Tokyo: Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority on Wednesday decided to resume its safety assessment of a nuclear reactor in central Japan after a suspension over rewritten geological data submitted by its operator, Japan Atomic Power Co.

At the day’s regular meeting of the NRA, the secretariat of the nuclear watchdog reported that it could not find intentional tampering of the data and that the operator of the reactor has established a system to provide appropriate data.

The NRA approved the report and decided to resume the assessment, which is necessary for restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan.

The NRA had stopped the assessment after Japan Atomic Power was found to have rewritten without providing explanations a geological diagram it submitted to an NRA screening meeting in February 2020.

The diagram showed geological data obtained from a drilling survey conducted at the site of the No. 2 reactor at the plant.

The company later explained that the diagram was rewritten to reflect results of a detailed survey and was not tampered with intentionally.

In August last year, the NRA decided to halt the reactor screening until the operator improved the management of data.

JIJI Press