Japan's NRA to resume Tsuruga nuclear safety assessment

Tokyo, Oct 27 Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has said that it will resume its safety assessment of a reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in central Japan after a suspension over rewritten geological data.

The nuclear watchdog said at a meeting on Wednesday that it could not find intentional tampering with the data submitted by the operator Japan Atomic Power Co. and decided to resume the assessment, which is necessary for restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, Xinhua news agency reported.

The NRA had halted the assessment after Japan Atomic Power Co. was found to have rewritten a geological diagram without approval in February 2020 in analysing a drilling survey conducted on an area below the Tsuruga complex premises.

The alterations involved geological data which are crucial in determining whether the fault running underneath the facility is active or not.

In quake-prone Japan, building nuclear plants or other important facilities directly above active faults is prohibited.

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