Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant: Safety-relevant documents have been lost

Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon / REUTERS

Despite the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan's government wants a renaissance of nuclear energy. An important step would be the reactivation of one of the most important nuclear power plants. However, the recommissioning had to be postponed due to safety deficiencies.

And now, according to a report, a serious mistake by an employee of the operating company could complicate the plans.

Specifically, it is about the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, which is located on the Sea of Japan near the city of Niigata. It is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world. The plant is operated by Tepco, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which also owns the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, a Tepco employee made a serious mistake. According to the report, the company admitted that an employee who worked from home had placed a stack of documents on a car before he drove off and lost them.

Pages are still missing

According to the report, the energy company came across the safety-related error when a local resident found some of the papers related to dealing with fires and floods.

The company is still trying to recover 38 pages of documents, writes Bloomberg.

Both the employee and his supervisor were warned. Tepco announced that it will ensure that all employees follow the strict rules for taking documents and information out of the company.

Just one of many shortcomings

According to Bloomberg, Japan's nuclear regulator, which oversees the safety protocols of Japan's remaining 33 reactors, had only recently postponed the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant due to safety deficiencies. The reason: the preventive measures taken by the energy supplier are inadequate.

Tepco wanted to reconnect two of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa's seven reactors to the grid in July. The company has been hit hard by the Fukushima accident.

The mishap with the documents is the latest flaw in a whole series of security deficiencies. The Nuclear Regulatory Authority has effectively imposed an operating ban on Kashiwazaki-Kariwa.

The reason is blatant violations of safety regulations: At least one employee is said to have gained unauthorized access to the central control room of the power plant two years ago by using a colleague's ID card. The scandal came to light only after someone posted the incident on the Internet.

Moreover, Tepco long overlooked the fact that a monitoring system at the nuclear power plant, which is supposed to prevent terrorist attacks, did not work.

A strict regulatory process has so far prevented most of the nuclear reactors in Japan that were shut down after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 from returning to operation.

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