Japanese lessons on nuclear safety

ON THURSDAY LAST WEEK, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake hit Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. It was not a massive quake, but Japanese media have been following the aftermath closely, as the nation’s first large nuclear power plant (Tokai No. 2 Power Station) is near the earthquake’s epicenter. Only one reactor is left there, and it has stopped functioning since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku area.

The Tokai No. 2 Power Station was commissioned in 1978, the same year that Taiwan’s Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant was commissioned. The two share quite a few similarities. Tokai No. 2 is the only nuclear power plant in the Greater Tokyo Area. In the middle of 2018 — 40 years after the plant was commissioned — Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority approved its reactivation.

The application for its extension was swiftly approved within a year, and a 20-year license was issued.

However, the plan to reactivate and extend the plant’s life did not go smoothly. As the facility is in the Greater Tokyo Area, about 960,000 people live within a 30km radius from the facility. Japanese law states that reactivating the plant requires the approvals not only of residents of Tokai Village in Ibaraki, but also the surrounding five cities.

The operator of the nuclear power plant had to work hard on its safety measures to earn the public’s trust and support. Yet, after two-and-a-half years, residents still had doubts. The extension plan could not be put into practice without the support of the public.

The Tokai No. 2 Power Station could not be reactivated and its extension plan was abandoned, because the facility is in a densely populated and earthquake-prone area. The operation would cause enormous distress and anxiety to nearby residents.

In Taiwan, there are three nuclear power plants close to Taipei, which is also an earthquake-prone area.

When it comes to debating whether Taiwan’s nuclear power plants should be reactivated, we could observe the Japanese protocols. That is, once a plan has been drafted, it must be approved by greater Taipei residents. If concerns about its safety issue are raised, the plan should be abandoned.

It is worth noting that after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Ishikawa Prefecture at the beginning of this year, plans to reactivate a nuclear power plant ran into severe public opposition.

A survey conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun showed that 45 percent of respondents were against the plant’s reactivation, while 36 percent supported it. It was the first time within two years that more people opposed rather than supported a plant’s reactivation.

Japan’s case provides a lesson — from the way the government tried to extend a nuclear power plant’s service life, but was denied, to how Japanese’s perception about nuclear power plants shifted after an earthquake.

Some people in Taiwan have been advocating for the reactivation or extension of nuclear power plants. They also believe that the nation should rely more on nuclear energy. They must consider Japan’s case and think again.