Chubu Electric Withdraws N-Reactor Restart Screening Applications

Chubu Electric Power Co. has announced the withdrawal of its applications for safety screening of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear plant in central Japan. The decision follows the revelation of fraud involving the manipulation of earthquake-related data. This marks the first instance of a screening application being withdrawn due to misconduct, as confirmed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).

The withdrawal of these applications effectively halts the restart process, leaving no viable path for the reactors to resume operation. Chubu Electric had initially submitted applications for screening in 2014 and 2015. The company's actions during the screening process involved selecting only specific earthquake motion data to justify the design standards for quake resistance, while concealing the fact that they had not followed a proper methodology.

Since May last year, when the NRA started investigating the company following a tip-off from an external whistleblower, it has also been disclosed that Chubu Electric attempted to cover up the misconduct, including by manipulating and overwriting the cherry-picked data.