The Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission is expected to approve documents on the first-stage stress tests on the safety of nuclear reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant as early as next week.
The commission completed examining the documents, which the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) had earlier judged proper, on Tuesday.
Haruki Madarame, chairman of the commission, said, "There were no problems in the way [the agency has] examined the documents" of the first-stage stress tests on the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at the Kansai Electric Power Co. plant in Fukui Prefecture.
In response, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three relevant Cabinet ministers will meet by the end of this month to judge whether the nuclear reactors should be reactivated. If they agree on reactivating the reactors, the government will offer explanations to relevant local governments and residents.
One year after the start of the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the issue of whether idled nuclear reactors will be reactivated has entered a new phase.
The verification of the first-stage stress test results was part of procedures for reactivating idled nuclear reactors under a policy the government presented in July last year.
In checking NISA's examination documents, the Nuclear Safety Commission's panel of experts conducted hearings at which it heard from representatives of NISA and KEPCO.
After the panel's fifth meeting Tuesday, Madarame said, "The panel has finished hearings on NISA, so it's time to compile a conclusion by the panel's five members."
Madarame reiterated his long-held view that the safety evaluation was insufficient even though he said he would approve the first-stage results.
"We'll comprehensively make a decision on [nuclear reactor] safety based on results of both first- and second-stage stress test results," he said.
Therefore, the commission plans to ask regulators to evaluate plans for the measures to be taken if reactor cores are damaged, a point not covered in the first-stage test.
Stress tests are for checking whether nuclear reactors and plants would be safe if struck by an earthquake and tsunami exceeding previously assumed scales.
The tests have two stages. The first-stage tests, which cover reactors idled for regular inspections, examine how much they can withstand before the cores of the reactors would be damaged.
The second-stage tests are to cover all nuclear reactors and examine them comprehensively, including measures to be taken after the tests.
Concerning the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors of the Oi plant, NISA checked KEPCO's first-stage test results evaluation and concluded Feb. 8 that an accident similar to that at the Fukushima plant would not occur even if a tsunami of the same scale hit the plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved NISA's screening method.
The Fukui prefectural government has demanded the government set tentative safety standards based on the lessons from the nuclear accident in addition to the stress tests.
On Feb. 16, NISA drew up a 30-point set of safety measures, including multiple sources of emergency electrical power and the installation of vents with filters to reduce pressure inside nuclear reactors' containment vessels.
The government will expedite efforts to devise new safety standards based on the NISA proposal and offer explanations to local governments and residents.
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