Expert wants Oi nuke plant shut temporarily

A call for immediate shutdown.

That's until thorough geological surveys can be conducted.

Toyo University professor Mitsuhisa Watanabe, a polemicist on active faults, maintained that a potentially dangerous active fault runs directly beneath critical equipment for units 3 and 4 of Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture.

He sits on the five-member expert panel investigating possible active faults beneath the plant.

"Active faults run parallel in many cases. If you determine one fault is active, the possibility becomes higher that nearby parallel faults may also be active," said Watanabe. "You need to stop the reactors to conduct thorough surveys to check all of them first."

All of the other members of the expert panel have admitted that the fault, named F-6, could be active and pose a serious danger.

Watanabe believes this is good enough reason for the government to order a temporary shutdown and conduct exhaustive geological surveys.

He also pointed out that seismic experts in the pay of the nuclear power industry have drawn severe criticism for playing down the risk of massive quakes and tsunami before the catastrophic breakdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

"We should not repeat the same mistake that was made in Fukushima," he said.

The expert panel's judgment on the Oi plant is likely to have a significant impact on the fate of many other nuclear plants and probably the future of national energy policy as well.

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