» 17,000 opinions against Sendai nuclear plant submitted to NRA

2014/08/20

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said it has received some 17,000 comments and opinions from the public over a draft safety screening report on Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima.

The decision-making panel of the nuclear regulator in July approved the draft report required to restart Sendai plant. Clearing the initial safety hurdle, the plant is expected to become the first facility to restart under new regulations introduced following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.

As some of the comments may be irrelevant to the content of the report itself, the regulatory body will scrutinize and reflect them, if necessary, when compiling the document into the final version, a regulatory official said at a press conference.

After approving the draft document on July 16, NRA sought technical comments from the public for a month through last Friday.

The two-unit Sendai plant was initially expected to go back online around this fall, but this is not now likely before this winter, as Kyushu Electric is taking more time to fill out the additional documents required to receive final safety clearance, while it also needs to obtain local consent.

<Media Report>
17,000 comments sent to regulator on nuclear plant screening report (Mainichi Newspaper)

Tags:citizens' movement, evacuation, news, NRA, restart of nuclear reactors

• Evacuation orders lifted in 3 municipalities today, one more tomorrow

• Court issues injunction to halt Takahama nuclear reactors

• Anti-nuclear group of India submitted a letter to the Japanese Government to oppose Japan-India nuclear agreement

• World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima closed with “Hiroshima Declaration”