Japan's Onagawa nuclear power plant,... which
was damaged along with Fukushima in the massive
2011 earthquake and tsunami,... has been given
the green light by Japanese regulators to
restart its reactor.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
It's been more than eight years since an enormous
magnitude-9-point-oh earthquake and tsunami
sparked the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
However, all these years later, worries over
radiation leaks, and the durability of some
of the power plants remain.
Despite that,...
Japan's Tohoku Electric Power says it has
won initial regulatory approval to restart
a reactor at its Onagawa power plant, which
was the closest nuclear plant to the epicenter
of the 2011 earthquake.
The approval comes as the plant's operator
has taken additional disaster prevention measures,...
including construction of a higher seawall,
which is nearing completion.
The approval was granted in a unanimous vote,...
and is the first to be secured by the operator
under Japan's revised standards.
However, before the reactor can be restarted,...
the plant is still required to institute further
anti-disaster measures,... which are expected
to be completed sometime in 2020,... and receive
consent from the local government.
The power company is expected to spend over
3-billion U.S. dollars on the measures,...
most of which is being spent on the seawall,...
which will run along 800 meters of Pacific
coast and rise 29 meters above sea level to
guard against a tsunami as high as 23-point-1
meters.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Company says
radioactive rainwater may be leaking into
the ground at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant,... as rainwater leaving the ducts
of one of the exhaust stacks was reported
to contain high levels of radioactive materials.
With the latest reports,... concerns continue
to swirl as to how the damaged plants will
affect not just Japan, but nations around
it, like South Korea.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
