Safety warnings persist over Japan’s renewed nuclear power play
Critics remind Tokyo not to forget lessons of Fukushima disaster five years ago
Japan’s re-embrace of nuclear power, on display last week with the recertification of two ageing reactors, is prompting some critics to warn that Tokyo is neglecting the lessons of Fukushima.
In the first such step since the 2011 disaster, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on June 20 approved Kansai Electric Power Co’s application to extend the life of two reactors beyond 40 years.
As it became clear the NRA was going to allow the extensions, a former commissioner broke a silence maintained since he left the agency in 2014 and said “a sense of crisis” over safety prompted him to go public and urge more attention to earthquake risk.
Kunihiko Shimazaki, who was a commissioner from 2012 to 2014, said a powerful quake in April that killed 69 on Kyushu island showed the risk to some of Japan’s 42 operable nuclear reactors was being underestimated.
“I cannot stand by without doing anything. We may have another tragedy and, if that happens, it could not be something that was ‘beyond expectations’,” he said, referring to a common description of the catastrophic chain of events after the earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima meltdowns.
The regulator is the guarantor for the population, not the manufacturers or the utilities, and it is failing
The NRA has said it would take into account Shimazaki’s position in some of its assessments.