LOC11:12
08:12 GMT
TOKYO, June 21 (KUNA) -- Japan's Cabinet decided on Friday to implement
tough new safety requirements for nuclear power plants from July eight, in a
move that allows operators to restart idled facilities shut down since the
2011 Fukushima disaster.
The Cabinet Order was enacted on the new safety guidelines that were
adopted on Wednesday by the country's nuclear watchdog Nuclear Regulation
Authority (NRA).
Under the new standards, nuclear power plant operators will be for the
first time obliged to take concrete steps to prepare for radiation leaks in
case of severe accidents, such as huge tsunami and reactor core meltdowns. To
date, the operators implemented such measures on a voluntary basis.
The power companies will be also required to install an emergency control
center to guard against acts of terrorism and natural disasters. The new rules
will also require the operators to assess the activity of a fault through
geological surveys covering strata in the last 400,000 years. Life of nuclear
reactors shall be limited to 40 years in principle, with an extension of up to
20 years allowed if safety is confirmed.
Only two of the country's workable 50 commercial reactors are currently
online in the wake of the Fukushima accident. As soon as the new standards
take effect, the operators of six plants are expected to apply for the NRA's
safety assessments. The NRA said screening of applications will take at least
six months.
The Fukushima plant, located 230 km north of Tokyo, was crippled by the
magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that caused explosions, meltdowns and
massive leaks of radioactive material as the world's worst nuclear accident
since the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. Based on lessons from the 2011 March
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, the NRA was launched last
September. (end)
mk.gta
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