Nuclear regulators said Friday that they have concluded that the No. 2 unit at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture does not meet stricter regulations imposed on the sector following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, a requisite to restart the facility.
This is the first time that the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), set up in 2012 following the Fukushima disaster, has rejected an application to restart a reactor under the new rules.
Plant operator Japan Atomic Power Co. had been looking to reboot the No. 2 unit.
The new standards do not permit the installation of safety-critical equipment on an active fault line and the NRA said it cannot deny the possibility that the fault line running under the reactor building is connected to adjacent active fault lines.
The NRA will publish its official decision at a later date, after which Japan Atomic Power will have to make difficult decisions, including that involving the decommissioning of the reactor.