Inspection of Chubu Electric HQ over Data Fraud to Start Mon.

Tokyo, Jan. 22 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said Thursday it will begin an on-site inspection of Chubu Electric Power Co.’s headquarters Monday over earthquake risk data falsification for the firm’s Hamaoka nuclear power plant in the central prefecture of Shizuoka. In the inspection, expected to last at least several months, the regulator will check how documents for reactor screenings containing false information were prepared and interview people involved in the data fraud. Contractors and the Hamaoka plant itself will also be inspected if deemed necessary. The NRA will consider disciplinary action against Chubu Electric based on the findings. Since 2018 or before, Chubu Electric, headquartered in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, west of Shizuoka, had selected a representative seismic wave using methods different from those it outlined during the NRA’s screenings of reactors at the Hamaoka plant. Also, the company started around 2018 to deliberately choose seismic waves other than average values as the representative wave. The regulator became aware of the issue in February last year from an external tip. Chubu Electric acknowledged the misconduct in December and made it public on Jan. 5 this year. The NRA has ordered the company, under the nuclear reactor regulation law, to submit a report on the facts by the end of March and decided to halt its screenings of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Hamaoka plant for their reactivation. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]