Tuesday marked three years since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The natural disaster killed at least 15,880 people and forced another 315,000 to evacuate. It also cut off power to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and flooded its diesel generators, beginning a cascade of failures that resulted in multiple hydrogen explosions, core damage in three reactors and the release of radiation that forced 154,000 people to leave their homes.
Decommissioning the plant will take decades. Japan's undamaged nuclear plants, meanwhile, are all offline pending safety inspections and upgrades under a new regulatory regime. For a handful of those, though, there were positive signs this week that they might be able to restart in the months ahead.
On Thursday, the Nuclear Regulation Authority announced it would prioritize safety inspections at two Kyushu Electric Power Co. reactors in Sendai. At the same time, it will prepare public hearings for nearby residents whose elected leaders must give permission for a restart, Jiji Press reported. Additional plants at Tomari, Oi, Takahama, Ikata and Genkai are also in the final stages of screening.
Before the accidents, nuclear provided 30 percent of Japan's electricity. While the current government rejected earlier calls to abandon the technology, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Wednesday that the new regulations will likely result in substantially fewer reactors operating in Japan. Only 17 of the country's 48 operable reactors have sought to restart since new regulations were issued in July. Among the others, the newspaper's survey of utilities found that 13 older units are likely to be decommissioned in the face of more intensive safety rules. Five will exceed a 40-year age limit, while other sites might not meet updated seismic requirements. Additionally, local opposition may prevent the use of four reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiini, which is near TEPCO's damaged plant.