Japan's new nuclear watchdog to disregard stress tests

Nuclear Regulation Authority, Japan's new nuclear watchdog, plans to create fresh criteria for restarting nuclear reactors, according to its chief, Shunichi Tanaka.

Consequently, it will disregard the stress tests used by its predecessor for the reactor reactivation process.

"We will not use 'stress tests' as our judgment criteria," Tanaka said in an interview, referring to the two-stage safety examination of the government.

Utilities seeking to restart reactors have already submitted the results of their first-phase stress tests to the NRA's predecessor, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. NISA was to check the results.

Of the nation's 50 viable commercial reactors, results on 30 have been submitted.

But Tanaka's remarks mean the utilities will have to go back to square one to restart their reactors.

Tanaka emphasized that he has "no intention" to decide on whether the stress test results so far submitted are proper.

The NRA, launched earlier this month as part of efforts to improve regulation in light of the Fukushima crisis, plans to formulate new safety standards within 10 months.

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