and II, 7 at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, 5 at Hamaoka, and 4 each at Oi, Takahama, Genkai, etc..

Although safety measures have been improved, mainly massive concrete barriers around the plants, one area that is hardly addressed is procedures for the timely evacuation of locals in the event of accidents, decision making, and treatment in the case of exposure to radiation. Such measures would ruin the image that nuclear power is safe.

better to be SAFE than sorry...

this is good news because the elevated standards are meaningful. that’s how things should work. you modify as learned.

 In 1960 the technology to detect (long dormant) seismic faults was not available.

The article is talking about active fault lines. Seismographs have been installed in large numbers in quake-prone locations since the late 19th century.

get real they could have monitored for a couple of years (independently?). All praise to NRA, anything about constuction has always recognised as a type of MRPA,

Perform /review/ adapt/ IMPROVE, ask the US about the Takoma Narrows Bridge resonance,, they had been warned by other ''minor" nations, So they learned the lesson (well about bridges anyway). W.L, I also am aware that the national civil works budget were distributed regionally enriching the local construction majors hence the locals, but it also kept the costs down by using the local majors and their local supply chains. I was not there but it was well known internationally. btw The TNB resonance episode is well worth a viewing (no kids please)

The operator rejected the NRA panel's 2013 on-site inspection results, which concluded that the faults under the No. 2 reactor were active, and applied for a restart in 2015.

Hahahaha

Hopefully, all nuclear plants in Japan will be replaced with safer, renewable energy sources.

socrateo

Hopefully, all nuclear plants in Japan will be replaced with safer, renewable energy sources.

"Renewable" is an expensive pipe dream. I hope they replace the old plants with Gen IV systems.