Japan's government is considering conducting stress tests on nuclear reactors to ease safety concerns which have blocked the restart of idled reactors since the March quake and tsunami, but is likely to delay the nation's first nuclear restart since the disaster.
Japan is struggling with a drawn-out crisis after meltdowns at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant, site of the world's worst nuclear incident in 25 years. Tokyo worries that without the restart of reactors outside the quake-hit region that have been shut for regular maintenance, the country could suffer power shortages when demand peaks in the summer.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Wednesday he had asked Japan's trade and nuclear safety ministers to plan new tests. "I have given instructions to consider ways to further boost assurances about nuclear power plants generally, by making evaluations through something similar to stress tests being conducted in Europe," Edano told parliament.
The tests would determine how well each nuclear reactor could withstand severe events, like the magnitude 9 earthquake and 15-metre (49-foot) tsunami that battered Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi facility in the north-east in March. Such tests would not require extra safety checks but would rely on existing data, a trade ministry official in charge of reactor inspections said. Further details would be decided later, he added.
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