Japan Eases Rule on N-Plant Antiterror Facility Deadline

Tokyo, April 2 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has approved a plan to ease a rule on the deadline for installing antiterrorism facilities at nuclear power plants.

Under the country's new regulatory standards for nuclear plants, the operators are obliged to complete facilities to deal with specific severe incidents, such as terrorist attacks, within five years from the time when regulatory approval is given to a construction plan at a nuclear plant.

At a meeting Wednesday, the NRA gave the green light to changing the start of the five-year period to when a nuclear reactor begins operation.

If the change is implemented by year-end, reactors under tight deadlines, including one at Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture, whose deadline is December, are expected to avoid suspension of their operations.

The facilities in question, called specialized safety facilities, have the function of remotely cooling reactor vessels even if the main control rooms are destroyed in aircraft collisions or other terrorist attacks.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]