Faults under Shika N-Power Plant Not Active: NRA

Tokyo, March 3 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority decided Friday that there are no active faults underneath Hokuriku Electric Power Co.'s <9505> Shika nuclear power plant, overturning a view presented by an expert panel in the past.

At a review meeting, the nuclear watchdog broadly accepted Hokuriku Electric's view that none of the faults underneath the plant in the town of Shika in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, are active.

An NRA expert investigation team suggested in 2016 that some of the faults may be active.

Hokuriku Electric applied for a screening of the Shika plant's No. 2 reactor under new stricter safety standards in August 2014. In April 2016, the agency's expert team said that there was a possibility that the S-1 fault underneath the reactor building of the No. 1 reactor and the S-6 fault underneath the pipes carrying coolant seawater to the No. 2 reactor could be active.

Meanwhile, the team asked for more data, saying that resources were lacking.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]