Impact of an earthquake with an unknown epicenter on the nuclear power plant Request for re-evaluation from electric power companies Regulatory Commission October 21, 16:12
Regarding the earthquake resistance of nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will require electric power companies to re-evaluate the impact of earthquakes whose source cannot be identified in advance on nuclear power plants using the newly compiled evaluation method. I did.
In the earthquake resistance examination of the nuclear power plant conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in addition to the evaluation of active faults near the site, an earthquake in which the fault did not appear on the ground surface and the epicenter could not be identified occurred 16 years ago in the Rume region of Hokkaido. The evaluation is based on the data of 16 earthquakes such as the earthquake.
However, accuracy was an issue, and last year the NRA compiled a new evaluation method, such as increasing the number of reference earthquakes to around 90.
At the meeting on the 21st, we decided to make this evaluation method appropriate and ask electric power companies to re-evaluate the effects of earthquakes whose epicenters cannot be identified in advance for nuclear power plants and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plants. It was.
In the future, electric power companies will carry out seismic resistance checks based on the new evaluation method.
And if the expected shaking strength is raised as a result of the evaluation, additional countermeasure work may be required, which may affect the restart of the nuclear power plant and plans such as operation.